Even if people with lively
imaginations have tried to picture the Egyptian
pyramids being built by a vast army of workers using the
Ňheave-hoÓ method, a similar method would have been
impossible on Easter Island for lack of manpower. Even 2,000 men, working day and night, would not be
nearly enough to carve these colossal figures out of
the steel-hard volcanic stone with rudimentary tools — and at least a part of
the population must have tilled the barren fields, woven cloth and made ropes. (Chariots, 110)