Overview
- The team led by Carl Lipo and Terry Hunt proposes that statues were moved upright using alternating rope pulls to rock them forward in a zigzag motion.
- In a field test, 18 people moved a 4.35‑ton replica about 100 meters in 40 minutes using the technique.
- A physical model reproduced the mechanics, with the authors saying the physics matches their observations and improves with larger forms.
- Concave, meter‑scale roadways leading from quarries to sites with stranded statues, plus the statues’ unfinished bases and fall patterns, align with upright transport.
- The peer‑reviewed findings appear in the Journal of Archaeological Science (2025, DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2025.106383) and the authors argue the method fits limited‑resource constraints and oral accounts, while remaining a hypothesis.