发表于 2006-06-07 13:30 IP属地：未知
April 16, 2006
Easter Island, Chile, 1978
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Photograph by James P. Blair
The famous stone monoliths of Easter Island weigh an average of 14 tons each. Most were carved from compressed volcanic ash between 1400 and 1600 AD.
Multiple theories exist as to how these massive statues—thought to represent the spirits of the islanders' ancestors or chiefs—were moved into position miles from where they were quarried. Scientists have also long puzzled over why production of the statues ceased so abruptly, with hundreds left lying half-finished in the quarry. One theory is that deforestation, swelling population, and the intense dedication of resources to building and transporting the monoliths led to the collapse of the islanders' society and economy.
(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, the National Geographic book, Mysteries of the Ancient World, 1979)
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