Why Some Easter Island Statues Are Where They Are

為什麼它們會在那裡

The statues on Easter Island are among the most mysterious objects made by humans. We still don’t know how they were moved, why they were placed at particular sites around the island and why they were made in the first place. Now researchers think they have at least some answers, because a new analysis finds that the statues are situated near sources of freshwater. The study appears in the journal PLOS ONE.

復活節島上的雕像是人類製造的最神秘的物品。我們仍然不知道這些雕像是如何被移動的，為什麼會被放置在島上的特定地點，以及最初為什麼會被製造出來。現在研究人員認為他們至少找到了一些答案，因為一項新的分析發現，這些雕像位於淡水資源附近。這項研究發表在《公共科學圖書館綜合》雜誌上。

It’s believed that the residents of Rapa Nui—the Indigenous name for Easter Island—began constructing these carvings in the 13th century. The statues, called moai, which sit upon stone platforms called ahu, are the very definition of monumental. Most weigh between 20 and 30 tons. And of the 1.000 on the island, about 400 have been moved from the quarry where they originated and placed on ahu located elsewhere.

人們認為，拉帕努伊島(復活節島的土著名稱)的居民在13世紀開始建造這些雕刻。這些雕像被稱為“摩艾”，坐落在被稱為“胡”的石頭平臺上，是紀念碑的真正定義。大多數重量在20到30噸之間。在島上的1000只中，大約400只已經從它們最初的採石場轉移到了其他地方。

“But those ahu locations aren’t necessarily everywhere. They’re in some places and not in others. And the question we started to ask ourselves was, ‘Why do we find these ahu and moai some places on the landscape but not others?’”

但這些“胡島”並非無處不在。有些地方有，有些地方沒有。我們開始問自己，‘為什麼我們在一些地方發現了這些胡島和摩艾島，而在其他地方卻沒有?’”

Carl Lipo, an anthropologist at Binghamton University in central New York. He says that most of these sculptures are found along the coast, but some are inland. And they’re not necessarily at obvious places.

卡爾·利波是紐約中部賓漢姆頓大學的人類學家。他說，這些雕塑大部分是在沿海發現的，但也有一些是在內陸。不一定在明顯的地方。

“For example, we don’t find ahu and statues located on the tops of hills—places that we might expect to find them if these things were symbolic or representing ancestors, where you wanted to show off to everybody in he world, or the island itself, the fruits of your creation of these statues.”

“例如,我們找不到位於頂部的雕塑,我們可能期望找到它們,如果這些事情是象徵或代表的祖先,你想展示每個人在他的世界裡,或島本身,創造這些雕像的成果。”

So the statues are more than just towering talismans to be admired from afar. Indeed, Lipo and his colleagues noted that people spent most of their time living and working around these sites, which made the researchers think that the the statues might be located near a valuable resource.

因此，這些雕像不僅僅是供人們從遠處欣賞的高聳護身符。事實上，利波和同事們注意到人們大部分時間都在這些遺址附近生活和工作，因此研究人員認為這些雕像可能地處有價值的資源附近。

“So the question was: What resource? Was it water, freshwater, marine resources or cultivation places? Which of those, or which combination of those, best explained the locations of ahu on the landscape?”

所以問題是:什麼資源?是水、淡水、海洋資源還是養殖場所?哪一種，或哪一種組合，最好地解釋了胡島的地理位置?”

Their statistical analyses pointed toward potable water, which Lipo says made sense.

他們的統計分析指向了飲用水，利波說這是有道理的。

“Every single time we found a big source of freshwater, there would be a statue and an ahu. And we saw this over and over and over again. And places where we didn’t find freshwater, we didn’t find statues and ahu.”

現在，這並不意味著這些結構充當了標記——就像一個“到這裡來取水”的標誌——而是說社群本身與這些資源相聯絡。因此，他們對雕塑的投資就是圍繞著這種資源進行的。

Now, that doesn’t mean that the structures served as markers—like a sign saying “Get Your Water Here”—but rather that the community themselves were connected to those resources. And thus, their investment in statues was done around that resource.

現在，這並不意味著這些結構充當了標記——就像一個“到這裡來取水”的標誌——而是說社群本身與這些資源相聯絡。因此，他們對雕塑的投資就是圍繞著這種資源進行的。

“Because these are the locations that had the resources that they needed to survive.”

“因為這些地方有生存所需的資源。”

It seems that many of the massive sculptures are where they are for totally pragmatic reasons: “We’ll build here because here is where we want to be.”

似乎建造許多巨大的雕像都是出於實用目的：“我們建造在這裡，是因為這是我們想要的地方。”