A previously unknown sculpture of a moai, a stone idol for which the island is famous, was discovered on Easter Island.. It was found at the bottom of a dried-up lake, according to Live Science..

“We think we know about all the moai, but then there are new, new discoveries,” said Terry Hunt of the University of Arizona..

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At the moment, about 1000 moai are known.. A new statue was found in an unexpected place: at the bottom of Lake Rano Raraku. For a long time, water filled the volcanic crater until climate change caused the lake to dry up.. According to reports, in 2018 it almost completely dried up..

Moai, whose torsos are buried underground, are known for their carved heads and " The dimensions of such idols are enormous: the height of the largest statue, known as Moai Paro, is 10 meters and weighs 90 tons.. But the new statue is smaller than most of its "

Locals built such statues for about 500 years, between the 13th and 18th centuries..

The new discovery is good news as several moai have been damaged in recent years. So, in October, a fire, which is associated with arson, led to the fact that many stone idols were burned.. In 2020, a local resident damaged one of them with a pickup truck, "

Previously, scientists said that the main theory of the decline of the civilization of Easter Island may be a myth.. The researchers built four models, none of which supported the idea that the island's population experienced a demographic crisis prior to the arrival of Europeans..