The first doubts are beginning to insinuate themselves into stereotyped archaeological theory, but what we need to do is to force breaches in the thicket of the past. Landmarks must be set up again; wherever possible a new series of fixed dates must be established.
Let me make it clear that I am not doubting the history of the last two thousand years here. I am speaking solely and exclusively of the most remote antiquity, of the blackest darkness of time, which I am striving to illuminate by asking new questions.
Nor can I give any figures and dates showing when the visit of unknown intelligences from the universe began to influence our young intelligences. But I venture to doubt the current datings applied to the remote past. I would suggest, on tolerably good grounds, placing the incident I am concerned with in the Early Palaeolithic Age, i.e. between 10,000 and 40,000 B.C. Our hitherto existing methods of dating, including the famous carbon isotope C 14, which makes everyone so happy, leave great gaps as soon as we come to an age of more than 45,600 years. The older the substance to be examined, the more unreliable the radio carbon method is. Even recognised scholars have told me that they considered the C 14 method rather unreliable because if an organic substance is from 30,000 to 50,000 years old, its age can be established anywhere between those limits.
These critical voices should only be accepted with limitations; nevertheless, a second dating method parallel to the C 14 method and based on the latest measuring apparatus would unquestionably be desirable.
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Chapter Eight - Easter Island—land Of The Bird Men
The first European seafarers who landed on Easter Island at the beginning of the eighteenth century could scarcely believe their eyes. On this little plot of earth, 2,250 miles from the coast of Chile, they saw hundreds of colossal statues, which lay scattered about all over the island. Whole mountain massifs had been transformed, steel-hard volcanic rock had been cut through like butter and 10,000 tons of massive rocks lay in places where they could not have been dressed. Hundreds of gigantic statues, some of which are between 33 and 66 ft high weigh as much as 50 tons, still stare challengingly at the visitor today—like robots which seem to be waiting solely to be set in motion again Originally these colossi also wore hats; but even the hats do not exactly help to explain the puzzling origin of the statues. The stone for the hats, which weighed over ten tons apiece, was found at a different site from that used for the bodies, and in addition the hats had to be hoisted high in the air.
Wooden tablets, covered with strange hieroglyphs, were also found on some of the statues in those days But today it is impossible to find more than ten fragments of those tablets in all the museums in the world, and none of the inscriptions on those still extant has been deciphered as yet.
Thor Heyerdahl's investigations of these mysterious giants produced three clearly distinguishable cultural periods and the oldest of the three seems to have been the most perfect. Heyerdahl dates some charcoal remains that he found to about A.D. 400. It has not been proved whether the fire-places and remains of bones had any connexion with the stone colossi. Heyerdahl discovered hundreds of unfinished statues near rock faces and on the edges of craters; thousands of stone implements, simple stone axes, lay around as if the work had been abandoned quite suddenly.
Easter Island lies far away from any continent or civilisation. The islanders are more familiar with moon and stars than any other country. No trees grow on the island, which is a tiny speck of volcanic stone. The usual explanation, that the stone giants were moved to their present sites on wooden rollers, is not feasible in this case, either. In addition the island can scarcely have provided food for more than 2,000 inhabitants. (A few hundred natives live on Easter Island today.) A shipping trade, which brought food and clothing to the island for the stonemasons, is hardly credible in antiquity. Then who cut the statues out of the rock, who carved them and transported them to their sites? How were they moved across country for miles without rollers? How were they dressed, polished and erected? How were the hats, the stone for which came from a different quarry from that of the statues, put in place?
Even if people with lively imaginations have tried to picture the Egyptian pyramids being build by a vast army of workers using the 'heave-ho' method, a similar method would have been impossible on Easter Island for lack of manpower. A maximum of 2,000 men was not nearly enough to carve these colossal figures out of the steel-hard volcanic stone with rudimentary tools, even if they worked day and night. For at least a part of the population must have tilled the barren fields and gone fishing, and a few of them must have woven cloth and made ropes. No, 2,000 men alone could not have made the gigantic statues. And a larger population is inconceivable on Easter Island. Then who did do the work? And how did they manage it? And why do the statues stand round the edge of the island and not in the interior? What cult did they serve?
Unfortunately the first European missionaries on this tiny patch of earth helped to ensure that the Island's dark ages stayed dark. They burnt the tablets with hieroglyphic characters, they prohibited the ancient cults of the gods and did away with every kind of tradition. Yet thoroughly as the pious gentlemen went to work, they could not prevent the natives from calling their island the 'Land of the bird men', as they still do today. An orally transmitted legend tells us that flying men landed and lit fires in ancient times. The legend is confirmed by sculptures of flying creatures with big staring eyes.
Connexions between Easter Island and Tiahuanaco automatically force themselves upon us. There as here, we find stone giants belonging to the same style. The haughty faces with their stoic expressions suit the statues—here as there. When Francisco Pizarro questioned the Incas about Tiahuanaco in 1532, they told him that no man had ever seen the city save in ruins, for Tiahuanaco had been built in the night of mankind. Traditions call Easter Island the 'navel of the world'. It is more than 3,125 miles from Tiahuanaco to Easter Island. How can one culture possibly have inspired the other?
Perhaps pre-Inca mythology can give us a hint here. In it the old god of creation, Viracocha, was an ancient and elemental divinity. According to tradition Viracocha created the world when it was still dark and had no sun; he sculptured a race of giants from stone and when they displeased him, he sank them in a deep flood. Then he caused the sun and the moon to rise above Lake Titicaca, so that there was light on earth. Yes, and then—read this closely—he shaped clay figures of men and animals at Tiahuanaco and breathed life into them. Afterwards he instructed these living creatures of his own creation in language, customs and arts, and finally flew some of them to different continents which they were supposed to inhabit thenceforth. After this task the god Viracocha and two assistants travelled to many countries to check how his instructions were being followed and what results they had had. Dressed as an old man, Viracocha wandered over the Andes and along the coast, and often he was given a poor reception. Once, at Cacha, he was so annoyed by his welcome that in a fury he set fire to a cliff which began to burn up the whole country. Then the ungrateful people asked his forgiveness, whereupon he extinguished the flames with a single gesture. Viracocha travelled on, giving instructions and advice, and many temples were erected to him as a result. Finally he said goodbye in the coastal province of Manta and disappeared over the ocean, riding on the waves, but he said he intended to come back.
The Spanish conquistadores who conquered South and Central America came up against the sagas of Viracocha everywhere. Never before had they heard of gigantic white men who came from somewhere in the sky. Full of astonishment, they learnt about a race of sons of the sun who instructed mankind in all kinds of arts and disappeared again. And in all the legends that the Spaniards heard, there was an assurance that the sons of the sun would return.