6. Easter Island - Where Giants Walked
Fall of Civilizations Podcast

6. Easter Island - Where Giants Walked

B2Upper-intermediateJune 29, 20191 hr 43 min

On one of the world’s most isolated islands, hundreds of vast stone statues lie mouldering in the grass. In this episode, we take a look at one of archaeology’s most enduring puzzles: the mystery of Easter Island. Find out how this unique community grew up in complete isolation, severed from the rest of the world by a vast expanse of ocean. Discover the incredible story of how it survived for so many centuries, and examine the evidence about what happened to finally bring this society, and its statues, crashing down.Credits:Sound engineering by Thomas NtinasVoice Actors:Jake Barr...

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across the vast blue expanse of the South Pacific Ocean.

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In the early 18th century, a Dutch explorer named Admiral Jacob Roggeveen was sailing across the vast blue expanse of the South Pacific Ocean. He had been on the sea for 17 days, searching the southern ocean for a mythical continent known as Terra Australis. When he saw a small island on the horizon,

0:35

his heart must have skipped a beat, as Roggeveen recounts in his diary. There was a great rejoicing among the people, and everyone hoped that this low land might prove to be a foretoken of the unknown southern continent. But as their ships approached, it became clear that this was no

0:57

vast continent, only a small island, a dot of land in the middle of the ocean. Nevertheless, Roggeveen was curious and he ordered his three ships to prepare for landing. It was Easter Day, 1722. As the Dutch got closer, it became clear that the island ahead of them was inhabited.

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