The moai statues of Easter Island have long presented an enigma for researchers wondering how the ancient Rapa Nui people managed to move these enormous monoliths around the island. And now, a team of anthropologists believes they may finally have the answer—by way of some rather bizarre physics experiments.

In a recent Journal of Archaeological Science paper, anthropologists Carl Lipo and Terry Hunt analyzed 962 moai statues, creating detailed, high-resolution 3D models to investigate their design and how they might have been transported.

From there, they devised an experiment to test whether a a moai could “walk” from a quarry to its ceremonial platform, a theory they actually tested in the field.

They found that, by using ropes, teams of people could coax the statues to waddle in

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