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Rapa Nui , also cognize as Easter Island ( a name yield to it by Europeans ) , is located in the southeast Pacific and is famous for its approximately 1,000 carvings of moai , human being - faced statue .
The island measures about 14 miles ( 22 kilometers ) by 7 miles ( 11 kilometre ) at its uttermost points and it is often say that it can be get over by understructure in a single day . The volcanic island is the most separated inhabited landmass on Earth . The closest inhabited soil is the Pitcairn Islands , locate about 1,200 miles ( 1,900 km ) to the Benjamin West . Chile , the closest South American country , is located about 2,300 miles ( 3,700 km ) to the east .
There are around 1,000 known Moai statues on Easter Island (Rapa Nui).
The famous carving are massive , up to 40 feet ( 12 meters ) tall and 75 stacks in weightiness . They were decorated on top with " Pukao , " a voiced cerise Harlan F. Stone in the shape of a lid . The statues also havetorsos buried beneath the head .
Scientists are still finding raw moai , including one that wasslightly modest than othersthat researchers unearthed in a dried up lake bed in 2023 . Meanwhile , a suspect arson flak on the island entrust a identification number of moai " entirely charred " in 2022 .
When was Rapa Nui settled?
Radiocarbon dating of buckram nutrient on obsidian blades uncover thathumans settled Rapa Nui by at least A.D. 1000 , a period in which Malayo-Polynesian voyaged to the east Pacific and perhaps also to South America . For instance , a 2020 genetical study give away that Polynesians and Native Americans in what is now Colombiapaired up in around A.D. 1200 , although it ’s unclear where this happened . It ’s potential the Polynesians journey to Colombia , paired up with locals and then their descendants returned to Polynesia . Or , perhaps people from Colombia travel to Polynesia , the researcher enounce .
As for when Rapa Nui was originally settle , consort to legend , a chief named Hotu Matu’a , having acquire of Rapa Nui from an advance party of explorers , led a low group of colonists , perhaps no more than 100 people , to the island .
Their place of rootage is a whodunit and may have been the Marquesas Islands , located 2,300 miles ( 3,700 km ) to the northwest of Rapa Nui . Another suggestion is Rarotonga , located 3,200 miles ( 5,200 klick ) to the southwest of the island . In any case , the voyage would have been an heavy one that may have involved tacking against the wind .
The giant moai statues at Ahu Tongariki in Rapa Nui.
A deforested environment
When people first came to Rapa Nui , around 1,000 years ago , they would have observe the island overgrow with medal Tree , among other vegetation . In the one C that stick to Rapa Nui was disafforest until , by the 19th century , the landscape painting was utterly bleak .
How this pass is a matter of debate . When multitude arrived at Rapa Nui they brought with them ( whether intentionally or not ) the Polynesian stinkpot , a tool that reproduces rapidly and which the Polynesians sometimes exhaust . This species had no rude enemy on the island and may have played a major role indeforestation .
The popular claim that the island ’s medallion trees were felled to create devices to move the moai statue is probably incorrect . According to ancient stories the statues " walked " from the prey to their place on gem platforms ( know as ahu ) and , indeed , research has shown that two small team using ropes can move the statue vertically . A recent demonstration of this was recorded on a YouTube video ( below ) byTerry Hunt , a University of Hawaii professor of anthropology , andCarl Lipo , a professor of anthropology at Binghamton , State University of New York .
It is also noted by Hunt and Lipo that the disforestation of the island may not have led to a food crisis . They point out in their book , " The statue that Walked : Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island " ( Free Press , 2011 ) that abundant rock on the island allowed for the construction of stone - protected gardens screw as " manavai . " These stone gardens would have been affirm by lithic mulching , a process by which mineral from rocks fertilize the soil .
In a 2024 field of study published in the journalScience Advances , Lipo , Hunt and colleagues notice that the population of Rapa Nuinever had a rapid rise or catastrophic fall , as it never exceeded about 3,900 prior to European arrival . Their team came to this conclusion by using shortwave infrared orbiter imagery and machine learning to chance archaeological rock gardens on the island , as these garden were used by Indigenous mass to fort the grease with nutrient . These rock gardens could not have substantiate more than 3,900 mass , the team debate , but other scientists anticipate these method too simplistic to determine population Book of Numbers .
Rongorongo script
The mass of the island , it appears , had enough solid food not only to build and move statues , but also to develop a written script , today known as Rongorongo , which researchers are still endeavor to decipher . Radiocarbon date of four wood tablet on which the hand was carved suggests that the wood was harvest 200 years before Europeans go far at Rapa Nui in the 1720s . It ’s potential the autochthonal the great unwashed of Rapa Nui carve the script on old woodwind instrument , but if they carve it on fresh shorten wood , then their writing system would beone of the few independently invent drop a line systemsin the world .
Moai mystery
In their book , Hunt and Lipo allow for more evidence for the musical theme that the statue were move vertically . They take down the presence of nerve pathway or " roads " that lead from quarry site to moai locations in the SE , northwest and southwest parts of the island .
" The evidence on the primer revealed that route were not part of some overall plan connection . Rather they are the remnants of track that moai transporters took as they take the air the statues across the landscape , " they write .
While this helps excuse how the statue were moved around the island , it does n’t explain why . scholar do n’t screw what the reason were for make the statues , but they have noted several features that provide clues .
Rongorongo inscriptions on a wood tablet.
The statues on their platforms can be found ringing almost the entire slide of the island . Remarkably , despite their seaboard localisation , every individual one of the moai come along to face inland and not out to ocean , suggesting that they were meant to honour masses or deities site within Rapa Nui itself .
twist of the moai statue appear to have stopped around the time of European physical contact in 1722 , when Dutch explorers landed on Easter Day . Over the next century the moai would fall over , either intentionally pushed over or from simple neglect . Why construction was abandoned is another whodunit . It ’s known that disease ravaged the island ’s people after contact and that the islanders had a desire for European good . other explorers recorded that hats were specially popular among the people of the island .
Regardless of what the moai were intended for , and why construction of them stopped , today the popularity of the statues is high than ever . Many statues have been re - erected on their ahu bases and Rapa Nui now has a population of more than 5,000 masses , its hotel and facility stand a thriving modern touristry industry .
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