Close Encounters of the "Easter Island" kind!

The silent statues of Easter Island look over the setting sun. What is there purpose?
Does anyone remember the Movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". The Aliens in that movie communicate in musical tone patterns. Mabey this idea is not so far fetched.

Look at the statues on Easter island, they all rise and fall like a sequence of musical notes. In a Musical scale there are 12 rising notes. On easter Island we see 13 statues... 12 + 1 = 13 is the where scale restarts at the next higher musical octave.

Looking at the relative heights of the statues rising and falling siluoetted agains the sun i interpret the following musical patter of notes.

C D E D D D D D C G C D

Certainly is food for thought what do you reckon?

Interesting....

As it is a restoration project, lead by the Japanese i think, they might not be in their original spot.

They could have been in any order, we don't know. Also, should they be seen from the front or the back?

You did think out of the box, that gives you a star

Not a very catchy melody. Aliens must not have very good taste in music.

reply to post by AthlonSavage


Explanation: S&F!

Easter Island [wiki]

Moai [wiki]

Moai i/ˈmoʊ.aɪ/, or mo‘ai, are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people from rock on the Chilean Polynesian island of Easter Island between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island's perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads three-fifths the size of their bodies. The moai are chiefly the living faces (aringa ora) of deified ancestors (aringa ora ata tepuna). The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first visited the island, but most were cast down during later conflicts between clans.

The production and transportation of the 887 statues are considered remarkable creative and physical feats. The tallest moai erected, called Paro, was almost 10 metres (33 ft) high and weighed 82 tons; the heaviest erected was a shorter but squatter moai at Ahu Tongariki, weighing 86 tons; and one unfinished sculpture, if completed, would have been approximately 21 metres (69 ft) tall with a weight of about 270 tons.

Ahu Tongariki [wiki]

Ahu Tongariki is the largest ahu on Rapa Nui/Easter Island (a Chilean island in the Pacific). Its moai were toppled during the island's civil wars and in the twentieth century the ahu was swept inland by a tsunami. It has since been restored and has fifteen moai including an 86 tonne moai that was the heaviest ever erected on the island. Ahu Tongariki is one kilometer from Rano Raraku and Poike in the Hotu-iti area of Rapa Nui National Park. All the moai here face sunset during Summer Solstice.

View prior to restoration.

Music of Easter Island [wiki]

Traditional music from the island consists of choral singing and chanting, similar to Tahitian music. Families often performed as choirs, competing in an annual concert. They were accompanied by a trumpet made from a conch shell and a percussive dancer jumping onto a stone which is set over a calabash resonator. Other instruments include the kauaha, the jaw bone of a horse, upaupa, an accordion, and stones, which are clapped together for percussive effect.

Modern examples of such music ...

Matato'a (band) [wiki]

Matato’a (the watchful eye of the warrior) is a musical and dance group from Easter Island (Rapa Nui). It is one of the most famous bands from the island. Matato'a was founded in 1996 by Kevamatato’a Atan. It was in 1998 that they adopted the name of Matato'a, which means 'warrior' or 'guardian'. They played in all over Chile in the same year. Mito Manutomatoma, a founding member, left the group in 1999 to play mainstream Chilean music.

The group, consisting largely of family members, uses traditional instruments, such as stones, horse jawbone, and bombo along with electric guitars and other modern elements to create a unique fusion sound.

Matato'a's principal motivation is to promote the ancestral traditions, the dances, the costumes, & body paintings of the Rapa Nui People. Performances are high-energy, with intensive indigenous cultural representation.

Easter Island: Mythology [wiki]

Mythology Main article: Rapa Nui mythology
The most important myths are:

Tangata manu, the Birdman cult which was practiced until the 1860s.

Makemake, an important god.

Aku-aku, the guardians of the sacred family caves.

Moai-kava-kava a ghost man of the Hanau epe (long-ears.)

Hekai ite umu pare haonga takapu Hanau epe kai noruego, the sacred chant to appease the aku-aku before entering a family cave.

Most settlements were located on the coast and moai were erected along the coastline, watching over their descendants in the settlements before them, with their backs toward the spirit world in the sea.

Personal Disclosure: Could the sacred chant be based on the notes detailed in the OP?

reply to post by Mianeye


The ground below the statues is soft and many of them have sunken in many meters below where they must have originally been positioned.

So there goes your theory.

reply to post by H1ght3chHippie


Do you know that with certainty? They may of been built on a foundation. Do you know? Looking at the pictures Omega Logas has kindly added it appears they reside on built foundation. If a foundation is made correctly is wont slip, look at pyramids dont see them sinking.

reply to post by OmegaLogos


Thanks for details OL very interesting information indeed.

They may have been put there to scare of invaders as they appear to be scattered mainly around the coastline

Originally posted by SilentKoala
Not a very catchy melody. Aliens must not have very good taste in music.

I heard they are Bieber fans ha
2nd

Unless they didn't use the12 tone scale like much of the world's music.

Nice theory OP! S+F for a great topic. I have always wondered what those statues were for and if they had a meaning!

If you are correct, how could the "sounds" be made so that we could hear them though? If at all possible that is.

I mean they are stone monuments, obviously no percussion would make a melody or music...so how could it have been used is quite the mystery. Wind, water? There would be a way to make sounds with them if that is what they were used for imo.