Six Kilometers of Caves Discovered at Easter Island

A team of experts recently discovered a six-kilometer-long lava cave system on Easter Island thought to have been used as a refuge by the island’s inhabitants during the 16th century. The team confirmed it is the largest cave on the island and the 11th-largest in the world in terms of area.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8e1aa64d1c2c.jpg[/atsimg]
Many Easter Island caves have been found to contain petroglyphs, pictures carved into the rock.
Photo courtesy of Flickr, stevesheriw.

The expedition, which began in 2005 and focused on the Roiho sector in the east of the island, uncovered 45 caves with a host of archaeological finds, including arrowheads, spears, axes, utensils, petroglyphs (rock engravings), and some 30 human skeletons. Cave experts, or speleologists, confirmed the caves were used by inhabitants of the island as refuge from tribal wars at a time when society was on the verge of collapse as a result of infighting, severe environmental degradation caused by deforestation, droughts, and famine.

“The most common use was in periods of tribal warfare, when the caves would turn into secret chambers where islanders would protect themselves,” explained Claudio Cristino, an archaeologist from the Universidad de Chile who took part in the expedition. “They also would have been used as a site to collect water …”

Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, is a Polynesian island located some 3,500 kilometers off the west coast of Chile. It was annexed by Chile in 1888, with its inhabitants given Chilean citizenship in 1966.

“It was our fourth expedition to Rapa Nui,” explained Jabier Les, president of the Spanish Alfonso Antxia Society of Speleological Sciences, which led the expedition alongside a team of Italian experts and Chilean archaeologists. “In each expedition we charted the island and its caverns, being surprised by a series of finds. But to find a system of natural galleries more than six kilometers long in such a small, distant island was astonishing.”

www.santiagotimes.cl...

This is exciting, maybe they will find more clues about the islands history and origins.

Originally posted by warrenb

. Cave experts, or speleologists, confirmed the caves were used by inhabitants of the island as refuge from tribal wars at a time when society was on the verge of collapse as a result of infighting, severe environmental degradation caused by deforestation, droughts, and famine.

“

So how can we get 6 odd billion people into these caves? as apparently ye olde inhabitants hid there during social collapse ( as is happening now) tribal infighting ( as is happening now) , deforestation ( as is happening now) , droughts ( as is happening now) and famine ( and is as happening now)?

[edit on 14/7/09 by DataWraith]

reply to post by warrenb


The find also shows there is much more undiscovered areas even at such popular places as Easter Island. Star and flagged.

reply to post by warrenb



Star and Flag for you warrenb

This is a really amazing thing to find, and hopefully it can help shed even more light on Easter Island's many artifacts and carvings.

Those petroglyphs looks pretty complex and colorful, I can only imagine what caves full of these types of paintings and carvings would look like back when the paint was fresh.

One thing is for sure, I wouldn't go too deep, so if it were for pretection from other tribes it may have worked, it would have ketp me out anyway.

Nice find!! Will have to look into this some more, in the meantime here is a link produced by National Geographic of the said caves,

channel.nationalgeographic.com...-Videos/06769_00

(Just click on the video tab when the page loads up and the play button that appears on the screen there after to watch)

[edit on 14-7-2009 by surfer_soul]

Nice find!! WISH I COULD GO EXPLORE THEM !!
i find ure posts most enjoyable..

I'm still waiting for them to find a cave with some unknown vicious creature. Or perhaps a cave that was once used for aliens to take shelter.

Don't know, something along those lines.

However, still starring and flagging this. Good find. Is it possible that we may once again live in caves if things keep up the way they are going?

Heres another link of pictures from Easter Island by the person who made the original picture shown in Warrenb's post,
www.flickr.com...@N06/collections/72157603560313680/

Right time for bed for me!

[edit on 14-7-2009 by surfer_soul]

reply to post by warrenb


warrenb-that-is-very-cool,-i-imagine-there-is-lots-of-other-places-not-yet-found-and-what-the-places-would-contain?

amazingly-cool!

peace

Originally posted by GorehoundLarry
Is it possible that we may once again live in caves if things keep up the way they are going?

Not in this country...

www.spokesman.com...

You know this is great to hear. Just recently I've been surfing the web like crazy trying to re-connect with my roots (Hawaiian). Especially the migration of Polynesians. There are so many theories out there I don't know what to believe..I hope this would shed a little light on the subject..Even if its just on Rapa Nui origins..Theres so many possibility

All right! Another entrance to the Hollow Earth!!! I better get my spelunking gear ready!

Seriously though, this is a nice find and I'm sure they'll find lots of interesting things to help with the history of those people. S&F

reply to post by warrenb


It's really nice to see a thread on Easter Island...for the past week I have been on an Easter Island kick.There are so many unknowns about the island, and it's great to see new discoveries that help piece together its past.I will definetly keep a eye out for any new finds on the subject

Star and Flag. Easter Island has always intrigued me. I would love to go there and go exploring myself.

Great find warren big fat S & F for you sir.
I want more pictures of the petroglyphs NOW!
I can't wait to see higher resolution images.

Here is surfer-soul's link:
Easter Island Caves

Great stuff! Another reason I love this site

Being a once avid spelunker, I find this kind of discovery to be extremely fascinating.
For the most part, and from what I know... lava caves like these are very good at preservation of artifacts. It would not surprise me that this system will produce some neat archeological digs and possibly shed some new lights on the civilization that once used them. My only hope is that they do not end up being looted and vandalized by some people that are out to make a buck, or worse... turned into a tourist attraction to make more buck.


Those are some really interesting pictograms too.... Birdman Cult?
I anxiously await some more visuals of this one, Easter Island is a very strange place indeed. I have always thought there was something more to it, and this could be the tip of the iceberg.

On a sidenote:Not many people are willing to crawl through the bowels of the earth, in pitch black to search of the true history of man, and honestly speaking: I feel that there is a massive amount of data that could be found in such places as caverns and caves, and outside of the seas of the world they are the last frontier.

After all, it is where we came from.
Caves, that is.



T
[we are go for pics]

[edit on 09/7/15 by telemetry]

Originally posted by DataWraith

So how can we get 6 odd billion people into these caves? as apparently ye olde inhabitants hid there during social collapse ( as is happening now) tribal infighting ( as is happening now) , deforestation ( as is happening now) , droughts ( as is happening now) and famine ( and is as happening now)?

hmm... I guess we could take turns. Or maybe draw straws. I think we could all fit though. By my calculations we would need to fit 304,800 people on every square foot of 6 kilometers (this isn't taking into account how wide or high the ceiling is).

I once fit 17 people in a yugo... I think we can do it!

reply to post by warrenb


Nice one warremb,

Dose anyone else find it staggering that these caves have only just been rediscovered?

With all the expeditions to the island and study throughout the decades, i am shocked to find that these were not found earlier.

Just goes to show, when we think we know it all, something major comes into view and we re-evaluate what we thought was fact. A lesson when it come to just about everything else we think we know about our existence and history. Much of history is supposition, and the myriad holes and inconsistencies in it, are filled with bias and guesses.

Good post, thanks.

Was there any evidence these caves may exstend beyond the island and below the sea bed into the pacific ocean.If it does then this cave system could only be the tip of the iceburg and it could exstend much further down than the known caves and may go deeper than any previously exsployed cave system.

[edit on 15-7-2009 by GORGANTHIUM]

[edit on 15-7-2009 by GORGANTHIUM]

do you think maybe that ....


CHTHULHU IS THERE.