 It is also conjectured that the seven statues were placed at Ahu Akivi at least 150 years before the first Europeans found the island when the clan was functional at that time.It is also evident that their culture existed for 250–300 years with economic prosperity with political stability.In 1955, Thor Heyerdahl recruited American archaeologist William Mulloy and his Chilean associate, Gonzalo Figueroa García-Huidobro, who restored the statues to their original position; they had found them in knocked down condition in 1960.