At a Glance

A new study suggests Easter Island's iconic statues were strategically placed to mark where sources of fresh water could be found.Researchers mapped the island and found that where fresh water would emerge, statues were almost always nearby.

The iconic heads of Easter Island have long been a mystery to researchers, but a new study suggests a team has cracked the case of the location of the colossal stone statues.

Published in PLOS One, researchers found that the people of Easter Island placed the goliath statutes, also known as moai, .

Researchers selected an area on the eastern side of the island that was dotted with over 90 ahu, or shrines containing rows of moai on a platform, and surveyed the statues proximity to natural resources like gardens where crops were harvested, areas where fishing was possible and freshwater origins.

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In all, the island contains somewhere between , according to the Easter Island Foundation.

The crew found there was no relationship between the gardens and the shrines, but were able to find a correlation between fishing sites and freshwater sources.

The illustration shows the relationship between the ahu on Easter Island (A), fresh water sources (B) and areas used for fishing (C).

(PLOS One)

While the island is barren of springs or streams, researchers found that water would surface from underground areas within a close proximity to the coast — where the vast majority of statues are seen.

"Fresh water in a stream," Carl Lipo, study co-author and anthropology professor at Binghamton University told CNN. "We'd see horses drinking out of the ocean, and it turned out they knew exactly where the fresh water was coming out."

Even inland, in places where it didn't seem possible for fresh water to emerge, the team found the remnants of ancient wells that would draw on aquifers hidden below the ground.

“Every time we saw massive amounts of fresh water, we saw giant statues,” said Lipo, the Guardian reported. “.”

For Lipo, the study contributed to the idea that sculpting these statues was a communal activity, rather that conflict over the island's resources.

“Anything that brings you together is going to make you stronger and allow you to survive,” he said. “I think that is the secret to Easter Island.”