Excavation of the statues has been going on for many years, you can find information on this by searching under the words Easter Island Statue Project. It is believed that they were created approximately between 1250 and 1500 AD, however, it is controversial how the statues were buried in the ground.
It turns out that so many people are looking for an answer to whether the Easter Island statue heads actually have a body that “our site was visited 3 million times and it“fell,”says Jo Ann Van Tilburg, director of the Easter Island Statues Project, who 2010 unearthed two statues. Photos of the excavations were published on the site 4 months ago. Earlier photographs showing the full bodies of figures excavated back in the 1950s have been compiled into one collection, which renewed interest in the excavation project.
The reason why people think there are only heads is that about 150 statues are dug up to the shoulders on the side of the volcano, and these are the most spectacular and famous photos of statues on Easter Island, says Van Tilburg. Therefore, people who have seen the statues only in these photos believe that they only have heads.
In fact, archaeologists have been studying the statues on the island for about a century, and the first known torso statue was excavated in 1914.
The statues that are called "moai" were carved by the ancient Polynesians between 1250 and 1500. They vary in size and the tallest reaches a height of 10 meters. Although their purpose is still somewhat of a mystery, the moai are believed to have embodied the ancestors of the indigenous peoples. Van Tilburg says the figures were probably carved out every time a member of the tribe died.
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The work on the new excavation aims to document the intricate carvings on the buried bodies of the statues, which have survived due to the bodies being buried in the ground. But Van Tilburg says the project also helps preserve ancient monoliths. “We have a team that helps us and protects the stone with chemicals and water repellents.”