Case file · Folklore / legend
Heyerdahl and the aku-aku
During his 1955–56 expedition to Rapa Nui, Thor Heyerdahl was shown secret family caves holding carved stone figures guarded, islanders said, by personal spirits called aku-aku; his book 'Aku-Aku' made them world-famous.
1956 CE · -27.12, -109.35 · status: account
The account
Heyerdahl described islanders consulting their aku-aku before revealing the caves, and the expedition's archaeologists also excavated and re-erected a moai. Aku-aku, in Rapa Nui belief, are spirits of the dead who can protect or harm.
The sceptical view
Later researchers suspected that many 'cave stones' were made for Heyerdahl, who was paying for them; his theories of South American settlement are not accepted.