Pavel Pavel (*1957) is a Czech engineer and experimental archaeologist best known for investigating how ancient civilizations transported heavy weights.
The giant stone statues from Easter Island belong to the number of stone monuments around the world (such as Stonehenge or the pyramids), which are constantly tormenting teams of scientists trying to work out how ancient civilizations managed to move around blocks of stones weighing many tones. The mystery of the "moai" - as the statues are called in the local language - was solved latter by a young Czech engineer called Pavel Pavel.
Local legend says that the statues arrived at their current locations by themselves - that they actually "walked". There is no written record on the origin of the almost 900 statues but archaeologists believe they were carved, transported, and erected between AD 1400 and 1600. Several expeditions visited the island during the last century, trying to work out how the early Easter Islanders transported the moai statues. But nobody knew.
Pavel Pavel studied electrical engineering at the university in Czech and later worked as a design engineer. As all the people from former Easter block under the communist government, he just dreamt about journeys and mysteries from outer world. Inspired by Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki, Pavel Pavel set out to demonstrate how the monolithic moai of Easter Island might have been moved into place by a small number of people using only rudimentary technologies. He conducted a practice experiment in 1982 in south Bohemia using a concrete model, which they did on their own and they paid of their own money (height 4.5 m, weight 12 tones). He and his friends fastened ropes around the top of the head as well as around the base of the statue and through a system of tilting and twisting they were able to move the statue forward as if it was "walking moai".
Thor Heyerdahl invited Pavel Pavel to join the KonTiki Museum expedition to Easter Island in January 1986 to try out his experiment on an original statue. He successfully replicated the experiment. Only 16 people with one leader were needed for relatively fast statue transportation. Pavel Pavel after said: "The walk of the moai was the result of many years of effort. It was a great feeling, the locals started shouting riva-riva, meaning good or very well, and it was all fantastic. I remembered all of my friends back and all those who had helped me".
The memorial plaque near the statue was removed now, but the isolated moai is still in a very good condition - photo.
Pavel Pavel after performed some further experiments. He and five assistants using only wooden sledges erected and moved a 30-ton rocking stone at the village of southern Bohemia to its original location, from where it had been removed in the 19th century by unknown vandals. One of next experiments, realized 1991, was building of one segment of Stonehenge model 1:1. Ten people transported during one day 5 ton concrete stone to the top of other two stones, using only ropes and wooden sledges.
Regarding the cache: cache is located in a walking distance from the centre of Hanga Roa. It is among the stones of the stone enclosure of hotel Tupa - OUTSIDE. The owner, Mr. Sergio, is the friend of Mr. Pavel Pavel and he knows about the cache. The cache is round the corner in the quiet dusty street, look at photospoiler.