Easter Island statues (Moai) bodies have been exposed in excavations.
Recent excavations carried out by the Easter Island Statue Project have dug down and exposed the rest of 2 statues’ bodies that had been buried deep in the ground. Petroglyphs carved on their backs can now be seen. This story has not had much publicity and there is not much more to report except the diaries and detailed excavation data from the project reports plus some more photos on their website – http://www.eisp.org/3879/
It seems extraordinary that this has not been done before now and the discoveries will pose a lot of questions about why, how and when they were buried and what the petroglyphs mean. Some artifacts have been found amongst the soil removed, including some charcoal remains, bone fragments and tools.
Above is an image from a previous excavation (source unknown) that shows you the scale of the statues, and how deep they were buried. The site is carefully protected and access to it restricted, due to the fact that it is a World Heritage Site, but the team have been quite communicative with visitors.
It is a very exciting discovery.