Rapa Nui genomes restore the real history of an old, troubled people Premium
The Hindu
Discover the truth behind the mysterious history of Rapa Nui, challenging the myth of overpopulation and ecological collapse.
The volcanic island of Rapa Nui has long been shrouded in mystery. European sailors first arrived on its shores on Easter Sunday in 1722, giving it its colloquial name: Easter Island. It covers just 160 sq. km and is one of the most remote islands on the planet. Today, Rapa Nui is part of Polynesia and is officially a territory of Chile.
Early Polynesian explorers are believed to have traversed thousands of kilometres of open ocean to reach and settle the island, likely arriving centuries before the Europeans. The island’s geography is harsh and challenging for humans. Its lava-covered terrain is rocky with limited freshwater sources, poor soil quality, and a low diversity of flora and fauna.
Despite these challenges, its first humans likely established a unique society in order to survive their exacting environs. However, the island’s offerings would still have been quite finite and ingenuity could only have taken the people so far. These realities gave rise to a widely held notion that the humans eventually overpopulated the island, resulting in ecological collapse and its people’s demise.
But new evidence suggests this view may be fiction.
Rapa Nui is famous for its large statues called moai. They are shaped like large human heads and erected on stone pedestals. Some moaistand 40 ft tall and weigh 75 tonnes. They were carved in volcanic stone at quarries and then moved to their current locations across the island. Scholars believe the Rapa Nui built the moai between the 13th and the 16th centuries and represented their revered ancestors.
The statues all face inland, towards the people. Over 900 moaihave been found on the island to date; more than half of them were transported across considerable distances from the quarries.
In his book 2004 Collapse, Jared Diamond proposed the population of Rapa Nui collapsed after overexploiting resources. The idea quickly found wide acceptance and became an example of the importance of sustainable living. But some scholars have called into question the feeble evidence to support the hypothesis.
