Easter Easter IslandIsland

also known as "Rapa Nui" and "Isla de Pascua".

Geography

• Located – in the Pacific Ocean– 2,325 miles from South America– 1,395 miles from the nearest inhabited island

Geography

• Roughly triangular • covering 64 square miles • Made of volcanic rock (still has many cones and

eruptive sites, but none have been known active in 1300 years)

As seen from space

As seen from the air

A Brief History• According to legend:

– In 400 AD Polynesian King Hotu Matua landed at Anakena (the only white sand beach on the island – all others are black sand or volcanic rock)

– began the colonization of the island

The island was…

• lushly forested with Chilean wine palms

• 21 other species of plants were common

• Evidence of this was found in – Pollen preserves– Palm nut casings– Root channels– Native writings

According to Archaeologist, The Polynesian voyagers…

•started building villages and houses using native giant palm trees

•Made homes in an unusual elliptical shape.

•planted non-native plants they had brought with in their boats House foundation

Civilization and society thrived

• Islanders had written script called Rongorongo – The only written

language in Oceania

Rongorongo script

Arts abounded• Created Wood carvings

• Made tapa (barkcloth) crafts

• Made string figures

Wood carving

String figures

Tapa Crafts

Rituals were followed

• Tattooed bodies (ritual)

• Created dance and music

tattoos

Traditional dance

Civilization and society thrived

• Created Petro glyphs – or rock carvings– Massive moai – Smaller sculptures

(from 400AD to 1722 AD)

Europeans landed on the islandEaster Day 1722

•found the island had

>900 gigantic statues•Ave. height 20 ft tall • Ave. weight 20 tons

Each brown mark on the map indicates one large statue

The Europeans saw…

• People living in caves and raising meager crops

• No trees – only ferns and grass

Big questions arose

Where did the trees go? • It was evident there had been trees –

there is tree pollen in the dirt, palm nut casings in the caves and on the ground, root channels from where the trees stood and native writings make mention of trees.

What had happened here?

Legend and Records show • Trees were used for

– Firewood

– Building material• Homes• Boats• tools

– moving statues• Levers• rollers

– making rope

• Trees were also cleared to make way for agriculture

• Crops were needed to support the booming population (estimated to top out at 10,000 people)

When the trees were gone,

• The biggest issue became the loss of food sources due to– contaminated water

– Top soil erosion

– lack of tools

– Lack of transportation (couldn’t build boats)• meant no harvest from the ocean

• Clans fought one another for the scarce resources.

• A thriving and advanced social order declined into bloody civil war

• Victors would eat their dead enemies to gain strength– bones found on the island

show evidence of this cannibalism.

– It was ceremonial and out of hunger

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• The symbols of the islanders' power and success, the moai, were toppled. – Eyes were smashed

out of the moai – rocks were placed

where the statues neck would fall so it would decapitate the moai.

• Their island was in shambles, and their villages and crops destroyed. There was no wood left on the island to build escape boats.

• The few survivors of the conflict, perhaps numbering as low as 750, began to pick up the pieces of their culture; employing a new religion (the birdman cult).

• Populations began to slowly rise.

Until…contact with Western Civilizations.

1862: Peruvian slave traders landed on Easter Island and took away nearly 2000 healthy individuals.

• Including king, his son, and the ritual priests • The remaining islanders were unhealthy and without

leadership

– 1864: Peruvian ships returned to Easter Island and brought with them small pox

• Nearly wiped out all remaining islanders

– 1877: only 110 Rap a Nui remained. They were forced into a small portion of the island by missionaries and the rest of the island was used for sheep ranching

Questions: 1. What would cause a people to strip their

landscape in the manner of the inhabitants of Easter Island?

2. Is the story of Easter Island as unique and isolated as the island itself, or does it hold lessons for our world today?

3. What are some parallels between the Easter islanders' attitude towards their environment and our own?

4. The person who felled the last tree could see that it was the last tree. How do you think he or she felt; how do you think the fellow islanders felt?