The statues imply a society very different from the one Roggeveen saw in 1722. The number and size of the statues suggest a population much larger than 2,000 people he encountered. What became of everyone? Furthermore, that society must have been highly organized. What happened to that organization, and how did it even arise in such a barren landscape in the first place? It it possible that this barren landspace could have once supported the trees necessry to
construct the statues?