University of Arizona archaeologist Terry Hunt, a leading expert on the island, arrived a day after islanders discovered a previously unknown statue. It's the latest chapter in the isolated island's long story of sustainability despite all odds.
The statue was found on February 21 by a team of scientific volunteers from three Chilean universities collaborating on a project to restore the marshland in the crater of the Rano Raraku volcano.
A new Moai, one of Easter Island's iconic statues, was found in the bed of a dry laguna in a volcano crater, the Indigenous community that administers the site on the Chilean island has said.