Walking moai: A quantitative analysis of statue morphology, transport roads, and experimental validation
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A 2025 quantitative study of 962 moai, transport-road morphology and 62 road statues found features consistent with vertical walking and experimentally moved a 4.35-ton replica 100 m in about 40 minutes with 18 people.
Challenges
Abandoned and fallen statues along transport roads exhibit positional and morphological patterns predicted by the walking-transport model.