0:00:02 > 0:00:06I've been making natural history films for over 60 years,
0:00:06 > 0:00:10and in the process I've been to some very interesting places.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13But every now and again I've been allowed to make a film
0:00:13 > 0:00:16about my other enthusiasms.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18About the history of exploration,
0:00:18 > 0:00:22about tribal objects, or the life of a great scientist.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25You could call them my Passion Projects.
0:00:57 > 0:01:02I have to say, I've always been a collector, initially of fossils.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05And I think a lot of people have the collecting urge.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07And many naturalists have it.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09It's quite an important thing for naturalists to have
0:01:09 > 0:01:14because, whether it's flowers or butterflies or fossils,
0:01:14 > 0:01:16if you collect things, you start to classify them
0:01:16 > 0:01:19and you start to work out why this is different from that
0:01:19 > 0:01:22and whether that is more like something else.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24And so you get the notion of families and so on.
0:01:24 > 0:01:29And also you look at the objects with some degree of attention.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33So it's quite useful training.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39I have got one or two things that I brought back for my collection,
0:01:39 > 0:01:45but one or two of them have led me to new adventures.
0:01:45 > 0:01:51When I was in Madagascar in... the late '60s, I suppose,
0:01:51 > 0:01:54one of the stories I knew that we would want to feature was
0:01:54 > 0:01:57a story about the elephant bird -
0:01:57 > 0:02:01a giant extinct bird which laid huge eggs,
0:02:01 > 0:02:04and which many people think were the origin
0:02:04 > 0:02:07of the legends of the Roc,
0:02:07 > 0:02:10which was so big
0:02:10 > 0:02:14that it picked up elephants in its talons and carried them away.
0:02:16 > 0:02:18And when we got to Madagascar, I was very keen on seeing
0:02:18 > 0:02:21if I could find fragments of this egg.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25And, amazingly, we went down there and yes, we did,
0:02:25 > 0:02:28and I started very excitedly collecting
0:02:28 > 0:02:29these little bits of eggs.
0:02:31 > 0:02:36And eventually a little boy brought to us some big fragments.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40They looked to me as though different pieces fitted together.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44So I started to do that, and then eventually...
0:02:46 > 0:02:47..I put together this.
0:02:49 > 0:02:55That gives you a real idea of what an elephant bird's egg was like -
0:02:55 > 0:02:58very thick and very tough.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01And it's one of the things I cherish.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07Anyway, some years ago, this giant egg
0:03:07 > 0:03:09set me off on a new investigation.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17A film director, television director friend, said,
0:03:17 > 0:03:21"Why don't we make a programme entirely based on this,
0:03:21 > 0:03:23"on the aepyornis egg?"
0:03:23 > 0:03:27Which, if that meant going back to Madagascar, that suited me.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32It turned into a detective story -
0:03:32 > 0:03:34trying to find out what kind of creature
0:03:34 > 0:03:36the elephant bird really was.
0:03:37 > 0:03:42But most of all, I wanted to know exactly how old my egg was.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45Here, in the basement of the archaeological department
0:03:45 > 0:03:49at Oxford University, there's a carbon dating apparatus which can
0:03:49 > 0:03:53accurately find the age of ancient objects - natural and man-made.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57But I've been told that Thomas Higham,
0:03:57 > 0:04:00who took the sample from my egg, has got a result.
0:04:03 > 0:04:04You took a tiny bit of this.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06A very small amount from the back.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08A very small amount.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11And, tell me, come on, what's the answer?
0:04:11 > 0:04:14Well, our date suggests that this egg is 1,300 years old.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16- No!- Yes.
0:04:17 > 0:04:18Say it again. 1,000...
0:04:18 > 0:04:201,300 years old.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22And that puts it at what date?
0:04:22 > 0:04:25About 700, 600-700 AD.
0:04:25 > 0:04:27And did that surprise you?
0:04:27 > 0:04:29I thought it was quite a lot younger
0:04:29 > 0:04:31than I thought it would be, actually.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33- Oh, you thought it would be older? - I did.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36And I say that because I checked back on all the other
0:04:36 > 0:04:39eggshell dates that we've dated from Madagascar from this species,
0:04:39 > 0:04:43and the youngest date that we've ever got is about 900 AD.
0:04:43 > 0:04:50So this, in fact, was one of the last of the elephant birds?
0:04:50 > 0:04:54I think within 100 to 200 years, perhaps, yes.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56Ah.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01The chick that came out of this was one of the last.
0:05:01 > 0:05:02Absolutely amazing.
0:05:06 > 0:05:08So there we have it.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12My egg is 1,300 years old, and one of the most recent eggs
0:05:12 > 0:05:16of its kind that the university has dated.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19But that doesn't mean it was the last ever laid, and it could be that
0:05:19 > 0:05:24some of these astounding creatures lived on until much more recently.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27But what we have discovered is that elephant birds and human beings
0:05:27 > 0:05:31did manage to live alongside one another for hundreds of years.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37For me, this egg is a reminder of
0:05:37 > 0:05:40how easy it is for a species to disappear...
0:05:42 > 0:05:45..to be exterminated, as human beings take over.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52The unravelling of the story of one of my favourite objects was,
0:05:52 > 0:05:56in the end, to throw a different light on the relationship
0:05:56 > 0:05:58between humans and the natural world.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06I found this object, extraordinary figure, in New York.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08It was at an auction in New York.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13And it is very, very strange.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17The auctioneer said that it came from Easter Island,
0:06:17 > 0:06:22and the estimate they gave as to how much it was going to fetch
0:06:22 > 0:06:24was so low that it seemed as though
0:06:24 > 0:06:27they really thought that it was a forgery.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30But I thought it was possibly very old.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34And then I saw one or two cues
0:06:34 > 0:06:38and started to do some research, and that led me
0:06:38 > 0:06:45to an absolutely fascinating story as to what this actually represents,
0:06:45 > 0:06:47and who even collected it.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49Would you believe that was possible?
0:06:49 > 0:06:51Well, it's a line of deduction
0:06:51 > 0:06:55which did lead to an extraordinary story.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59We called the film The Last Gods Of Easter Island.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44This strange figure appeared in a New York auction room
0:07:44 > 0:07:46some ten years ago.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49The auctioneer said it came from Easter Island, but they gave it
0:07:49 > 0:07:54a value far lower than that of a genuine old Easter Island piece.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57Maybe they thought it was carved for tourists,
0:07:57 > 0:08:00or perhaps they weren't even sure how genuine it was.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04But I thought it had a strange, almost hypnotic, power,
0:08:04 > 0:08:06and I bought it.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09But who had made it? And where? And when?
0:08:09 > 0:08:11And what did it represent?
0:08:11 > 0:08:14In trying to find the answer to those questions,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17I set off on a long trail of detection
0:08:17 > 0:08:19which took me back to the 18th century,
0:08:19 > 0:08:23to the great days of the European exploration of the Pacific,
0:08:23 > 0:08:26to the ancient beliefs of the Polynesians,
0:08:26 > 0:08:29and eventually to one of the great wonders of the world -
0:08:29 > 0:08:31Easter Island.
0:08:55 > 0:08:562.5 million years ago,
0:08:56 > 0:09:01the waters in the middle of the eastern Pacific began to boil.
0:09:05 > 0:09:07Lava spewed up from the ocean floor.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13As the eruptions continued over centuries, an island grew.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17Today it measures only 14 miles by 7.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19It's one of the most isolated fragments of land
0:09:19 > 0:09:22in all the oceans of the world.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25South America lies 2,500 miles away to the east.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28Tahiti, in the centre of the Pacific,
0:09:28 > 0:09:303,000 miles to the west.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34It's a barren, rocky place.
0:09:34 > 0:09:35Hardly a tree to be seen.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41There are still three huge volcanic craters on the island,
0:09:41 > 0:09:43all now inactive.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45The one on the western corner
0:09:45 > 0:09:47has pools of fresh water lying all over its floor.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02The island's flanks descend so steeply into the ocean
0:10:02 > 0:10:05that no fringing coral reefs have been able to grow,
0:10:05 > 0:10:10and the Pacific breakers crash directly onto its narrow beaches.
0:10:10 > 0:10:15Landing is extremely difficult, and at some times, impossible.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18Nonetheless, about 1,500 years ago,
0:10:18 > 0:10:20human beings did manage to reach it.
0:10:20 > 0:10:27And here, in isolation, they developed an extraordinary culture -
0:10:27 > 0:10:29they carved gigantic figures of stone.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44Today, these statues are among the most famous images in the world,
0:10:44 > 0:10:48immediately recognisable everywhere, and used in advertisements
0:10:48 > 0:10:53and cartoons as the symbol of all that is most remote and exotic.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Europeans didn't discover the island until a Dutchman,
0:11:08 > 0:11:13Jacob Roggeveen, arrived here on Easter Day 1722.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16He made a brief note of the huge statues in his journal,
0:11:16 > 0:11:20but he didn't stay long, for soon after he landed a fight broke out.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25A dozen of the islanders were shot dead, and Roggeveen sailed away.
0:11:28 > 0:11:3152 years later, Captain Cook arrived
0:11:31 > 0:11:34and made the first detailed survey of the island.
0:11:36 > 0:11:3914 years after him, a Frenchman, Laperouse, landed there
0:11:39 > 0:11:43and wonderingly measured the statues.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46His artist, confronted with such strange images,
0:11:46 > 0:11:48found it difficult to record them objectively,
0:11:48 > 0:11:51and perhaps unconsciously gave them European features.
0:11:53 > 0:11:58Some stood 30 feet tall and weighed 60 tons.
0:11:58 > 0:11:59But who would had carved them?
0:11:59 > 0:12:02How had they been transported and directed?
0:12:02 > 0:12:05The islanders met by the visiting Europeans seemed to have
0:12:05 > 0:12:07none of the necessary skills.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10So began the mystery of Easter Island.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15Later visitors invented their own explanations.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18One claimed that such colossal statues could only have been put up
0:12:18 > 0:12:21by a race of giants, now extinct,
0:12:21 > 0:12:23who stood 12 feet tall
0:12:23 > 0:12:26and were endowed with superhuman strength.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33By the 19th century,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36European artists who had never been to the island
0:12:36 > 0:12:39were portraying the people as degenerate savages
0:12:39 > 0:12:44who conducted unspeakable rites for the stone idols.
0:12:55 > 0:13:00In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl left the west coast of South America
0:13:00 > 0:13:01on his raft, the Kon-Tiki,
0:13:01 > 0:13:03and sailed toward the island
0:13:03 > 0:13:07to prove his theory that the islanders had come from Peru,
0:13:07 > 0:13:11bringing with them the Incas' famous skills in working stone.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16In more recent times, some writers have seriously
0:13:16 > 0:13:20suggested that the only possible explanation was that
0:13:20 > 0:13:24the statues had been raised by people arriving from outer space.
0:13:32 > 0:13:37But the islanders also carved small wooden figures, like mine.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42What could be the connection between the great stone monoliths
0:13:42 > 0:13:45and these relatively tiny carvings?
0:13:48 > 0:13:52Today they still carve wooden figures for sale to visitors.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56It seems that they've been doing this for 150 years or more.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01Some of them are fairly crude, some less so.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08But it seemed to me that mine was much more powerful
0:14:08 > 0:14:11and certainly older than any of these.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13But was it?
0:14:14 > 0:14:17One of the best collections of early figures
0:14:17 > 0:14:21still untainted by the demands of tourism is in London.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25So off I went with my figure to the Museum of Mankind -
0:14:25 > 0:14:28the ethnographic department of the British Museum.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35In its hall stands one of the very few stone figures
0:14:35 > 0:14:37to have left the island,
0:14:37 > 0:14:41collected by a British warship in 1868.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44But it was the wooden figures that I had come to see.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49This is some kind of grotesque monster -
0:14:49 > 0:14:52half-reptile, half-human.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57Its head appears to be like a lizard's,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00and yet it has what seem to be wings.
0:15:00 > 0:15:05A fattish body, human buttocks and legs,
0:15:05 > 0:15:09but then a long tail that projects beyond the legs.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12This, on the other hand, does seem to be a human being -
0:15:12 > 0:15:14it's got a very human face.
0:15:14 > 0:15:19But it's a human being wearing a bird costume of some kind,
0:15:19 > 0:15:24because he's got a mask with a bird's beak on his head,
0:15:24 > 0:15:28and instead of arms, what appear to be wings,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31but then again, very human-looking legs.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36And then there are much more naturalistic human figures.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38This is a female.
0:15:38 > 0:15:44A flat, plankish body, but overall human proportions,
0:15:44 > 0:15:46fairly naturalistic.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50Most common of all are the figures of men.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54This is a particularly fine one.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58We know from museum records that it was collected in 1820.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02It's the body of a normally-proportioned man,
0:16:02 > 0:16:05but one who is half-starved.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08For his ribs are very prominent,
0:16:08 > 0:16:12he has a more or less naturalistic face with a goatee beard,
0:16:12 > 0:16:15a smile showing the teeth, but very long ears,
0:16:15 > 0:16:18and legs of normal proportion.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22But none of these seem to me
0:16:22 > 0:16:28to have the characteristics that set my figure apart.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31They don't have the goggling eyes,
0:16:31 > 0:16:33the crest,
0:16:33 > 0:16:36the toothless smile stretching from ear to ear,
0:16:36 > 0:16:39and this enormously elongated body,
0:16:39 > 0:16:41with elongated arms
0:16:41 > 0:16:47and fingers that are also equally elongated.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50I looked, not only here,
0:16:50 > 0:16:52but in catalogues of museums around the world.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55There was only one place in the world where
0:16:55 > 0:16:58I could find an equivalent figure.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01To see that I'd have to go to Russia.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22St Petersburg - the old capital of Russia.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26Once the home of the Tsars, and still today one of the
0:17:26 > 0:17:31country's great cultural centres, rich in art galleries and museums.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36I was heading for one of the oldest museums - the Kunstkamera -
0:17:36 > 0:17:40founded by Peter the Great and now the main anthropological museum.
0:17:42 > 0:17:44Here are gathered the art and the artefacts
0:17:44 > 0:17:47that have been brought back by Russia travellers and explorers
0:17:47 > 0:17:50from all parts of the globe.
0:17:50 > 0:17:52Their Pacific collections are not huge,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55but I had seen from the museum's catalogue that they included
0:17:55 > 0:17:59two strange wooden figures from Easter Island,
0:17:59 > 0:18:03one of which has an exceedingly long, thin body.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05And they had them out ready for me.
0:18:09 > 0:18:10And here it is.
0:18:11 > 0:18:17So how close is the resemblance between this and my figure?
0:18:19 > 0:18:22Museum regulations here require you to put on gloves
0:18:22 > 0:18:24before you touch any of their objects,
0:18:24 > 0:18:25so, of course, I did.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42Well, the resemblance is astonishingly close.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45It has the same goggle eyes -
0:18:45 > 0:18:50spheres surrounded by a single ring.
0:18:50 > 0:18:55There are three ridges above the eyes,
0:18:55 > 0:19:02a mouth which stretches from ear to ear in a toothless smile,
0:19:02 > 0:19:05the same rod-like arms,
0:19:05 > 0:19:08the same elongated body.
0:19:09 > 0:19:15It's surely impossible to believe that whoever carved one
0:19:15 > 0:19:19was unaware of the features of the other.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30The museum's other figure is of less relevance,
0:19:30 > 0:19:32but it's nonetheless very remarkable.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36It's a birdman, a bit like the one in the British Museum.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42So where did these two Russian figures come from?
0:19:44 > 0:19:48Well, the museum records show they were transferred here
0:19:48 > 0:19:54from the Maritime Museum of the Admiralty Department in 1824.
0:19:54 > 0:19:59So they must have been collected by Russian explorers before that date.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04They both belong to a group numbered 736.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08Unfortunately there are only two Russian explorers before then
0:20:08 > 0:20:10who went to Easter Island.
0:20:10 > 0:20:12None of them stayed for any length of time,
0:20:12 > 0:20:16and there's no record of either trading for figures.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18So, all I can say,
0:20:18 > 0:20:22as a consequence of finding the similarity between these two,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25is that my figure therefore is probably
0:20:25 > 0:20:30early 19th century and no more than that.
0:20:30 > 0:20:32So, to some extent,
0:20:32 > 0:20:36this identification is something of a disappointment.
0:20:38 > 0:20:39I must admit,
0:20:39 > 0:20:43I had hoped that it might prove to be somewhat earlier in date.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46I'd run out of clues.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49My investigations seemed to have come to a dead end.
0:20:53 > 0:20:55It seemed that the origin
0:20:55 > 0:20:58and identity of my figure would have to remain a mystery.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07But then, a stroke of luck.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11A couple of years after I bought my figure,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14some drawings held by the State Library in Sydney were published.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17They had belonged to Captain Cook himself.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21After his death they'd passed to his widow, who in turn gave them to
0:21:21 > 0:21:24a naval officer who looked after her in her old age.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26I had to go to Australia anyway,
0:21:26 > 0:21:28so I went to have a look at them.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41This is a scene in New Zealand
0:21:41 > 0:21:45by the expedition's official artist, William Hodges.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48And this too is by Hodges -
0:21:48 > 0:21:52a moving portrait of a Maori.
0:21:56 > 0:22:02And here is a picture of HMS Resolution - Cook's ship.
0:22:02 > 0:22:09And this was drawn, not by Hodges, but by Able Seaman Roberts,
0:22:09 > 0:22:12who was the draughtsman on the voyage.
0:22:12 > 0:22:17This sketch of the ship was done, one imagines, for his own pleasure.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20But his actual job was recording
0:22:20 > 0:22:25profiles of coasts and making charts, as has been done here.
0:22:25 > 0:22:30These were profiles that were of use to any ship that might try
0:22:30 > 0:22:33to follow in Cook's wake.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36And as well as those,
0:22:36 > 0:22:41he also drew records of some of the objects
0:22:41 > 0:22:43that were collected on the expedition.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45Here's a club,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48and here an axe or an adze,
0:22:48 > 0:22:49and a spear.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55And here is a drawing by Roberts which,
0:22:55 > 0:22:59when I first saw it, made my heart miss a beat.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01Because here, correct in every detail,
0:23:01 > 0:23:03is a drawing of that
0:23:03 > 0:23:08enigmatic, mysterious bird-headed man figure that's in St Petersburg.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28Correct even down to the number of ribs on the chest.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36And next to it, even more exciting from my point of view,
0:23:36 > 0:23:40here is a drawing of that female stick figure,
0:23:40 > 0:23:42again correct in every detail.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46Even the number of these little two-peg holes in the eye,
0:23:46 > 0:23:49which aren't pupils of the eye, but were holes where pegs were
0:23:49 > 0:23:53placed to fix a piece of shell, perhaps, to give the eye a glint.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08So there can be no doubt whatever
0:24:08 > 0:24:15that these are drawings made on Captain Cook's ship in 1774
0:24:15 > 0:24:19of objects that are now in St Petersburg.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22How on earth could they have got there?
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Perhaps the answer to that question would also shed light
0:24:29 > 0:24:31on the origins of my figure.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35And when I unexpectedly got the chance
0:24:35 > 0:24:38to visit Easter Island itself,
0:24:38 > 0:24:39I took it.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47The first human beings to reach Easter Island sailed there
0:24:47 > 0:24:51by canoe about 1,500 years ago.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54We now know from genetic and other evidence that they were
0:24:54 > 0:24:58Polynesians from islands 1,500 miles away to the west.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04The Polynesians were, and still are, superb navigators,
0:25:04 > 0:25:08capable of immense voyages over the empty waters of the Pacific.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15Today, jet aircraft fly right across the Pacific,
0:25:15 > 0:25:20but some do drop down to Easter Island and refuel.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22Even with today's high-speed air travel,
0:25:22 > 0:25:27it's still a six-hour flight from Santiago in Chile to the island.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to land in Easter Island.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34Please return to your seats...
0:25:51 > 0:25:55On that first evening I couldn't resist climbing up the flanks
0:25:55 > 0:25:58of the volcano to look at the stone statues
0:25:58 > 0:26:00which I had read so much about.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29It's easy to understand the astonishment of
0:26:29 > 0:26:31the first visitors to the islands.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35How were these immense sculptures made and moved?
0:26:36 > 0:26:40Thor Heyerdahl, in 1955, led a big archaeological expedition
0:26:40 > 0:26:45to the island, and spent several months there trying to find out.
0:26:45 > 0:26:47He excavated around them.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51Some, he discovered, were buried up to their waists
0:26:51 > 0:26:53and had strangely elongated fingers.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58He showed by practical experiments that carving them
0:26:58 > 0:27:00was not as difficult as it might seem -
0:27:00 > 0:27:01for the rock is volcanic ash,
0:27:01 > 0:27:03and when it's first exposed
0:27:03 > 0:27:06it's quite soft and easily cut with stone mauls.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14He then showed that in fact it wasn't too difficult to drag
0:27:14 > 0:27:18the sculptures from the quarries where they had been carved -
0:27:18 > 0:27:20provided that you had enough people.
0:27:22 > 0:27:27Later still, American archaeologists transported a replica statue
0:27:27 > 0:27:30standing upright, using rollers,
0:27:30 > 0:27:32though there were no trees on the island
0:27:32 > 0:27:34to provide rollers in Cook's time.
0:27:35 > 0:27:37But, whichever way they were moved,
0:27:37 > 0:27:40these investigations made it clear
0:27:40 > 0:27:42that large teams of people were needed,
0:27:42 > 0:27:44and that implied that there must have been
0:27:44 > 0:27:47at one time a flourishing and coherent community,
0:27:47 > 0:27:51who would work together to create these astonishing monuments.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07Captain Cook arrived here in his ships,
0:28:07 > 0:28:08the Adventure and the Resolution,
0:28:08 > 0:28:12on the second of his great voyages of exploration,
0:28:12 > 0:28:16on Sunday, March 13th, 1774.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19He anchored about a mile out there,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22and two men from the island
0:28:22 > 0:28:27paddled out in a canoe with plantains for food.
0:28:27 > 0:28:32Cook noticed with surprise that their canoe was wretchedly small,
0:28:32 > 0:28:36and certainly not suitable for travel farther out to sea.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42We know just how small because a member of his expedition
0:28:42 > 0:28:44made a quick sketch of it.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51The following day, Cook found an anchorage,
0:28:51 > 0:28:54and went ashore to trade for food and water.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59He distributed gifts of one kind and another,
0:28:59 > 0:29:04including bronze medals with the head of George III on one side
0:29:04 > 0:29:07and his two ships on the other.
0:29:07 > 0:29:10In return, he got sweet potatoes and more plantains.
0:29:14 > 0:29:15The following morning,
0:29:15 > 0:29:21an exploration party left the ship and landed here on the west coast.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23It included two young lieutenants -
0:29:23 > 0:29:27the expedition's official artist, William Hodges,
0:29:27 > 0:29:32and their official naturalist, a German called Johann Forster.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35Cook wasn't with them because he had been feeling unwell,
0:29:35 > 0:29:38as he had been for some time.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42It wasn't long before the party encountered a group of islanders,
0:29:42 > 0:29:44and Hodges sketched their portraits.
0:29:46 > 0:29:51A man in a feathered headdress with pierced and distended earlobes.
0:29:53 > 0:29:58And a woman with tattoos on her forehead, wearing a straw hat.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02But the encounter was uneasy.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05An islander snatched one of the party's bags and ran off with it,
0:30:05 > 0:30:09so one of the lieutenants fired a warning musket shot over his head.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14The man dropped the bag and they retrieved it.
0:30:14 > 0:30:16Johann Forster, in his journal,
0:30:16 > 0:30:18says that one of the islanders was armed with,
0:30:18 > 0:30:21"A kind of battle-axe with a head carved on each side
0:30:21 > 0:30:24"and black flints instead of eyes,"
0:30:24 > 0:30:27much like the one shown in the drawing that's now in Australia.
0:30:30 > 0:30:35They went on to inspect and measure the great stone heads.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38Many of them, like those, had already fallen
0:30:38 > 0:30:41and had clearly done so some time earlier.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45So whatever the beliefs that had led the islanders to set them up,
0:30:45 > 0:30:48those beliefs were clearly no longer strongly held.
0:30:49 > 0:30:51But some of them were still standing,
0:30:51 > 0:30:53and Hodges went on to paint them.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00Cook's men asked about the statues and were told,
0:31:00 > 0:31:01as far as they could understand,
0:31:01 > 0:31:05that they did not represent gods - they were not worshipped -
0:31:05 > 0:31:08they were memorials to great chiefs.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11So, although later visitors may have thought it necessary
0:31:11 > 0:31:14to invoke giants or spacemen as the creators,
0:31:14 > 0:31:17the islanders themselves were perfectly clear -
0:31:17 > 0:31:21then, as now - that the figures had been carved by their ancestors.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32In the afternoon, Captain Cook felt a little better,
0:31:32 > 0:31:34so he too came ashore.
0:31:34 > 0:31:39And with him came Johann Forster's assistant - his son, Georg -
0:31:39 > 0:31:44and a young Polynesian lad, 18-year-old, who the expedition
0:31:44 > 0:31:46had brought with them from Tahiti,
0:31:46 > 0:31:493,000 miles away to the west.
0:31:49 > 0:31:51His name was Mahine,
0:31:51 > 0:31:55and he is to become a very important character in this story.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02We can get some idea of his personality from William Hodges'
0:32:02 > 0:32:04revealing portrait of him.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10Cook started to barter for food.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13The people seemed to him to be wretchedly impoverished.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16He couldn't imagine how they could have had the technology
0:32:16 > 0:32:19to erect and carve those gigantic stone statues.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22What they wanted mostly, it seemed,
0:32:22 > 0:32:24was cloth, for they were almost naked.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28In exchange, they offered small wooden figures.
0:32:28 > 0:32:32And Georg Forster describes those figures in considerable detail.
0:32:35 > 0:32:41There were several human figures made of narrow pieces of wood
0:32:41 > 0:32:44about 18 inches to two feet long,
0:32:44 > 0:32:48and wrought in a much neater and more proportionate manner
0:32:48 > 0:32:50than we could have expected,
0:32:50 > 0:32:54after seeing the rude sculpture of the statues.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58They were made to represent persons of both sexes
0:32:58 > 0:33:01and the features were not very pleasing,
0:33:01 > 0:33:04and the whole figure was much too long to be natural.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08However, there was something that was characteristic in them
0:33:08 > 0:33:11which showed a taste for the arts.
0:33:11 > 0:33:16The wood, of which they were made, was finally polished,
0:33:16 > 0:33:19close-grained and of a dark brown.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24I could hardly have hoped for a more accurate description
0:33:24 > 0:33:28of the St Petersburg figure, or indeed of mine.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34Cook and Forster apparently didn't think very much
0:33:34 > 0:33:36of these wooden carvings.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39But Mahine, the young Tahitian interpreter,
0:33:39 > 0:33:42thought they were rather good. Much better, he said,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45than the sort of thing they carved back home in Tahiti.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48Just the thing for mementos.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51So he bartered for and acquired several.
0:33:51 > 0:33:55And he also got an extraordinary wooden hand
0:33:55 > 0:33:57with extremely elongated fingernails.
0:34:01 > 0:34:05But Cook was in urgent need of more fresh water and food
0:34:05 > 0:34:07than the islanders could supply.
0:34:07 > 0:34:08So, after five days,
0:34:08 > 0:34:11he left and sailed back to Tahiti.
0:34:12 > 0:34:14Onboard ship, it seems that the naturalists,
0:34:14 > 0:34:17who had been charged with making representative collections
0:34:17 > 0:34:19of everything they found,
0:34:19 > 0:34:21rather regretted not collecting anything much
0:34:21 > 0:34:23from Easter Island.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27Johann Forster persuaded Mahine to give him the wooden hand.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30And on the return of the expedition, he presented that to
0:34:30 > 0:34:33the British Museum, where it now is.
0:34:33 > 0:34:37But Mahine wouldn't be parted from those wooden figures,
0:34:37 > 0:34:39much too long to be natural.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43So it seems likely that they got one of the ship's draughtsmen
0:34:43 > 0:34:46to draw a record of them.
0:34:46 > 0:34:49And that is the sheet that is now in the library in Sydney.
0:34:56 > 0:35:01Five weeks later, Cook's ships dropped anchor again in Tahiti.
0:35:02 > 0:35:07The expedition's scientists prepared to make astronomical observations,
0:35:07 > 0:35:10which were one of the main objectives of the voyage.
0:35:10 > 0:35:14William Hodges painted the magical scenery.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19And the crew, after so long at sea, rested and relaxed.
0:35:20 > 0:35:22And there Mahine left them,
0:35:22 > 0:35:26taking his mementos of Easter Island with him.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29Once again, it's Georg Forster in his journal who tells us
0:35:29 > 0:35:31what happened next.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37Old Mahine's relations - who were extremely numerous -
0:35:37 > 0:35:39expected presents as their due.
0:35:39 > 0:35:43As long as the generous youth had some of those riches left,
0:35:43 > 0:35:46which he had collected at the peril of his life
0:35:46 > 0:35:48on our dangerous and dismal cruise,
0:35:48 > 0:35:53he was perpetually importuned to share them out.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56And though he freely distributed all he had,
0:35:56 > 0:36:00some of his acquaintances complained that he was niggardly.
0:36:02 > 0:36:07So now, here was first-hand direct eyewitness evidence that
0:36:07 > 0:36:11the St Petersburg wooden figures had left Easter Island with Cook.
0:36:15 > 0:36:17But how could they have got to Russia?
0:36:21 > 0:36:24Well, in the first part of the 19th century,
0:36:24 > 0:36:28Russian explorers were very active in the Pacific.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32And 46 years after Cook had been in Tahiti,
0:36:32 > 0:36:35on the July 21st, 1820,
0:36:35 > 0:36:36the Russian Admiral Bellingshausen
0:36:36 > 0:36:39landed there in his ship, the Vostok.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46By now, European missionaries had converted the King of Tahiti
0:36:46 > 0:36:49and many of his subjects to Christianity,
0:36:49 > 0:36:53and their appetite for European things was huge.
0:36:54 > 0:36:58The king, Pomare, wanted, above anything else, European cloth.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01He pleaded so persuasively for it,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04offering all kinds of his own possessions in exchange,
0:37:04 > 0:37:07that Bellingshausen eventually had to surrender
0:37:07 > 0:37:09the sheets from his own bunk.
0:37:11 > 0:37:13On the last day of his visit,
0:37:13 > 0:37:15trading reached fever pitch,
0:37:15 > 0:37:18as Bellingshausen records in his journal.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22The king and all the other islanders arrived in the morning
0:37:22 > 0:37:26to do business and brought all sorts of handmade goods
0:37:26 > 0:37:28which we purchased
0:37:28 > 0:37:31and later placed in the Museum of the Imperial Admiralty.
0:37:34 > 0:37:36So, once again,
0:37:36 > 0:37:39the Museum of Ethnography in St Petersburg
0:37:39 > 0:37:40should have the answer.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48If Pomare had used the Easter Island figures for trade,
0:37:48 > 0:37:50then Bellingshausen must have, understandably,
0:37:50 > 0:37:53regarded them as part of his Tahitian collection.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56But did the museum receive the objects
0:37:56 > 0:37:58brought back by Bellingshausen?
0:37:58 > 0:37:59Yes, indeed.
0:38:01 > 0:38:06And here they still are in that big lot number 736.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12This is a pandanus mat.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15Mats are of great importance,
0:38:15 > 0:38:18they're almost sacred, in Polynesia.
0:38:18 > 0:38:22And in giving this, King Pomare was making a great gift.
0:38:22 > 0:38:24He offered it to Admiral Bellingshausen
0:38:24 > 0:38:26as a present to the Russian emperor,
0:38:26 > 0:38:29saying, rather disarmingly and modestly,
0:38:29 > 0:38:31"I'm sure you have better things,
0:38:31 > 0:38:36"but this is the work of my subjects and I offer it to you."
0:38:36 > 0:38:41And with it there's a superb Tahitian drum, a Tahitian God,
0:38:41 > 0:38:44a Tahitian coconut splitter
0:38:44 > 0:38:46and, in the same group,
0:38:46 > 0:38:49the two figures from Easter Island.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55Since King Pomare and many of his subjects were now Christian,
0:38:55 > 0:38:58it's hardly surprising that they were quite happy that
0:38:58 > 0:39:02some of their pagan idols, such as this, should be carried away
0:39:02 > 0:39:06by Admiral Bellingshausen, as well as the two odd figures that had
0:39:06 > 0:39:10been lying around on the island for the past 50 years.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14And what does this tell us about MY figure?
0:39:18 > 0:39:22It certainly has all the stylistic features of the one that
0:39:22 > 0:39:26I now knew for certain had been collected by Mahine.
0:39:26 > 0:39:30But could it be a deliberate copy made at some other time
0:39:30 > 0:39:32in some other place?
0:39:32 > 0:39:34Could it, in short, be a forgery?
0:39:41 > 0:39:44Well, in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew,
0:39:44 > 0:39:48there are scientists who can identify wood very precisely.
0:39:50 > 0:39:51And I took my figure there.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59The expert at doing this is Dr Paula Rudall.
0:39:59 > 0:40:01She took a tiny shaving from the figure
0:40:01 > 0:40:04and prepared it for examination under the microscope.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18We think it's made of wood from the toromiro tree, which of course
0:40:18 > 0:40:23is the only native hardwood tree on the island.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26We think that because we've cut sections of it from that fragment
0:40:26 > 0:40:31that we took from the carving and looked at the anatomical characters,
0:40:31 > 0:40:35and it matches our reference material in every respect.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38What kind of characters are those?
0:40:38 > 0:40:40Well, if you'd like to look at the slide,
0:40:40 > 0:40:45the sorts of things we're looking at are the thickness of the fibres.
0:40:45 > 0:40:50- You can see it's a very dense wood with very thick-walled fibres.- Yes.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53And those sorts of characters, together with the shape
0:40:53 > 0:40:57and size of the raise, which we look at in cross-section like this
0:40:57 > 0:40:59and also in longitudinal section.
0:40:59 > 0:41:03Those tell us the pattern of the wood and help us to identify it.
0:41:03 > 0:41:06And have you seen anything like that before?
0:41:06 > 0:41:08I mean, does it match anything in particular?
0:41:08 > 0:41:10Well, actually, yes,
0:41:10 > 0:41:12because we looked at the Easter Island hand
0:41:12 > 0:41:14from the British Museum fairly recently
0:41:14 > 0:41:18and it's a very close match to that, almost identical.
0:41:18 > 0:41:22So we can be fairly certain that they're the same wood.
0:41:22 > 0:41:25Well, that's wonderful news for me.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27Thank you very much.
0:41:31 > 0:41:35So now I knew that my figure must have come from Easter Island,
0:41:35 > 0:41:40for the toromiro tree grew nowhere else, and the islanders always
0:41:40 > 0:41:42preferred its dense hardwood for their carvings,
0:41:42 > 0:41:44if they could get it.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47But when did my figure leave the island?
0:41:47 > 0:41:51Could it possibly have been among those collected by Mai?
0:41:51 > 0:41:56Now another fact about toromiro wood becomes crucial.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59Not only did it grow nowhere else except on Easter Island,
0:41:59 > 0:42:03but over the decades it became rarer and rarer,
0:42:03 > 0:42:06and by 1956 all that was left
0:42:06 > 0:42:10was a single dying stump inside one of the craters.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17The islanders had run out of carvable toromiro wood
0:42:17 > 0:42:19long before that.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23And soon afterwards, even that lone survivor had died.
0:42:23 > 0:42:27Toromiro was extinct on the island.
0:42:28 > 0:42:33But photographs of the St Petersburg figure weren't published until 1973,
0:42:33 > 0:42:38so no Easter Islander in recent times could have been aware
0:42:38 > 0:42:41of the appearance of that strange figure.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43And by the time pictures did reach here,
0:42:43 > 0:42:46there was no toromiro wood from which to carve.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55The long trail of detection seemed to be over.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58The identity of the wood proved that my figure had been
0:42:58 > 0:43:01carved on Easter Island, and the similarity with the female figure
0:43:01 > 0:43:05in St Petersburg meant that it was either carved by someone
0:43:05 > 0:43:07familiar with the style of that figure,
0:43:07 > 0:43:11or that it was among those that Mahine had carried away with him.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15But if that was so, how could it have got from Tahiti to
0:43:15 > 0:43:18the United States, where, 200 years later,
0:43:18 > 0:43:20I found it in an auction room?
0:43:24 > 0:43:27That, at any rate, wasn't difficult to explain.
0:43:27 > 0:43:31During the 19th century, whaling ships from the United States
0:43:31 > 0:43:34were frequent visitors to Tahiti and Hawaii.
0:43:34 > 0:43:36It would have been easy enough for one of the sailors to
0:43:36 > 0:43:39have bought it in Tahiti and taken it back to America
0:43:39 > 0:43:43as a memento of his adventures in the Pacific.
0:43:44 > 0:43:48But two further questions remain to be asked.
0:43:48 > 0:43:52First, why were these extraordinary figures carved?
0:43:52 > 0:43:56And second, why were no more carved to replace those
0:43:56 > 0:44:00that Mahine took away with him on Cook's ship?
0:44:00 > 0:44:03To answer that we have to go back to Easter Island.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18When the first Polynesian colonists arrived 1,500 years ago,
0:44:18 > 0:44:21the island was thick with forests of palms.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26The palm trees gave them enough timber to build canoes,
0:44:26 > 0:44:29so they were able to fish way out to sea,
0:44:29 > 0:44:32and in first centuries after their arrival they were well fed -
0:44:32 > 0:44:34their numbers grew.
0:44:34 > 0:44:36By the 10th century there were enough of them
0:44:36 > 0:44:40to allow the people to indulge their taste for statuary,
0:44:40 > 0:44:44and celebrate their great men with the huge stone statues.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49It seems that the first colonisation, however,
0:44:49 > 0:44:50was something of a fluke.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54At any rate, no other colonists came from the Polynesian islands
0:44:54 > 0:44:57away to the west, and this extraordinary culture
0:44:57 > 0:45:01developed in its own amazing way in isolation.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09But one headland on the island supplies important evidence
0:45:09 > 0:45:12of the people's last cults and beliefs.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23I'm at the south-west corner of the island
0:45:23 > 0:45:27on the top a 1,000-foot-high cliff.
0:45:27 > 0:45:31And purely by chance, Captain Cook happened to have landed
0:45:31 > 0:45:34at a beach only a little way up the coast.
0:45:34 > 0:45:39And up here there are the remains of 50-odd stone houses
0:45:39 > 0:45:42that were once a great ritual centre.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51This is the sacred village of Orongo.
0:45:51 > 0:45:53Its site is dramatic indeed.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06From the few surviving traditions, we have some idea
0:46:06 > 0:46:09of the beliefs of those early Easter Islanders.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13Not surprisingly for a people who were imprisoned in a tiny island
0:46:13 > 0:46:15thousands of miles away from anywhere,
0:46:15 > 0:46:17they worshipped birds,
0:46:17 > 0:46:21that had such an enviable freedom of the skies.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24And in particular, judging from these carvings on the rocks,
0:46:24 > 0:46:26they worshipped the frigatebird,
0:46:26 > 0:46:29that still has the freedom of these skies.
0:46:30 > 0:46:34They were perhaps the more mysterious, the most sacred
0:46:34 > 0:46:37because the islanders never saw them come down from the skies.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39The frigates never nested on the island,
0:46:39 > 0:46:43and they got their food by stealing it from other birds in the air.
0:46:43 > 0:46:45No wonder the marooned islanders thought them
0:46:45 > 0:46:48magical and imbued with power.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52And among those carvings of supernatural birds,
0:46:52 > 0:46:57occasionally, a staring mask with goggling eyes,
0:46:57 > 0:47:02which the islanders say represent the creator spirit Makemake.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08Just offshore from Orongo lie three small rocky islets
0:47:08 > 0:47:10that were especially valuable to the people,
0:47:10 > 0:47:14for there, boobies and terns regularly nested
0:47:14 > 0:47:15in considerable numbers.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20The birds arrived in September,
0:47:20 > 0:47:23and their appearance was a sign of the renewal of fertility -
0:47:23 > 0:47:27when fresh food - eggs - became available once more.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31Every year, each chief sponsored a youth in a race
0:47:31 > 0:47:34to collect the first egg.
0:47:34 > 0:47:36The youths swam across,
0:47:36 > 0:47:38supporting themselves on rafts of reeds.
0:47:38 > 0:47:40And the first to collect an egg
0:47:40 > 0:47:44swam back carrying the egg in a headband.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51Daringly, he climbed up these huge cliffs.
0:47:54 > 0:47:59He raced up this slope, carrying the egg and presented it to
0:47:59 > 0:48:00his sponsor - the Great Man -
0:48:00 > 0:48:05who waited for him inside one of these huts.
0:48:05 > 0:48:07And as he presented the egg to him,
0:48:07 > 0:48:11so that Great Man became sacred - taboo.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15For the next year, he would live in seclusion.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18He wouldn't feed himself - that would be done by an attendant.
0:48:18 > 0:48:21He didn't cut his hair, he didn't cut his fingernails,
0:48:21 > 0:48:24which grew to an extraordinary length.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28He was the representative on earth of Makemake,
0:48:28 > 0:48:31the great creator god - the god of fertility.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37His clan now ruled for the next year.
0:48:37 > 0:48:41And he himself remained magically powerful for the rest of his life.
0:48:43 > 0:48:47When he died his body was buried on a platform in his clan's territory
0:48:47 > 0:48:50and a stone figure put up in his memory
0:48:50 > 0:48:54to stand alongside those of his predecessors,
0:48:54 > 0:48:57so he continued to gaze over the land that was once his
0:48:57 > 0:49:02and protect it with his mana - his supernatural power.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07Now, the meaning of those elongated fingernails becomes clear.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11They were as he grew them during his year of sacred power.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33But that extraordinary culture didn't last.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36And this barren landscape explains why.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40As the numbers of people grew,
0:49:40 > 0:49:43so they started to cut down the forest that had once covered
0:49:43 > 0:49:47their island, in order to make fields in order to grow crops.
0:49:48 > 0:49:53When they cut down the last tree, they lost the timber
0:49:53 > 0:49:55to make oceangoing canoes.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58The people were marooned on their island.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09Nonetheless, their numbers continued to grow.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13Soon they had far outstripped the land's capacity to feed them all,
0:50:13 > 0:50:18and, faced with starvation, warfare broke out.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22One clan attacked another and overturned the great stone statues
0:50:22 > 0:50:25to which they thought their rivals owed their power.
0:50:25 > 0:50:31And by 1774 the population had reached the depths of poverty
0:50:31 > 0:50:35and wretchedness in which Cook found them.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45The past glories of their culture were eventually forgotten.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48Destitute and quarrelling among themselves over dwindling
0:50:48 > 0:50:52supplies of food, they no longer worked together in teams to carve
0:50:52 > 0:50:55and transport the giant stone statues.
0:50:55 > 0:50:58Perhaps by now they had even forgotten how to do so.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06Eventually, even the birdman ceremonies were abandoned.
0:51:06 > 0:51:08The cult houses up here at Orongo,
0:51:08 > 0:51:12where once the sacred chiefs had lived, surrounded by ritual
0:51:12 > 0:51:16and hidden from the eyes of the common people, now stood deserted.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22When Cook arrived and started to barter, what more likely
0:51:22 > 0:51:26than that the islanders should have gone up to the cliffs
0:51:26 > 0:51:27immediately behind the beach,
0:51:27 > 0:51:32anxious to get things to exchange for Cook's cloth and nails,
0:51:32 > 0:51:36and gathered up the last remaining figures, the wooden figures,
0:51:36 > 0:51:40that lay outmoded and discarded in the cult houses?
0:51:41 > 0:51:45That would explain why no more exist today.
0:51:45 > 0:51:47The islanders didn't carve any replacements
0:51:47 > 0:51:50because the cults were out of fashion.
0:51:50 > 0:51:55And no models remained on the island for future generations to copy.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58But what did these figures actually represent?
0:52:04 > 0:52:08The wooden hand, with its enormously elongated fingers, clearly relates
0:52:08 > 0:52:11in some way to the rituals connected with the great chiefs
0:52:11 > 0:52:13with their uncut fingernails.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20The birdman in St Petersburg is the frigatebird god,
0:52:20 > 0:52:22with its characteristic hooked beak,
0:52:22 > 0:52:25whose image is carved all over the rocks at Orongo.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39And the figure in the British Museum represents
0:52:39 > 0:52:41a man in a bird mask,
0:52:41 > 0:52:44perhaps a priest dancing to honour the frigatebird god.
0:52:51 > 0:52:53And what of these two human figures?
0:52:53 > 0:52:56Made to represent both sexes,
0:52:56 > 0:52:58as Georg Forster described them,
0:52:58 > 0:53:01"About 18 inches to two feet long.
0:53:01 > 0:53:03"Much too long to be natural,
0:53:03 > 0:53:06"and wrought in a much neater and more proportionate manner than
0:53:06 > 0:53:10"we could have expected after seeing the rude sculpture of the statues."
0:53:14 > 0:53:17Well, there are a number of odd things about both of them
0:53:17 > 0:53:21that set them apart from all other surviving figures.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24Their eyes are not set in eye-shaped sockets like those
0:53:24 > 0:53:28of the giant stone statues or the wooden starving men.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31They're circular, surrounded with a ring.
0:53:31 > 0:53:32And they protrude,
0:53:32 > 0:53:36just like the mask of Makemake engraved on the rocks at Orongo.
0:53:38 > 0:53:39And the hands.
0:53:39 > 0:53:42The female's body is so worn that you can't see them,
0:53:42 > 0:53:44but on the male figure they're still plain -
0:53:44 > 0:53:48hugely elongated, as by now you might expect,
0:53:48 > 0:53:51but with not five but six fingers.
0:53:54 > 0:53:58And an unhuman-like number of fingers elsewhere in Polynesia
0:53:58 > 0:54:00is used to indicate a god.
0:54:03 > 0:54:04So now I knew.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09The goggling eyes and the six-fingered hands made it
0:54:09 > 0:54:13clear that this figure represents a supernatural being.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17And the resemblance of its face to the mask with the staring eyes
0:54:17 > 0:54:23engraved on the rocks of Orongo suggest that this is Makemake.
0:54:23 > 0:54:27If that is so, then this is the most complete image of him
0:54:27 > 0:54:29to have survived.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34Doubtless, when the people looked at their barren fields
0:54:34 > 0:54:36on their once-fertile island
0:54:36 > 0:54:38they had stripped of its trees,
0:54:38 > 0:54:40they thought he had deserted them.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45So they could have had little hesitation in exchanging
0:54:45 > 0:54:48his image with Captain Cook and Mahine for some nails
0:54:48 > 0:54:50and a few strips of cloth.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55But in fact, of course, it was they who had betrayed him.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19After the film was shown, I got a telephone call
0:55:19 > 0:55:23from an anthologist friend of mine,
0:55:23 > 0:55:28who said that there were two French anthropologists,
0:55:28 > 0:55:32the Orliacs, husband and wife,
0:55:32 > 0:55:36who were THE experts on wooden sculptures -
0:55:36 > 0:55:38as against the big stone things -
0:55:38 > 0:55:40the wooden sculptures from Easter Island.
0:55:40 > 0:55:44And they would very much like to come and see this figure.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47Would I agree to show it to them?
0:55:47 > 0:55:51I have to say that I had some inhibitions.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54I thought they're going to come along and they're going to say,
0:55:54 > 0:55:56"Oh, yes. Well, it's interesting,
0:55:56 > 0:56:00"but it's not really old," or something.
0:56:00 > 0:56:02And there were things I was worried about.
0:56:02 > 0:56:07I mean, it's quite light up here where it's obviously been handled,
0:56:07 > 0:56:10but here it is rather dark, and I didn't know
0:56:10 > 0:56:14if that was something a forger had put on it or something.
0:56:14 > 0:56:17Anyway, the two French experts came up,
0:56:17 > 0:56:20and I give it to them,
0:56:20 > 0:56:25and Michel Orliac took it,
0:56:25 > 0:56:28and he took in his hands like this,
0:56:28 > 0:56:33and he started looking at it, and he didn't say anything.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37And it seemed like an age,
0:56:37 > 0:56:40and I was wondering what on earth he was thinking.
0:56:40 > 0:56:46And eventually he said, "The Easter Islanders
0:56:46 > 0:56:49"painted their figures,
0:56:49 > 0:56:54"and they used a brown paint or they used a black paint.
0:56:54 > 0:57:00"And the black was reserved for THE most important
0:57:00 > 0:57:02"and sacred figures,
0:57:02 > 0:57:04"and yours is black.
0:57:06 > 0:57:12"And it has all the characteristics of at least
0:57:12 > 0:57:16"the early 18th century, if not earlier.
0:57:16 > 0:57:22"And this is one of the earliest figures from Easter Island
0:57:22 > 0:57:24"in private hands,
0:57:24 > 0:57:28"and probably one of the earliest wooden figures known."
0:57:30 > 0:57:32So that was a huge relief.
0:57:32 > 0:57:37And confirmed everything I could have wished.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40And I only wish I could find another.