My respect for the ancient Easter Island people has massively increased

SubmergedYak · 1 year

HOLY SHIT I had no idea they were that big

NoMoleste · 1 year

As an archaeologist this gave me a monumental erection.

Kosmo_Kramer_ · 1 year

Here is an album with some similar pictures

Overeacting · 1 year

When I was in middle school, I had a teacher who once separated us into groups in the lab stations at the back of the class room. She gave a bucket full of popsicle sticks to pairs of groups, so that two groups shared one communal tub. I forget the exact rules, but basically she said the popsicle sticks represented trees and we could harvest so many of them per day. Some of the popsicle sticks had to be used to sustain the population, but then with the left overs you could either build canoes and weapons and stuff to increase your population, therefore increasing the rate at which you can harvest trees, or you could build totems which will bring you luck.

The game soon became a race against the team sharing your bucket of popsicle sticks to claim as many of them as possible so you could have the most luck. And when we ran out of sticks and asked for more, she said there weren't any more. Then our populations all starved and died.

Then she explained to us that this exact scenario is what happened to the people of Easter Island. It was a lesson plan that really stuck with me, and years later I still think of it when the topic of sustainability comes up, and of how easily I failed to see the incredibly obvious fact that there were only a finite number of trees.

Pravusmentis · 1 year

Doomed themselves with work. They say they used to have canoes and would fish but once they ran out of trees they had to eat the chickens they had on the island. Some statues appear to have been abandoned on the way to their destination.

' I wonder what was going through their head as they cut down the last tree on the island'

ev149 · 1 year

So does that mean Squidward has a basement?

kovac · 1 year

This article perhaps? http://www.eisp.org/category/conservation/

BrotherSeamus · 1 year

What if it was aliens forcing humans to make them giant pieces to a game board for them?

edubation · 1 year

We've got to get this obesity thing under control.

lotsofpie · 1 year

I heard this was image is fake. Anyone know the truth behind it?

Ihasn · 1 year

Stargate had it right from the beginning.

CaughtTheBall · 1 year

Wait until they find out what's sticking out of the ground is actually a penis. The real statue's much bigger.

SirRosie · 1 year

This was posted literally 3 days ago...

http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/hmo9k/big_head/

whynotindeed · 1 year

Hey Dum Dum, you give me gum gum.

AFilthyJew · 1 year

If they were niggers, this would never have been made.

borez · 1 year

They wiped themselves out by cutting down every last tree on this island to transport those things and then resorted to cannibalism because they ruined their own ecosystem.

They don't deserve respect, historically they deserve a fucking all-time human stupidity award.

Edit: Basically they cut down all of the trees to move these statues, used up all the wood which, in-turn, made all of the animals leave ( or die ) which in turn killed their ecosystem and then they found that they couldn't build boats to get off the island... so they resorted to eating each other for food. Not a good look.

Tragic but true.

ilostmyoldaccount · 1 year

Ironically, the statues were supposed to protect them. In the end, they wiped out the entire island. Isn't that ironic.

0xBeefFace · 1 year

Also the pyramids in Egypt are actually just the ears of massive, buried cat head statues.

orikie · 1 year

How deeeeep does ittt goooooooOOooOo?

shagginflies · 1 year

Looks like they also didn't shave "down there"

bigrockcndymtn · 1 year

under that dirt, why, thats the deep web

xebo · 1 year

"The trees were cut for...rollers and lever-like devices used to move and erect the moai (these statues). As the deforestation continued the moai building competition turned into an obsession...And still the trees came down. With the loss of the forests, the land began to erode. The small amount of topsoil quickly washed into the sea. The crops began to fail and the clans turned on one another in a battle for the scarce resources."

Source: Easter Island Story

They basically chizzled themselves to death.

i_animadversion · 1 year

As the illustrious George Takei once said, "Ohhh, myyy!"

farang · 1 year

Disregard ecology. Acquire giant heads.

grosslybear · 1 year

Omak?

brash_revolutionary · 1 year

The indigenous people of Easter have been culturally side-lined for far too long. It's time they rise up, demand their due respect for their ability to... create big statues at the cost of their island's ecology, and deliver retribution upon the colonialist swine who oppress them!

daddys_princess · 1 year

actually it has decreased my respect, the Easter island communities used most of there resources in competition for there religions (ie those giant heads) that they caused themselves to collapse.

phutch54 · 1 year

See Rapa Nui. Excellent movie about Easter Island. Fictional, but believable.

gonetosea · 1 year

Didn't they all die because they cut down all the trees to move those things....... hmmmmmmmmm........ reminds me of something......... Brazil.

nosexindeath · 1 year

you are aware that they squandered the last of their vital resources building these things, aren't you?

E_mE · 1 year

Respect for the Monuments, but lack of respect for the fact they cut down every last tree on the island.

TriLogic · 1 year

Just wait until they reach the horse...

[deleted] · 1 year

CTRL+F "iceberg".

Zero results.

Weird.

SSKudu · 1 year

Minecraft IRL

bendavis78 · 1 year

If you listen closely, the statue is saying "DEEEEZ NUUTZ"

blunted · 1 year

Read Jared Diamond's Collapse. While impressive it loses some of its sheen when you realise they destroyed the entire islands ecosystem to accomplish it.

Catgurl · 1 year

wow you waited one whole day to repost something from the front page- kudos

hijklmno · 1 year

How is that guy going to get down from there?

ChangingHats · 1 year

Degeneration X

payattentiondamnitt · 1 year

holy crap its like a whole thing. You learn something new everyday...

maximomore2 · 1 year

I always had respect for the ancient Easter Island people especially the kid from Easter Island.

9babydill · 1 year

no respect. the natives wiped out the majority of the islands unique eco system with the deforestation that was necessary to transport all this stone to said location. *edit spelling

Verb_Rogue · 1 year

The statue looks like it's holding its erect penis.

bg370 · 1 year

My respect massively decreased when I learned about this stuff. I mean, +1 for technical skill, but -20 for continuing to build statues as they ran out of food, wood & other stuff, and their whole society collapsed around them.

gabebravo · 1 year

Anybody this far down the comments has read about the islands inhabitants cutting all the trees down too many times.

_vargas_ · 1 year

Relevant: the director of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Waterworld directed this movie about what may have transpired in this society.

dannyylonglegs · 1 year

Aliens.

truthie · 1 year

Yeah I'm sure they built these so some putz like oldmanrain would respect the more.

o0Ax0o · 1 year

whats even more amazing is that they were able to take colour pictures back then

gutterboy · 1 year

Read Jared Diamond's book Collapse for a great account of how the Rapanui doomed themselves through poor eco management and an obsession with these statues. The Ahu, stone platforms that held the Moai (stone heads) were even larger but have all been mostly destroyed. The never ending quest to one-up the other statues seems so petty for such a labor intensive and ultimately devastating practice. I love that they eventually resulted to placing bigger and bigger "hats" on the already finished Moai when they could no longer "afford" to make an entirely new statue.

Edit: Another interesting fact is that these statues all face inward on the island. They are often incorrectly depicted as facing outward toward the sea.

ThePeej · 1 year

I love this photo, and I love the idea of the statues being that large. But my photoshop jaded mind requires more than one photo in order to believe this scene is real! Anyone else have another link to this excavation effort? Thanks!

SanDiablo · 1 year

Aliens.

Comics
/r/comics	/r/webcomics
/r/vertical	/r/f7u12
/r/ragenovels	/r/AdviceAtheists
Image macros	Screenshots/text
/r/lolcats	/r/screenshots
/r/AdviceAnimals	/r/desktops
/r/Demotivational	/r/facepalm (Facebook)
/r/reactiongifs	/r/DesktopDetective
Wallpaper	Animals
/r/wallpaper	/r/aww
/r/wallpapers	/r/cats
The SFWPorn Network	/r/TrollingAnimals
	/r/deadpets
	/r/birdpics
	/r/foxes
Photography	Un-moderated pics
/r/photography	/r/AnythingGoesPics
/r/photocritique	/r/images
/r/HDR
/r/windowshots
/r/PictureChallenge
Misc	New reddits
/r/misc	/r/britpics
/r/gifs	Imaginary Network
/r/dataisbeautiful	/r/thennnow
/r/picrequests	/r/SpecArt
	/r/LookWhoIMet
	/r/timelinecovers
	/r/MemesIRL
	/r/OldSchoolCool
	/r/photoshopbattles

pics

Looking for an image subreddit with minimal rules? Check out /r/images

Spoiler code

Rules

Links

MODERATORS

pics

Looking for an image subreddit with minimal rules? Check out /r/images

Spoiler code

Rules

Links

MODERATORS

you'll need to login or register to do that

create a new account

login