New research shows that each individual moai statue was most likely carved by competing clans or families. NurPhoto via Getty Images

The gargantuan heads of Easter Island may have finally tacked on an artist credit — or several, it turns out.

The over 900 statues on Rapa Nui, the indigenous name for the Chilean territory, had long been thought by researchers to be carved by hundreds of workers in a single chiefdom sometime during the 13th century. However, new research has led scientists to believe that each individual statue — called the moai — was most likely carved by competing clans or families.

It is now estimated that each moai, which weighed up to 80 whopping tons, had as few as four to six people working on it.

Archaeologists have determined 30 separate “workshops” where the

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