Easter Island: Vince Lee's Uphill Battle - Figure 3



Sketch showing scheme for rotating sled 180 degrees en route.

As critical as the force urging the sled forward is the frictional force holding it back, and every effort to smooth and grease the contact surfaces reduces the required crew size. All lashings have to be neatly done and recessed or otherwise prevented from hanging up, and the sled runners need to be beveled at both ends to ride smoothly onto the sliders before and after the required 180-degree rotation of the moai. One would rotate the sled with this system much as one would rotate a rowboat or canoe, by levering one side forward and the other back. It is important that the sled runners not get parallel to the sliders and fall into the gaps between them, though levering forward onto ladders set 90 degrees from one another avoids the problem. See documentary Easter Island (2000).



Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/easter/vince.html