Archaeologists make surprising discovery at Easter Island

There's no doubt Easter Island is geographically one of the most isolated places on Earth.

More than 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile, it was first settled by humans around AD 1200, who built its famous enlarged head statues.

Historically, the original inhabitants, known as the Rapa Nui, were assumed to have long been completely shut off from the wider world.

However, a new study by researchers in Sweden challenges this long-held narrative.

They say the 63.2 sq mile island in the southern Pacific was not quite as isolated over the past 800 years as previously thought.

In fact, the island was populated with multiple waves of new inhabitants who bravely traversed the Pacific Ocean from west to east.

'Easter Island was settled from central East Polynesia around AD 1200-1250,' study author Professor Paul Wallin at Uppsala University told MailOnline.

'The Polynesians were skilled sailors so double canoes were used.'

Located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, Easter Island was first settled by humans around AD 1200, who built its famous enlarged head statues, called moai

There's no doubt Easter Island (pictured) in the southern Pacific is geographically one of the most isolated places on Earth

Remote: Easter Island, in the South Pacific sea, is a 64miles-square island - one of the most remote in the world

Easter Island, in the South Pacific, is a 64miles-square island - one of the most remote in the world

Due to its remote location, Easter Island is traditionally assumed to have remained socially and culturally isolated from the wider Pacific world.

This idea is reinforced by the fact that Easter Island's famous Moai statues, estimated to have been built between AD 1250 and 1500, are unique to the location.

The huge human figures carved from volcanic rock were placed on rectangular stone platforms called 'ahu' – essentially tombs for the people that the statues represented.

For their study, the team at Uppsala University compared archaeological data and radiocarbon dates from settlements, ritual spaces and monuments across Polynesia, the collection of more than 1,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Their results, published in the journal Antiquity, show that similar ritual practices and monumental structures have been observed across Polynesia.

The experts point out that ahu stone platforms were historically constructed at Polynesian islands further to the west.

These rectangular clearings were communal ritual spaces that, in some places, remain sacred to this day.

'The temple grounds ahu [also known as marae] exist on all East Polynesian islands,' Professor Wallin added.

Map of the Pacific with the East Polynesian cultural sphere indicated. Note Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in a more isolated location further east

Pictured, ahu (a central stone platform) on Mo’orea, Windward, French Polynesia, southern Pacific Ocean

Archaeologists have analysed ritual spaces and monumental structures across Polynesia, questioning the idea that Easter Island (pictured) developed in isolation following its initial settlement

The team agree that an early population of people spread from the west of the Pacific to the east before encountering Easter Island and populating it around AD 1200.

But they argue that Easter Island was populated several times by new seafarers – not just once by one group who remains isolated for centuries as previously assumed.

'The migration process from West Polynesian core areas such as Tonga and Samoa to East Polynesia is not disputed here,' they say in their paper.

'Still, the static west-to-east colonization and dispersal suggested for East Polynesia and the idea that Rapa Nui was only colonized once in the past and developed in isolation is challenged.'

Based on their evidence, they also think ahu originated on Easter Island before the trend spread east to west across other western Polynesian islands during the period of AD 1300-1600.

It was only after this that Polynesian islands – including but not limited to Easter Island – might have become isolated from each other.

As hierarchical social structures developed independently – at Easter Island, Tahiti and Hawai'i for example – large, monumental structures were built to display power.

Overall, the study indicates there were robust 'interaction networks' between Polynesian islands, which allowed the transfer of new ideas from east to west and back again.

The Moai are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island, between AD 1,250 and 1,500

Ultimately, arrival of European explorers at Easter Island in the 18th century led to a rapid decline of the population, brought on by murder, bloody conflict and the brutal slave trade – although the population there may have already been weakening.

Today, Easter Island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with only a few thousand inhabitants.

But it attracts large numbers of tourists, largely thanks to its monumental and world-famous stone statues that stare sternly out over the island.

Tourism, which has grown exponentially on the island over the last 20 years, has come at a price, according to co-author Professor Helene Martinsson-Wallin.

'When I was there in the 1980s, the sandy beach was white and there were almost no people around,' she said.

'When I came back in the early 00s, I thought the sand looked blue, and when I looked closer I saw that it was due to tiny, tiny pieces of plastic washed up by the sea from every corner of the Earth.'

WHAT ARE THE STATUES ON EASTER ISLAND AND WHAT DO THEY MEAN?

What are the statues?

The Moai are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island, between 1,250 and 1,500 AD.

All the figures have overly-large heads and are thought to be living faces of deified ancestors.

The 887 statues gaze inland across the island with an average height of 13ft (four metres).

Nobody really knows how the colossal stone statues that guard Easter Island were moved into position.

Nor why during the decades following the island’s discovery by Dutch explorers in 1722, each statue was systematically toppled, or how the population of Rapa Nui islanders was decimated.

Shrouded in mystery, this tiny triangular landmass, stranded in the middle of the South Pacific and 1,289 miles from its nearest neighbour, has been the subject of endless books, articles and scientific theories.

All but 53 of the Moai were carved from tuff , compressed volcanic ash, and around 100 wear red pukao of scoria.

What do they mean?

In 1979 archaeologists said the statues were designed to hold coral eyes.

The figures are believed to be symbol of authority and power.

They may have embodied former chiefs and were repositories of spirits or 'mana'.

They are positioned so that ancient ancestors watch over the villages, while seven look out to sea to help travellers find land.

But it is a mystery as to how the vast carved stones were transported into position.

In their remote location off the coast of Chile, the ancient inhabitants of Easter Island were believed to have been wiped out by bloody warfare, as they fought over the island's dwindling resources.

All they left behind were the iconic giant stone heads and an island littered with sharp triangles of volcanic glass, which some archaeologists have long believed were used as weapons.

EASTER ISLAND TIMELINE

13th century: Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is settled by Polynesian seafarers.

Construction on some parts of the island's monuments begins.

Early 14th to mid-15th centuries: Rapid increase in construction

1600: The date that was long-thought to mark the decline of Easter Island culture.

Construction was ongoing.

1770: Spanish seafarers landed on the island. The island is in good working order.

1722: Dutch seafarers land on the island for the first time.

Monuments were in use for rituals and showed no evidence of societal decay.

1774: British explorer James Cook arrives on Rapa Nui

His crew described an island in crisis, with overturned monuments.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14884779/Archaeologists-surprising-discovery-Easter-Island.html

Various archaeological sites on the island (pictured).

Easter Island

What IS the origin of the Easter Island statues?: Graham Hancock argues they were made by an ancient civilization that arrived on the island about 12,000 years ago

A map of the positions of the stone heads on Rapa Nui.

Easter Island vs Marquessa Islands: The statue on the left is on Easter Island and on the right is from the Marquessa Island, about 3,600 kilometers away. Archaeologists said the two were similar. The statue on the right is dated to about 1,000 years ago, and archaeologists say the one on the left is around 600 years old