"On Easter Island, the centuries live side by side." "In addition to hula dancers, the lei," "Songs and smiles ... lie the relics whose evil mysteries were unveiled." "As of this visitor, tread on the continent of infinite past." "Here, as a distracted tourist or a refugee catastrophe ... the past forgotten your luggage." "Images recorded in stone ... hollow rocks whose usefulness has long since been forgotten." "Trapped in the past, famous figures, or moai ... still seem to expect the return of the people that left." "One two three four five..." " There were six." " Before, yes." " Is there a restoration project?" " No, it broke into a thousand pieces." "There can be set up." "That was eroded as not to be left almost nothing." "IT IS." "That was also found at sea." "Found at sea?" "Like caves at sea, much of the history of the island remains unexplored." "But his warning is clear and ominous ... for citizens of a much larger island:" "The Earth itself." "The ODYSSEY OF JACQUES COUSTEAU" "Dedicado à memória do DR. W. MULLO Y" "PROPHETS OF EASTER A BLIND ISLAND" "Lost in the lonely immensity of the Pacific ... the 1765 km from the nearest inhabited island ... and 3,700 kilometers from the South American coast ..." "Easter Island is the loneliest place on earth." "And most enigmatic." "It is a microcosm of the history of man, lost in silence." "Celebrity seedlings of history, the Easter Island statues large ..." "They witnessed a past that can not describe." "But a replica of our world lived and died here." "As stillbirths, some statues were blinded by those who conceived them." "They are cloned images of a civilization ... that eventually destroyed their own habitat and died trying to repeat." "Nas pedreiras de Rano Raraku ... effigies unfinished sleep for centuries ... waiting for the slow erosion from wind and rain." "The voices of the living are no less indifferent to their past." "Now, Chile subjects ... the people of Easter, as the island is called in Spanish ... or Rapa Nui in Polynesian ..." "They were subdued by western customs." "They do not know that for at least 1000 years ... isolated on a triangular island of 14 km by 21 km ... their ancestors developed a unique miniature civilization ... with societies, religions, own technology and writing." "After his rediscovery by the Dutch navigator Roggeveen ... on Easter Sunday 1722, Western culture fell like lightning." "Peruvian slave traders and whalers Yankees sacked the island ... and smallpox decimated the population." "In 1877, a population that might have gotten 20,000 ... there were only 111 survivors stunned." "The previous history and disasters, they did not know almost nothing." "But it is almost certain that the first settlers were lost sailors ... the Polynesian islands to the west." "When people are confined ... in a limited world like this ... will they automatically begin to dream ... with things of this world, with the impossible?" "In other words, gigantism?" "There is something... that puzzles me." "Do you have any idea ... of how the island was ... when they got their first inhabitants?" "In some island songs we can hear through time and the sea ... the sound of a voice in the distance, the echo of a distant past." "Pure maintained by cultural isolation ... the older songs have been preserved by some scholars ... and amateur enthusiasts." "Among them is Dr. Ramon Campbell, resident physical." "He plays his recordings for Captain Cousteau." "It's incredible... not find any resemblance to the Tahitian songs I heard." "Is true." "I was very surprised when I recorded these songs ... for the first time." "I found them very different from Polynesians." "Found in all ..." "I've never heard anything like it in other Pacific islands." "Scientific analysis ... show that this song has more influence in India." "And poetry seems inspired by the ancient Chinese poetry." "Among the inhabitants themselves ... only a few remember the songs and even the singing." "For over a century, explorers and anthropologists ..." "They tried to unravel the mysteries of Easter cultural backgrounds." "Professor Jorge Silva, of the University of Santiago ... maps possible paths across the islands of Polynesia." "Says the teacher that the first migrants ..." "Easter came perhaps in the first century ... and not after the King Hotu Matua and his people, in the seventh century." "Out of the Marquesas ... who also settled Hawaii, Tahiti and New Zealand ... it is likely that the first settlers sought other places ... when the winds took them to Easter, leaving them there forever." "Fortunately, animals and plants led to found a colony." "Petroglyphs their canoes ..." "They are described by the anthropologist Robert Kroll." "This is the petroglyph double hull ... and high stern of a Polynesian canoe ... discovered during the expedition of Dr. Mulloy in 1974." "I'll show what overlooked the petroglyph shows." "The canoe starts here." "That's hoof." "These lines here ... represent the stern of the canoe ... where the chief, or king ariki traveling." "Dr. William Mulloy, an authority on the subject ..." "Cousteau says that the statues are not as stylized as well." "With some styling, this is the place nose." "The locals are like that." " The inhabitants of the country like that?" " Are." "The statues are a caricature, are very stylized ... but also a stylized representation of the local people." "Many people here look like them." "There are statues everywhere ..." " How many you think there is?" " A 260." " Currently Visible." " Here at the quarry?" "That." "Many are buried." " Many more." " Because?" "With landslides, many were buried." "This illustrates a stage in the carving process." "The statues were carved digging up a trench around the block ... what would be the statue." "Then they sculpted top, and finally, the bottom ... leaving the statue supported on a long narrow keel ..." " Which later was removed." " How did this?" " Because the weight ..." " The part under ..." "It was filled with earth and rubble." "They were taking everything slowly ... taking one thing and another putting up the statue come loose." "Then it was carried down the slope for your hole." "Instead of gods, family portraits representing mana, or spiritual power ... the great moai, often weighing 15 tons ..." "They were put on wooden sleds ... and pulled up their places with twisted fiber cables." "We have the impression, especially here, a huge population ... a great need to use each square meter." " Because?" " Because of overpopulation." "How many people lived here?" "It is difficult to answer, but certainly many thousands." " Many thousands?" " Many thousands." " In this small ..." " In this small island." "The questions are many." "What struck a fertile island and covered with forests?" "For what purpose would the estimated 1,000 giant carved stone?" "What led them to take them down?" "Seeking more convincing answers ..." "Cousteau called his team of explorers, led by his son, Philippe." "North of the island, near the statue restored by Thor Heyerdahl ..." "Philippe and his companions set up camp." "It was here, at the only beach of the island that King Hotu Matua and his people ... supposedly landed at the end of the seventh century." "Bringing some chickens and plants ... the people of Hotu Matua survived over 1,000 years." "The Philippe team plan to stay less time, but brings many boats ... engines, air tanks and technical equipment for a complex search." "Nas coming weeks ... esquadrinharemos the island and its waters." "Cross the horse, the landscape devoid of roads ... despite the mutual distrust." "We climb slopes of up to 1,800 meters high ... true fortifications face the sea." "We explore the caves that permeate the porous rock." "Sobrevoarei the island for clues ... his true story." "O Zodiac, o bote fluvial de apoio..." "It is carefully prepared for the stormy sea of ​​Rapa Nui." "For aerial reconnaissance ... a gyroscope is taken to the island and assembled on site." "In it, a local artist paints a fitting symbol ... the figure of Tangata Manu, or "birdman" ... whose worship dominated the island for 200 years after the deposition ... the large stone statues in the seventeenth century." "Tied to the structure ..." "I prepare to test the gyroscope on its maiden flight." "Below, to ceremonial platforms or ahu, skirt the coast prohibited." "They were the result of hard work and long, and its meaning is unclear." "But in some, there is evidence for the cremation of the dead burn." "Some scholars speculate that the statues ..." "They may have been carried in reed boats." "If this method has been used ... some of them certainly have fallen into the sea." "We prepare for a search the background." "Under the surface, everything is quiet." "At first, our lights reveal little, a ghostly empty." "To our surprise, we reached the sandy bottom ... a platform between 55 and 70 meters deep, extending ... many kilometers before falling in the abyssal depths of the Pacific." "Great figures in the background seem somewhat familiar." "For a moment we think are the statues ... we seek." "But closely, we see that are just eroded blocks ... of volcanic tufa crusted in sea grass." "Although still persists the legend of the Easter Island ... is a fragment of a continent that sank ... everything indicates that it is of volcanic origin ... and formed by successive eruptions of seafloor." "On land, crossing the barren landscape ... team members sometimes have the feeling ... to turn back time." "Like when detectives study the furniture in an abandoned room ... the past comes back suddenly ... and forgotten events again become tangible and real." "In sunny empty, we believe hear voices dead for a thousand years." "Everywhere, as quick prayers, lies a litany of stones ... petroglyphs man-bird, flowers, fish, turtles ... and a hundred other ways and fantastic figures." "It is obvious that the caves that populate the porous rock ..." "They were made to serve man." "Most of the 200 caves explored, skeletons and relics are found." "Professor de Silva explains that, as the island was losing its wood ... and it became scarce ... the growing population was forced to take natural shelter ... living and dying in caves like that, all over the island." "Intrigued by the fact the island that once housed thousands of people ... today only support a population of 1,600 inhabitants ..." "Cousteau investigating possible causes." "Among them is the possibility to have been a sink." "With other team members, he explores the seabed around the island." "With the boat suspended above us ..." "We soon realized that the rock layer that surrounds the island is an underwater desert." "It is as if the depletion of surface ..." "It was a cancer that is spreading ... reaching farther and farther year after year." "Here and there, swim a few fish." "But without the barrier reef, other atolls of the Pacific ... they must not have been easy prey for the early settlers." "Basically, caves and caverns penetrate the rocks ... sometimes coming to the surface in a mass of air pockets." "They are like the chambers of the surface ... underground channels formed when volcanic tufa cooled." "But one detail, they are very different." "The submerged caves have no sign of life." "What do you mean that sunk long before Rapa Nui be inhabited." "Like hundreds of times in the past ..." "I am reminded that the Earth is a living body ... a system of delicate balance of power that affects constantly ... sea, cliff, tree and desert." "Perhaps here, as in all other places ... man has interfered with the natural course of things ... and discovered that the wounds we inflict on nature ..." "They not always heal on their own or are remediable." "Even from the air, the island now looks poor and arid ... with sparse vegetation, some trees here and there ... since its rediscovery." "But there are many indications that the first inhabitants ..." "They found lush forests." "A lithograph with the petroglyphs crayons reveal pictures ... with large flowers and trees, before abundant." "Professor de Silva says Cousteau as vegetation should be used to." "The flowers and the tree ..." "And the tree." " A single tree and the only flowers." " IT IS." "All petroglyph ..." "This is beautiful." "It is very important to the island's history." "I also think." " A large tree." " It is a big tree." "And when... the island was rediscovered ... there was hardly any more." "In the museum of the island ..." "Dr. Mulloy describes valuable artifacts, all of wood." "One of the most amazing things about Easter Island ..." "It is that it is positioned ... on the fringes of civilization." "It's so unusual ... that it's unique." "They had written." "Wrote on wooden boards like we have here." "The writing was hieroglyphic." "It has never been completely deciphered ... even if large linguists still study." "We do not know what it says there." "This is one of the true mysteries of Easter Island." "In addition to the mystery of his existence ... why such a small community need written?" " They wrote from both sides?" " Yup." "And in a very curious way in boustrophedon over." "You read the first line, right side up ... runs until the end of the line ... and it continues upside down ... in the opposite direction." "That's how it reads." "It is curious." "You read the first line ... turns upside down plate ... again turns on the third line and so forth." "You have to stay around the plate to read it." "Used as fuel or burned for paganism ... a few have survived plates." "Perhaps used by storytellers ... tiny hieroglyphics are very similar ... the writing of the Hindu Valley and South Asia." "The puzzles are as impenetrable as the fog ... that with the change of season, about the team." "Isolated by the sea and space ... the island is stuck in a storm cycle." "With the camp threatened by strong wind ..." "Jan Cousteau called the team back to the camp." "Quickly, everyone returns, they anchor the tents protect the camp." "Similarly, the ancient inhabitants of the lonely island ..." "They must have taken shelter from bad weather." "But they could do nothing against a greater threat:" "Themselves." "Prisoners of each other, isolated and unable to keep the peace ... the islanders could only dream of escape ... whose symbol was the man-bird, inspired by the manu tara, the terns." "After the deposition of the giant statues ..." "It was founded another cult ... a new tyranny of the strongest." "On the island, nestled where the manu tara ..." "They began the annual race for power." "Here, in Orongo, the boss who brought the first egg ..." "He was elected the bird-man for the current year." "Do you have any idea ... the size of these people?" "They were very high." " Very high?" " The Polynesians are a very high race." "Dr. Gonzalo Figueroa Philippe tells the story of this cult." "Chiefs and priests of different strains ..." "They came here in the early spring ... and stayed here ... while the representatives of the heads ..." "They went to the islands off the coast." "The representatives were expert swimmers ... and they had to catch the first egg of the manu tara ... one tern marine ... while the chiefs and princes attending ceremonies ... linked to the cult of fertility." "Swimmers waiting ... until one of them could catch the first egg ... and then returned." "This swimmer then became the Tangata Manu, or birdman." "The title conferred on him and his great power line ... magical and religious ... they used to wage war ... the other strains, other tribes." "The other tribes were very afraid of special power ... the boss got to become the Tangata Manu, or birdman." "That was the beginning of the history of the island?" "No." "It seems that the cult ..." "It reached its zenith ... when the old culture and the old gods fell into decay." "The most important of these gods was Makemake ..." "God of natural forces, the creator god." "Today, any island dweller remembers the names ... that once populated the pantheon of the gods ... many of which have shapes of plants and animals." "The image of Makemake, the most powerful of the first gods ..." "It was taken from a rock in a process Illustration Robert Kroll." "Unlike many primitive tribes ... the Easter Islanders had no devil, Satan, no evil god." "They believed that evil came from themselves." "One could only pray for them not to be victims of human evil." "As if the mere repetition could realize their aspirations ..." "They covered the island's rocks with the birdman petroglyphs." "The represented architecture ... the large outdoor altars we see being restored ..." "It is quite old." "Radiocarbon dating reveals that the structures date back to 690 ... after Christ." "It derives from a style in which the details ... architectural and stylistic sites are quite defined." "So we think this architecture ... may date from centuries before." "It seems to have started modestly ... with prototypes, Moraes, well known in Polynesia ... but have found fertile soil in this island." "It is, of course, the greatest manifestation of religious building ... found in Polynesia." "Over time, these structures proliferated ... to cover the entire coast of the island." "Many statues were put on it." "Then they spread throughout the interior of the island." "It was an architectural movement that gained in intensity ... until nearly the end of the 1600s ... when larger statues were carved ... and larger altars were built outdoors." "At that time, for reasons still unknown ... the island plunged into a period of internal wars ... perhaps because the religious class has required the construction of ahu ... for the production and transportation of statues ... and everything it came to their ceremonial." "Whatever it is, these buildings should have stopped here ... and many statues were destroyed and disfigured ... and covered with stones." "Wasting energy in the production of useless ... depleting natural resources ... facing overpopulation and lack of food ... the social order of the island collapsed." "Violence and chaos, the great figures ... symbols of a hated order now ..." "They were torn down, and their necks broken." "In this period of exhaustion of resources and overpopulation ... about which I have just spoken ... and coincides with the start of this new cult ... living conditions were very difficult." "People fought between them, resulting ... in a high cannibalism." "People hunted each other." "The fisheries and farming were prefixed ... and each lineage and family took care of its resources ... so that no one invade." "When this happened, the intruders were killed and eaten." "Most relic is still in the quarry of Rano Raraku." "This is the largest statue of this quarry." "It is 22 meters long and weighs around 400 tons." "It is a work and so much." "I think it was for her that workers watched ... and said, "Now, enough." "No more statues. "" "It was too much for them." "This should have caused the end of the worship of statues." "Do you think... that's what led to the abrupt end of this civilization?" "I think that was in crisis at that time ... and culture had to change to survive." "And it seems that she has changed ... with the creation of a new religious cult ... it seemed easier to maintain ... o culto do manu tara, o culto à ave." " Do birdman." " The cult of the birdman." "Because the remnants of prehistory usually ..." "Air is more visible than the floor ..." "Philippe makes many flights on the island." "After weeks of operation, it once again flies." "But this time, the flight ends in disaster." "Motor fails to 900 m, and Philippe and the gyroscope fall ... near the island leper colony." "There rescued by lepers, Philippe finds medical care." "Later, at dusk, Michael Sullivan and Dominique Sumi ... examine the crash site." "The gyroscope can not be repaired." "It is a reminder that technology, like the gods, may fail." "No less hurt, Philippe Cousteau survive ... and after several surgical operations on the continent ... sara e volta a ser o que era." "Having almost completed its work, it will go away by plane." "He leaves the island whose inhabitants, trapped in a greater tragedy ... once dreamed of equal getaway." "To the sea, I held them there ... today, it is more accessible to divers than them." "Philippe Sem ... part of the team for a final recognition of diving ... the aquatic world whose food source ..." "It has gradually been denied to Native ... while the timber for the boats also extinguished." "On Earth, this world was coming to an end ... as people killed, victims of famine and hatred." "But here, these submerged pastures ... there was still an illusion of calm and natural order." "Here too, predator and prey coexist in balance ... as instinctive partners, different from men ... rarely fleeing their role." "But fish do not build cathedrals." "I'm leaving... and I am sad." "This island has a sad story to tell." "It's a great example ... an advanced culture, developed in complete isolation ... and that came very close to being destroyed." "Ghostly figures in barren landscape ... the giant statues may have passed mana, or spiritual power ... an ancestor to their descendants." "But faith requires mana ... and today, there is no faith on Easter Island." "Relics of a faith that failed ... your eyes do not show no memory, no hope." "History is full of melancholy parables ... and Easter Island is one of them." "It is a reminder that the planet's resources are finite." "It is a reminder that the gift of creation of man ..." "It appears inevitably connected to a self-destruct mechanism." "Here, in the endless sea ... itinerant lives found anchorage ..." "They created a civilization and disappeared ... leaving behind a remnant with no memory ... of what happened." "But if man is an invention of himself ... if generations were born from the imagination of men long dead ... then still have a choice." "Do we, as insular as they, we ... pass on inventions and wisdom to our living heirs ... or brainless and indifferent relics at the possibilities?" "Perhaps the islanders were right." "We are not victims of an evil god." "We are victims of the evil that we do to ourselves."