Thank you for downloading this episode of a history of the world in a hundred objects

from BBC Radio 4. Today we're on an island far out in the Pacific Ocean. It's about half the size of the Isle of White, it's 1,200 miles

from the nearest inhabited island, and it's 2,000 miles from the nearest landmass.

It's Rappanui, Easter Island, the most remote inhabited island, not just in the Pacific, but in the world.

Not surprisingly, it took human beings a long time to get there. The people of the

Southern Pacific Ocean, the Polynesians, were without question the greatest open

ocean voyagers in the history of the world and their ability to move in double-hulled canoes over the vast expanse of the Pacific,

is truly one of the greatest achievements of humanity.

They settled both Hawaii and New Zealand and between 7 and 900 they got to Rappanui and so brought to an end one immense chapter of human history.

For Easter Island was possibly the last place on earth to be permanently settled.

It was another thousand years before European sailors matched the Polynesian feats of navigation.

And when they reached Rappanui on Easter Day 1722,

they were astonished to find a large population already established.

Even more astonishing were the objects which the inhabitants had made.

The great monoliths of Easter Island are like nothing else in the Pacific,

or indeed anywhere else, and they've become some of the

most famous sculptures in the world.

This program is about one of them.

He's called Hoahakanaanaaya, the name's been roughly translated as Hidden Friend. He came to London in

1869 and he's been one of the most admired inhabitants of the British Museum

ever since. This marvelous mass and strength and power,

these are all things that every sculptor wants to get,

...