‘Walking Statues’ On Easter Island [VIDEO]

Researchers have unveiled a new theory that suggests the natives on Easter Island may have 'walked' the iconic statues to their present locations.

Writing in July's issue of National Geographic magazine, California State University at Long Beach archeologist Carl Lipo and Hawaii anthropologist Terry Hunt postulate that Polynesian natives used a system of ropes and manpower to walk the statues across the island.

"A lot of what people think they know about the island turns out to be not true," Lipo says.

Using ropes, islanders would stand on opposite sides of the statues, and sway them back and forth, in effect 'walking them'.

The theory to this point had been that the islanders created sled-like devices to cart the statues.

"You're actually putting a lot of your effort into the process of moving a statue rather than fighting," Lipo said. "Moving the moai was a little bit like playing a football game."

Not everyone agrees with the latest theory

Jared Diamond, proponent of the sled transportation theory, has disputed the new theory.

"This seems an implausible recipe for disaster," Diamond wrote in a post titled "The Myths of Easter Island" on Mark Lynas' blog. "Imagine it yourself: If you were told to transport a 90-ton statue 33 feet high over a dirt road, why would you risk tipping and breaking it by transporting it vertically with all its weight concentrated on its small base, rather than avoiding the risk of tipping by laying it flat and distributing its weight over its entire length?"

Both theories I suppose, are in direct opposition to my personal theory that the statues were "beamed" there by Starship (ahem).