Ancient reptilian statues on the island of Nuku Hiva. Nuku Hiva Island - ancient reptilian statues Legends about the origin of Nuku Hiva
In many places on our planet, archaeologists find unusual artifacts that do not reveal the mysteries of history, but only increase their number. One of these artifacts is strange statues of the island of Nuku Hiva, which have no analogues on Earth.
Looking at them, you involuntarily think about what kind of wild imagination could create these mysterious creatures. Or perhaps alien reptilians who once visited the island served as models for ancient sculptures?
The quadrangular island of Nuku Hiva (formerly Madison) is an atoll with an area of 330 square kilometers, its length is 30 kilometers and its width is 15 kilometers. It is the largest island of the Marquesas archipelago of French Polynesia.
Nuku Hiva literally means “Majestic Island”, and this is quite justified. The nature here is incredibly beautiful. Lush greenery coexists with mountainous heights; in the warm ocean waters, a diverse, colorful underwater world stuns the imagination of even the most experienced traveler.
This natural picture is complemented by two extinct volcanoes surrounded by pointed rocks. The crater of one of them filled with water, something like this can rarely be seen. Plus, there are no natural disasters or rainy seasons. Just heaven on Earth. We can say that Nuku Hiva is a sparsely populated island. Just over 2 thousand residents live here permanently.
FROM THE DEPTH OF CENTURIES
In the middle of the last century, American archaeologists conducted excavations on the island. Based on them, it was established that the first inhabitants appeared here back in 150 AD. e. They arrived from the island of Samoa, then they gradually colonized New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Tahiti and Hawaii.
The population was mainly engaged in pottery and stone processing. That is why the island already had stone houses, famous tiki sculptures and other structures on the island in 1100.
Centuries passed, the population of the island grew at a tremendous pace. By the time the first Europeans appeared on Nuku Hiva, about 100 thousand inhabitants lived on this small piece of land in the middle of the ocean. During the existence of Nuku Hiva, there were attempts to capture the island by the Americans, but they were unsuccessful.
In 1842, the island became part of France, and construction of the Catholic Cathedral began at the same time. But, even despite the constant visits of missionaries, Christianity took root here with difficulty. In addition, the population of the island gradually decreased. Intertribal wars claimed many lives. In addition, Europeans brought diseases here to which the natives had no immunity.
Thus, in 1863, about 1 thousand people died as a result of a smallpox epidemic. Peruvian slave traders replenished the supply of slaves here, and in 1883, opium brought by the Chinese finally “solved” the demographic problem. And in 1934, only about 600 people remained on the island.
Like any other people, the local population has a legend about the origin of Nuku Hiva. According to her, the god Ono boasted to his wife that he would build a house in just one day. To do this, he collected all the earth and created islands from it, each of which corresponded to a specific part of the house. Nuku Hiva in this design was the roof. Ono collected the remains of the land into a heap - thus creating the island of Ua-Huka, now located east of Nuku Hiva.
GOURMIES OF NUKU KHIVA
Since such a small piece of land was densely populated, the problem of food was perhaps the most important. Mostly the aborigines ate plant foods: breadfruit, bananas, cassava, etc. It is clear that protein was always in short supply. Even the fish that could be caught in ocean waters were not enough to feed so many mouths. Not to mention pigs and chickens; even dogs were not disdained here.
This may be why, according to scientists, many local tribes practiced cannibalism. More often to replenish protein in the diet than for ritual ceremonies. But the latter cannot be discounted either. The inhabitants of the island appeased the sea deity Ika, bringing him human sacrifices.
The unfortunate person was caught on a hook like a fish, and then he was tied up and hung on a tree above the altar. They didn’t touch the victim for a while, and then they started beating him on the head with a baton until his brains were knocked out.
And some scientists believe that eating their own kind was necessary only for women and children
for food. The men of the tribe thus appropriated the strength of the defeated enemy. For the same purpose, they collected the skulls of people they had eaten.
ALIENS
It would seem that there is nothing special in Nuku Hiva: beautiful nature, exotic local customs - everything is like on other Polynesian islands. Only on this island there is the village of Temehea Tohua, next to which there are several unique sculptures that have no analogues in the world.
Presumably the sculptures are stone deities of the ancient Polynesians, dating back to the 11th-14th centuries. Actually, are there not enough stone idols on Earth? Only tiki idols, as they are called, are special. They all have a strange appearance.
It seems that ancient sculptors carved clearly non-earthly inhabitants from stone. The creatures immortalized in stone had bodies with bulging bellies, large oblong heads, on which huge eyes stood out.
And they were dressed in clothes very similar to spacesuits. Scientists have not yet been able to figure out what it is: the figment of the imagination of a crazy sculptor or the impression of an encounter with alien creatures. But even the most skeptical researchers are sure that there is nothing human in these statues.
Meanwhile, the tics are very reminiscent of the descriptions of guests from deep space that our contemporaries met. It turns out that the residents of Nuku Hiva saw them too? And they didn’t just see, but fell under their power if they were revered as deities and worshiped.
The largest sculpture is 2.5 meters in height. Not a single sculpture repeats another; each depicts a specific deity. Local residents are still convinced that tiki carry the power of the depicted god. One helps in military affairs, the second saves from trouble, the third contributes to a rich harvest, etc.
Those who subscribe to the alien theory believe that different groups of aliens served as models for tiki. Some sculptures look like reptilians- the most ancient and evil, according to ufologists, creatures in the Universe. By the way, their civilization reached a high level of development, and its representatives could easily control people. This is about tiki worship.
Another group of sculptures, the same ufologists believe, depicts “gray aliens.” They vaguely resemble a person with a frail body, thin arms and a huge head. Only the disproportionately large eyes and mouths give them away as alien creatures.
It is believed that reptilians first appeared on the island. They were able to enslave people, force them to worship, become deities for them. And then they created “gray aliens”, using them as slaves. That is why the sculptures are so different from each other.
But all these are just assumptions, fantasies and conjectures. And who knows whether humanity will ever be able to unravel the mystery of the idols of the island of Nuku Hiva.
Galina MINIKOVA
Temehea Tohua is located on the island of Nuku Hiva, which is the largest atoll in the Marquesas Islands archipelago in French Polynesia.
On this unique island there are perhaps the most outlandish statues ever seen by man. Some ancient sculptures depict creatures that appear to be aliens. And everyone who comes to this earth wants to solve the riddle: who are they - the fruit of the sculptor’s wild imagination or something that really descended from the distant wastelands of space to this island?
At first glance, they seem to be simply “big statues”, but upon closer examination you notice more and more interesting features: unusually large eyes, massive elongated heads, puny/huge bodies and other attributes, the presence of which raises bewilderment regarding the origin of the “models” that inspired the creator of these sculptures.
Nuku Hiva is the largest island of the Marquesas archipelago in French Polynesia and an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The atoll was previously known as Madison Island.
Herman Melville wrote the book Typee, which is based on his experiences in the Taipiwai Valley in the eastern part of the island of Nuku Hiva. Robert Louis Stevenson's first landing during his 1888 Casco expedition took place in the area of Hatihoi, located in the northern part of Nuku Hiva. Nuku Hiva also became the next location for filming the 4th season of the American reality show “Survivors,” which took place throughout the Marquesas archipelago.
Nuku Hiva Island Warrior, 1813
In ancient times, Nuku Hiva was divided into two regions: more than 2/3 of the island was occupied by the province of Te Li, and the rest belonged to the Tai Pi community.
Recent research shows that the first settlers arrived here 2,000 years ago, arriving from Samoa, and then colonizing Tahiti, Hawaii, the Cook Islands and New Zealand. Legends say that the all-creating deity Ono promised a wife to the one who built a house in a day, and by gathering together the earth, he created islands, calling them parts of the house.
Thus, the island of Nuku Hiva is considered a “roof”. And he piled up everything that remained unused, forming the Ua Huka hill. For centuries, the population of this island increased, and at such a pace that by the time the first European arrived on this land, it ranged from 50 to 100 thousand inhabitants on this small piece of land in the middle of the ocean.
Of course, food was of primary importance here. The basis of the diet was breadfruit, as well as taro, bananas and cassava. As for protein products, fish dominated here, although its quantity was limited, given the number of people it needed to feed. Pigs, chickens, and dogs were also the object of the culinary preferences of the island's inhabitants.
Breadfruit
There is still scientific debate about why so many Polynesian tribes practiced cannibalism. According to one theory, eating one's own kind was more likely to compensate for protein deficiency in the diet than to serve for ritual ceremonies. However, cannibalism played a large role for ritual purposes. Thus, the sacrifice made to the sea deity Ika was “caught” in the same way as a fish, and hung by a hook above the altar like an underwater inhabitant.
The one who was to become a victim of the sacred ritual was tied up and hung from a tree for a certain time, after which his brains were knocked out with a club. It is believed that women and children engaged in cannibalism only for food, while male warriors sacrificed to deities and ate enemies defeated in battle to gain their strength. For the same purpose, they kept the skulls of their defeated enemies.
“Majestic land in the middle of the water” - this is how the name of the island of Nuku Hiva is translated from the local dialect, and one can only guess about the essence of the “majesty” of the island.
The panorama of the island from an airplane leaves no doubt about its volcanic origin. The volcanoes that once rose above the water and created the island have long been extinct, and their craters have collapsed.
Geography
Nuku Hiva is located in the Northern group of the Marquesas Islands, it is the largest island of the entire archipelago. It is located almost in the center of the Pacific Ocean, at a considerable distance from the continents. And even from Papeete - the capital of French Polynesia, of which it is part - it is separated by one and a half thousand kilometers. Scattered throughout the island are basalt cliffs several hundred meters high, forming the Tovia plateau, overgrown with tall grass. They remind you that Nuku Hiva, like everything else, is of volcanic origin. The top of the highest mountain - Tekao - is the highest point of the cone of a huge extinct volcano. It appeared 2-5 million years ago, forming an island; since then its activity has gradually decreased.
Although the island is located in the tropics, eastern winds prevail here; they do not bring humid air masses, so drought on the island is not uncommon.
Story
Nuku Hiva is one of the few islands in this area of the Pacific Ocean where the date of arrival of people from Samoa to the island has been precisely established. Archaeological excavations definitely point to 150 AD. These people also brought with them pottery, which had already been widespread on the islands of Samoa and Tonga. Nuku Hiva became one of the main centers of civilization in Eastern Polynesia.
For almost a thousand years - until 1100 - people settled on the island, which turned out to be not at all easy. Archaeologists were able to trace how gradually the local residents were able to master the technique of processing stone, which they used in the construction of housing, leaving huts made of palm leaves.
The period from 1100 to 1400 is the heyday of stone construction: during these three centuries, most of the stone structures on the island were built. These include the world famous tiki sculptures.
The first known Western traveler to land on the island and describe it was the American Joseph Ingram. In April 1791, his ship reached the shores of the island, and thanks to him the island was put on maps. Only a few months behind Ingram was the Frenchman Etienne Marchand, who came to his shores in the same year.
Subsequently, the island was used by ships of sandalwood traders, whalers and adventurers, who replenished water and food supplies on Nuku Hiva. In 1804, Nuku Hiva was visited by the Russian traveler Admiral Ivan Krusenstern.
Relations with the local population were not easy. In 1826, the Russian expeditionary sloop “Krotkiy” approached the island. The visit ended with the natives killing a midshipman and two sailors and ritually eating their bodies.
The islanders began to abandon cannibalism only after the first Catholic missionaries appeared on Nuku Hiva in 1839. In 1842, when France captured the island, the population was 12 thousand people.
Then the usual story for the islands of Oceania of that period happened: Europeans brought smallpox to Nuku Hiva, against which the natives had no immunity, and they died en masse. The population declined due to the activities of Peruvian slave traders who took people to South America, as well as due to the spread of opium, brought here by the Chinese in 1883.
And so it turned out that by 1934 the population of Nuku Hiva was only 635 people.
Currently, the island is part of the overseas community of France.
The island of Nuku Hiva ended up in the very center of the Pacific Ocean, which some researchers believe is sufficient reason to consider it an ancient alien spaceport.
The presence of aliens on Nuku Hiva has not yet been proven, but the real “aliens” - European sailors - left behind diseases that almost made the island completely extinct.
Nuku Hiva is the main island of the commune of the same name in the Marquesas Islands, which includes four other islands: Motu Iti, Motu One, Hatutu and Eiao. The capital of the commune and the island is the city of Taioahae, located on the southern coast, near the bay of the same name. This bay is part of an ancient volcanic crater that has partially collapsed and its wall has slid into the ocean. The town appeared and grew on the site of an old fort, which the French built, fearing not an attack from the sea, but an attack by the natives: local tribes fought endless bloody wars.
In addition to the capital, there are two more very small villages on the island - Taipivai and Hatiheu.
Nuku Hiva is the most populous island of the Marquesas archipelago with a population of only 3 thousand people. (the result of smallpox epidemics). But at the same time, the population density is one of the lowest in all of French Polynesia: the size of the island affects it.
At different times, the population of the island fluctuated, and this sometimes depended on the most unexpected factors. So, in the first half of the 19th century. Peruvian slave traders began to take the islanders to South America and sell them on plantations. But the Catholic Church intervened and managed to return to the island those slaves who were still alive. However, when they returned to Nuku Hiva, it turned out that they had brought typhus with them.
The islanders speak both the language of the metropolis - French, and the dialects of the Northern Marquesas Islands, which surprise with a small number of consonants.
The local population lives, as hundreds of years ago, on subsidiary farming. Breadfruit, taro, cassava, coconuts and many types of fruits are grown.
The French authorities tried to raise cattle here, since there was plenty of grass on the Tovia plateau. But the islanders did not know how to care for the pigs; many animals ran away and went wild. Nowadays wild pigs are hunted with guns. Pigs are also raised in households, but not many, preferring goats. They go to sea to fish; the catches here are plentiful.
The island of Nuku Hiva is of great interest not only to archaeologists, but also to ufologists searching for possible traces of alien civilizations on Earth.
On the island there is an extraordinary collection of stone sculptures - tiki, installed in the 11th-14th centuries. For many years, scientists have been struggling with the mystery, trying to determine what or who these pot-bellied creatures with elongated heads, flattened noses, protruding jaws, ear-to-ear mouths, turned-out lips and huge eyes represent. The “little men” froze in different poses, and the ancient masters captured them at the moment of expressing a certain feeling: amazement, thoughtfulness, ridicule, contempt...
The statues are presented in groups, carved on one side of a stone block, or they are free-standing sculptures 2.5 m in height. No sculpture is the same as another. But all with some common features: a large head, mouth, eyes... Due to their external resemblance to reptiles, these creatures were nicknamed reptilians.
The creatures really resemble aliens - as they are presented on the pages of ufological publications. These sculptures have no analogues in the world.
Locals worship tiki statues and believe that they grant wishes if you treat them with respect.
general information
Location: center of the Pacific Ocean.Administrative affiliation: Nuku Hiva commune, Marquesas Islands, overseas community, France.
Administrative center: Taioahae city - 2132 people. (2012).
Other settlements: the villages of Taipivai - 464 people (2012) and Hatiheu - 370 people. (2012).
Languages: French and Tahitian - official, dialects of Northern Marquesan and Tai Pi.
Ethnic composition: Polynesians - 92.6%, French - 5.6%, others - 1.8% (2002).
Religion: Catholicism.
Currency unit: French Pacific franc.
Numbers
Length: 30 km.Width: 15 km.
Area: 387 km2.
Population: 2966 people. (2012).
Population density: 7.7 people/km 2 .
Highest point: Mount Tekao (1224 m).
Distance: 1500 km. northeast of Papeete (Tahiti, capital of French Polynesia), 4800 km west of North America (Mexico).
Climate and weather
Equatorial marine.Average annual temperature: +26 - +27°С.
Average annual precipitation: about 1300 mm.
Relative humidity: 70%.
Economy
Agriculture: crop farming (breadfruit, taro, cassava, coconut palm, fruits), livestock farming (goats, pigs).Marine fishing.
Services sector: tourism.
Attractions
Natural
Clark, Lawson, Jean Gogel seamounts, Towii Plateau, Mount Tekao, Waipo Falls, Te Henua Wilderness, Muake Hill (864 m).
Historical
Tiki statues (XI-XIV centuries), petroglyphs.
Ethnographic
The settlements of Uaa and Taipiwai.
Cult
Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady and church in the village of Anaho.
Curious facts
■ Unlike most islands in French Polynesia, Nuku Hiva, like all the Marquesas Islands, is not surrounded by a protective coral barrier reef.■ A detailed description of the island and the customs of the local population was left by the American writer Herman Melville (1819-1891), author of the classic novel Moby Dick. From the age of 18 he sailed the seas on a packet boat. In 1841, Melville sailed on the whaling ship Acushnet to the South Seas. Here he quarreled with the boatswain, escaped from the ship and was captured by the natives of Nuku Hiva. He lived on the island until he was liberated by the crew of an American warship. Melville described his life on the island in the novel Typee, or a Quick Look at Polynesian Life (1846), which brought him immediate fame.
■ In the 19th century. France declared the island a “deportation zone”: according to the law of 1850, especially dangerous criminals accused of attempting to assassinate the king (this was Napoleon III, the last monarch of France), and subsequently the President of France, as well as those with weapons in hands against the French authorities. The most famous exile on the island is the republican Louis Langomasino, a participant in the Lyon Conspiracy of 1850 against Napoleon III.
■ The island of Nuku Hiva was mistakenly “rediscovered” several times, and each traveler called it by its own name. That's why on old maps the island is called Marchand or Madison.
■ Waipo Falls, flowing down the slope of Mount Takeo, is the largest in Polynesia (outside New Zealand and Hawaii). Its height is 350 m.
■ Zoologists have established that the wild pigs of the island of Nuku Hiva appeared as a result of natural crossing of the Polynesian pig, brought here by the first settlers, and the wild boar brought by Europeans.
■ The island of Nuku Hiva appears in the novel “Paris in the 20th Century” by the French science fiction writer Jules Verne, created in 1860. Describing the world of the future, as he imagined it, a hundred years later, in 1960, Jules Verne writes, that Nuku Hiva will become one of the world's leading exchange centers on a par with London, Berlin, New York and Sydney.
■ After excavating the site of ancient settlements on the island, archaeologists suggested that its population several centuries ago ranged from 50 to 100 thousand people.
■ According to European Union legislation, French Polynesia, and with it the island of Nuku Hiva, was to be included in the EU along with France. But in 2002, France achieved a 20-year moratorium on the inclusion of the FP in the EU, thus preventing foreign investment in the islands' economy and wanting to keep them exclusively for themselves.
■ Ufologists claim that reptilians are the most ancient and evil creatures in the Galaxy.
Nuku Hiva Island is the largest atoll of the Marquesas Islands archipelago in French Polynesia, formerly called Madison.
On the territory of this unique island is the town of Temehea Tohua with some of the most outlandish statues that man has ever seen. Some of the ancient sculptures are sculptures of creatures reminiscent of aliens. Many researchers wondered whether they were the fruit of the wild imagination of their creators or whether mysterious creatures from deep space really visited this island.
At first glance these are just “big statues”, but upon closer inspection more and more interesting features begin to appear, causing confusion about the “models” that served as inspiration for the sculptors. Among them are massive and elongated heads, large eyes, huge and frail bodies.
The experience of staying in the Taipiwai Valley in the eastern region of the island of Nuku Hiva can be found in the book “Turee”, written by Herman Melville. In 1888, during an expedition to Casco, the atoll was visited by Robert Louis Stevenson, who landed in the northern region of the island called Hatikhoi. Season 4 of the American reality show “Survivors” was also filmed on Nuku Hiva.
In ancient times, the island of Nuku Hiva was divided into two regions: the province of Te Li (more than 2/3 of the territory) and Tai Pi.
Legends mention the creator god Ono, who promised his wife that he would build a house in one day. To do this, he gathered the land together and created islands that became parts of it - Nuku Hiva was the roof, and from the unused land the island of Ua Huka was created.
The first settlers arrived on Nuku Hiva from Samoa about 2,000 years ago. They later colonized New Zealand, the Cook Islands and Tahiti in Hawaii.
By the time Europeans arrived on the island, its population, according to various estimates, ranged from 50 to 100 thousand people. Most of the diet consisted of breadfruit, bananas, taro and cassava. There weren’t enough protein products for everyone; it was mainly fish, although the island’s inhabitants also ate pigs, dogs and chickens.
There is still debate in the scientific community regarding the origins of cannibalism, which was practiced by many Polynesian tribes. There is a theory that in this way the protein deficiency was compensated, although basically, eating people was of a ritual nature. For example, a sacrifice for the sea deity Ika was “caught” in the same way as a fish, and then hung above the altar on a hook.
The victim of the sacred ritual hung from a tree for some time, and then his brains were knocked out with a club. It is believed that for women and children, cannibalism served only as food, while male warriors ate defeated opponents to gain their strength. For this, they also preserved their skulls.
Materials
2 January 2014, 16:59There are a great many mysterious places and amazing ancient monuments on Earth, but most of them still remain mysterious and unexplored.
One of these places is a village called Temehea Tohua, which is located on the island of Nuku Hiva. It is noteworthy that it is the largest atoll in French Polynesia in the Marquesas archipelago.
This stunningly beautiful island is home to some of the strangest and most mysterious statues in the world. These statues mostly resemble aliens from deep space or parallel worlds, but who do they really represent? Perhaps these statues are nothing more than a figment of the artist’s extremely developed imagination, or maybe the ancient inhabitants of these lands tried to capture unknown creatures that once visited our planet?
At first glance it may seem that these are just large statues. However, upon closer examination, interesting details are revealed: large eyes, huge elongated heads, strikingly different body sizes of individual statues, and other features that make you wonder: Who or what inspired the sculptor to carve such inhuman features?
Some researchers claim that these statues depict the ancient alien race of reptilians.
It is interesting that many of the statues are depicted in family groups, women often with children.
And these, apparently, are the males of these creatures:
Reptilians have often been at the center of conspiracy theorist debates, in which they were credited with the ability to manipulate people and control their behavior. It is believed that the reptilians are a very evil, and, nevertheless, the most highly developed alien civilization in our galaxy. Could the Temehea Tohua statues represent some reptilian species? If this is so, then it is quite possible that reptilians were revered as gods by local tribes in those distant times.
Who the statues on the island of Temehea Tohua actually depict may forever remain a mystery, but it is more than obvious that these statues have nothing in common with the human form.
Also, nothing is known about who and when created these statues.
Historians believe that the first inhabitants of Nuku Hiva appeared about two thousand years ago; they were immigrants from the island of Samoa, who later also settled in Tahiti, Hawaii and New Zealand. But what it really was like is still a question. It is unlikely that these islands were always uninhabited before the beginning of our era.
But it also seems to me that these mysterious reptilian statues are very similar to the Japanese Dogu figurines. Currently, more than 3,000 such figurines have been found, depicting certain creatures reminiscent of modern astronauts. It is worth noting that some of the figurines are 10,000 years old.