''Aku-Aku: the Secret of Easter Island'' is a 1957 book by

Thor Heyerdahl Thor Heyerdahl KStJ (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography. Heyerdahl is notable for his ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000& ...

Thor Heyerdahl, ''Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island'', / 9780345238412 / 0-345-23841-9. Hardcover published July 1, 1958 by Rand McNally & Co.; Paperback published 1960 by Penguin Books Limited; Mass market paperback edition May 1961 by Pocket Books, Inc. published in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Finnish, and in French and English the following year. The book describes the 1955–1956 Norwegian Archaeological Expedition's investigations of

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

n history and culture at

Easter Island Easter Island ( rap, Rapa Nui; es, Isla de Pascua) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its ne ...

, the

Austral Islands The Austral Islands (french: Îles Australes, officially ''Archipel des Australes;'' ty, Tuha'a Pae) are the southernmost group of islands in French Polynesia, an overseas country of the French Republic in the South Pacific. Geographically ...

Rapa Iti Rapa, also called Rapa Iti, or "Little Rapa", to distinguish it from Easter Island, whose Polynesian name is Rapa Nui, is the largest and only inhabited island of the Bass Islands in French Polynesia. An older name for the island is Oparo. The ...

and

Raivavae Raivavae ( Tahitian: ''Ra‘ivāvae'' /ra.ʔi.va:va.e/) is one of the Austral Islands in French Polynesia. Its total land area including offshore islets is . At the 2017 census, it had a population of 903.

, and the

Marquesas Islands The Marquesas Islands (; french: Îles Marquises or ' or '; Marquesan: ' ( North Marquesan) and ' ( South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in ...

Nuku Hiva Nuku Hiva (sometimes spelled Nukahiva or Nukuhiva) is the largest of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas country of France in the Pacific Ocean. It was formerly also known as ''Île Marchand'' and ''Madison Island''. Herman ...

and

Hiva Oa With its , Hiva Oa is the second largest island in the Marquesas Islands, in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. Located at 9 45' south latitude and 139 W longitude, it is the largest island of the southern Mar ...

. Visits to Pitcairn Island,

Mangareva Mangareva is the central and largest island of the Gambier Islands in French Polynesia. It is surrounded by smaller islands: Taravai in the southwest, Aukena and Akamaru in the southeast, and islands in the north. Mangareva has a permanent p ...

and

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austra ...

are described as well. By far the greatest part of the book tells of the work on Easter Island, where the expedition investigated the giant stone statues (''

moai Moai or moʻai ( ; es, moái; rap, moʻai, , statue) are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Rapa Nui in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but ...

''), the quarries at

Rano Raraku Rano Raraku is a volcanic crater formed of consolidated volcanic ash, or tuff, and located on the lower slopes of Terevaka in the Rapa Nui National Park on Easter Island in Chile. It was a quarry for about 500 years until the early eighteenth cent ...

and

Puna Pau Maunga Puna Pau is a small crater or cinder cone and prehistoric quarry on the outskirts of Hanga Roa in the south west of Easter Island (a Chilean island in the Pacific Ocean). Puna Pau gives its name to one of the seven regions of the Rapa Nui ...

, the ceremonial village of

Orongo Orongo is a stone village and ceremonial center at the southwestern tip of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). It consists of a collection of low, sod-covered, windowless, round-walled buildings with even lower doors positioned on the high south-westerly t ...

Rano Kau Rano Kau is a tall dormant volcano that forms the southwestern headland of Easter Island, a Chilean island in the Pacific Ocean. It was formed of basaltic lava flows in the Pleistocene with its youngest rocks dated at between 150,000 and 210,0 ...

, as well as many other sites throughout the island. Much of the book's interest derives from the interaction of the expedition staff, from their base at

Anakena Anakena is a white coral sand beach in Rapa Nui National Park on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), a Chilean island in the Pacific Ocean. Anakena has two ahus; Ahu-Ature has a single moai and Ahu Nao-Nao has seven, two of which have deteriorated. It als ...

beach, with the Easter Islanders themselves, who lived mainly in the village of

Hanga Roa Hanga Roa (; rap, Haŋa Roa, Rapa Nui pronunciation: �ha.ŋa ˈɾo.a (Spanish: ''Bahía Larga'') is the main town, harbour and seat of Easter Island, a municipality of Chile. It is located in the southern part of the island's west coast, in th ...

. The book and a follow-up film of the same name made a major contribution to general public awareness of both the island and the statues.

Reception

The book was widely distributed, with both hardcover and mass market editions published, as well as several reprint editions. Some of Heyerdahl's conclusions have been questioned by archaeologists, plus his methods of selecting evidence to confirm his point of view. Notable is that professionalism in the fieldwork, as he used educated archaeologists.

Theories

Heyerdahl is mostly associated with an attempt to revive the theory that some of islanders' stone-carving technology is almost identical to the one in some parts of South America, notably Peru. He argued that in addition to having been settled by Polynesians,

was settled by people from

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

(an area he described as being "more culturally developed").Flenley and Bahn, ''The Enigmas of Easter Island'' 2003 , page 30, 32. The Easter Islanders, according to Heyerdahl, insisted that the ''

'' (statues) of Easter Island moved into their positions by "walking." Heyerdahl theorised that this referred to a statue having been moved in an upright orientation, by the technique of swiveling it alternatively on its corners in a "walking" fashion, a technique that can be used in moving a tall, flat-bottomed object (like a free-standing closet). He tested this theory on a small ''moai''; however, he quickly abandoned the test after the moai's base was damaged.Jo Anne Van Tilburg. "Easter Island, Archaeology, Ecology and Culture". British Museum Press, London, 1994. , page 154 He made a group of inhabitants pull a rather large statue lying down (which was easy to do) and thus show that this method was useful. He also made natives erect a statue using levers and stones, demonstrating that this method also worked. At this time all statues were lying down and this one was the first to be restored.

Evidence

Heyerdahl compared the highest-quality stonework on the island (present in very few cases) to

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...

stonework, such as at

Tihuanaco Tiwanaku ( es, Tiahuanaco or ) is a Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia near Lake Titicaca, about 70 kilometers from La Paz, and it is one of the largest sites in South America. Surface remains currently cover around 4 square kilo ...

. He said of Ahu Vinapu's retaining wall, "No Polynesian fisherman would have been capable of conceiving, much less building such a wall". Heyerdahl claimed a South American origin for a number of Easter Island plants, including the Totora reeds in the island's three crater lakes. These are now (by DNA analysis not available at the time) recognised as a separate species from similar ones in

Lake Titicaca Lake Titicaca (; es, Lago Titicaca ; qu, Titiqaqa Qucha) is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world. By volume of water and by surface area, i ...

. He made the same claim for sweet potato and this fact is a riddle since this is South American. A cultural feature on Easter Island was enlonging of the earlobe. This is not present in Polynesia but common in South America. On the other hand, weaving and pottery (used in the Americas) was not known to the inhabitants of Easter Island.

References

{{Thor Heyerdahl 1957 non-fiction books Archaeology books Easter Island History of South America Norwegian books Norwegian-language books Pseudoarchaeology Thor Heyerdahl de:Aku Aku