Aku-Aku Eclipse Easter Island July 11th, 2010

Ahu Vinapu

Ahu Vinapu is a site not far from the end of the airport runway with toppled moai and a wall whose mortarless stonework convinced Thor Heyerdahl that Easter Island was settled from South America, not west to east from Polynesia. Few anthropologists give credence to his theories, and although there are superficial resemblances between this site and Inca stonework, the details are very different.

Toppled moai and topknots.

This is the stonework that so enthralled Heyerdahl.

But looking at it from the side, it's evident that the finely fitted stones are a facade for a platform filled with rubble, something the Incas didn't do.

by John Walker July 20th, 2010

This document is in the public domain.