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Fifteen hundred years ago a small bandof Polynesian voyagers discovered
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...one of the most remoteislands on earth.
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And began a mysterythat still endures.
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The band and their chief,Hotu Matu'a,
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Settled the lush oasis, and werelost to the world for the next 1,000 years.
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European sailors rediscovered theisland and named it Easter Island.
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The Europeans found a barren,treeless place,
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Inhabited by numerous warring clans
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And the gigantic stone statuesbuilt over centuries
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As a form of ancestor worship.
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Hotu Matu'a's descendants called the islandNavel of the World, Rapa Nui.
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And centuries of isolationhad convinced them
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They were the only peopleleft on earth.
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Still, no one knows why thestatues were so large,
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Or why work on them suddenly ceased.
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But legend speaks of a terribleconflict between the clans
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A few decades before the Europeans
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