The Lost Gods of Easter Island

Today on Far Future Horizons we present The Lost Gods of Easter Island a BBC documentary written and presented by David Attenborough. It explores the history of the civilization of the remote Easter islands. It was first aired on BBC television in the year 2000 and is part of the Attenborough in Paradise and Other Personal Voyages Collection of seven documentaries.

In this fascinating documentary David Attenborough embarks on a personal quest to uncover the history of a strange wooden figurine carving which turned up in an auction room in New York during the 1980s.

The auction catalogue indicated that the carving was from Easter Island and the auctioneers told him that the sculpture had come from a junk-shop dealer in Pennsylvania. He knew that the, "grotesque head, attached to a body grossly elongated and as thin as a stick," was more important than the auctioneers believed it to be and had such presence and power that he bought it. He began an investigation to trace the origins of the artefact Thus began an investigation that spans the globe and leads him on voyages to Russia, Australia, England, the Pacific, a Tahiti beach and finally to one of the most remote places on earth- Easter Island.

This is David Attenborough’s fifteen year personal detective story that combines art, anthropology, and history which traces the origin of the carving and in doing so tells the story of a forgotten civilization and of a people who inhabited one of the most remote places on Earth.

This fascinating documentary is available on DVD in the United States through Amazon.com and the United Kingdom from Amazon.co.uk. as part of the Attenborough in Paradise and Other Personal Voyages Collection.

The Lost Gods of Easter Island

Lost Gods of Easter by David Attenborough by Channel1859
Copyright Disclaimer Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.