They figured this out,” study co-author and Binghamton University anthropologist Carl Lipo said in a statement. CREDIT: Carl LipoField experiments revealed that using rope and a small group of people, the people of Rapa Nui could have “walked” the moai statues. Rap Nui’s moai statues are massive megaliths that were built by the Rapa Nui people in roughly 1400–1650 CE. The moai statues were built in honor of chieftains and other important people who had died. ‘The physics makes sense’In this new study of roughly 1,000 moai statues, a team put this to the test.