Easter Island / Rapa Nui

[sherbetbizarre]

BBC4 Monday Night:

Easter Island Origins

They are some of the most famous and mysterious monuments on the planet. Nearly 900 giant stone heads scattered across a remote island in the middle of the Pacific. Now, brand new evidence is challenging everything we thought we knew about Easter Island’s awe-inspiring statues – and those who made them. Drawing on the latest science, this authoritative documentary radically rewrites the story of Easter Island.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020545

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Genetic Evidence for a Contribution of Native Americans to the Early Settlement of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
Abstract:
Available evidence strongly suggests that the first to settle on Rapa Nui were Polynesians arriving from the west around AD 1200–1253. There are, however, also signs of an early contact between Rapa Nui and South America, but genetic evidence of an early contribution of Native Americans to the peopling of Rapa Nui has until recently been lacking. In this review our own genetic studies of blood-derived DNA collected on Rapa Nui since 1971 are summarized. For the first time human molecular genetic data are obtained which strongly suggest that some Native Americans arrived early at Rapa Nui, probably as early as AD 1280–1495. Whether they sailed directly from South America to Rapa Nui on their own rafts or whether they came with Polynesians returning from visits to South America cannot be established by our studies, but the latter possibility may be the most likely given other evidence of early visits by Polynesians to South America. In any case, our data suggest that some Native Americans arrived Rapa Nui not long after its first settlement by Polynesians, but long before the island was discovered by Europeans in 1722. Native Americans may therefore have had an influence on the early human colonization of Rapa Nui and thus on its ecology.

Source: Thorsby, E. (2016). Genetic Evidence for a Contribution of Native Americans to the Early Settlement of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 4.

 

[Fabio Picasso]

The Bird Cult of Easter Island
Overview:

In July the Ao left Mataveri and wound their way up to the top of the mountain by a track still just traceable and known as " the road of the Ao." Rano Kao is some thirteen hundred feet in height and has a crater about a mile in width ; the landward side is a grassy slope, but the three sides which are surrounded by sea have been gradually eroded till they form a steep and precipitous cliff of about one thousand feet. So far has this erosion proceeded that the sea has nearly worn its way into the crater itself, which is at the present time only separated from it by a wall of rock along which it would be feasible but not easy to walk. In this process of attrition some harder portions of rock have been left and form three little islands lying off the coast. Standing on the western extremity of the mountain with the narrow ridge immediately on the left, the crater behind and the cliff in front, these islets are seen far below, always girdled with breaking surf from the swell of the Pacific,​

Source: Routledge, S., & Routledge, K. (1917). The Bird Cult of Easter Island. Folklore, 28(4), 337–355.

 

[Fabio Picasso]

The Rongorongo Schools on Easter Island
Overview:
The great civilisation of Easter Island, a remote plot of land in the Pacific Ocean, is well known not only because of giant statues, but also because of "talk ing boards" kohau rongorongo. This work is devot ed to the study of such an important institution of the archaic society as the school. Only this form of the keeping and transmission of secrets of the script allowed preserving the knowledge of the written language up to the beginning of the 20th century. I use the nomenclature of the Rapanui classi cal inscriptions and the tracings of the rongorongo glyphs offered by Barthel (1958).

Source: Rjabchikov, Sergei V. “The Rongorongo Schools on Easter Island.” Anthropos, vol. 107, no. 2, 2012, pp. 564–70​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

ArchaeologicalStone of Easter Island
Abstract:

With the scarcity of other resources, stone assumed great importance in the culture of Easter Island. The volcanic rocks display a compositional continuum paralleled by changes in physical characteristics. The most abundant rock type, porphyritic hawaiite, was the least useful as it is poorly jointed and difficult to work. Mugearites and benmoreitesc usually have a flaggy structure and were used as dressed stone in the early ahu, in the houses of Orongo and in stone implements. Rhyolitic obsidian was used for scrapers, knives, and a variety of weapons, especially the tanged mataa. Statue carving reached its zenith on Easter Island largely because of the availability of a suitable rock type, the Ran0 Raraku tuff. The tuff was not erupted from the present Ran0 Raraku crater but from another vent soulheast of the surviving portion of the cone. Red scoria from Puna Pau was quarried for the topknots. G 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.​

Source: Baker, P. E. (1993). Archaeological stone of Easter Island. Geoarchaeology, 8(2), 127–139.

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Observations on the Inhabitants and the Antiquities of Easter Island
Abstract:
Overview:
There was a huge plundering of the islanders about four yea1-s ago : some seven ships, chartered by Peruvians, buccaneered, it is said, about 1500; and now there is but one settlement on the island, of about 900 people, and only
one third females. As the deaths double the births, probably soon only records of this people will exist. You will easily see,
in 'Cook's Voyages,' what are the lions of the place, the great images, which are not idols, as the people believed in one SpiritGod ("Make Make"), who made man grow from the ground. Two of the smaller images have been removed from the island and taken on board, viz. Hoa-Haoa of Makevere (i. e. Place of the great Centipede), and Hoa-Haka-Nana-Fa of Tau-re-renge; they are destined for the British Museum.

Source: Palmer, J. L. “Observations on the Inhabitants and the Antiquities of Easter Island.” The Journal of the Ethnological Society of London (1869-1870), vol. 1, no. 4, 1869, pp. 371–77​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

The Statues of Easter Island
Overview:

THE recent work of Mr. and Mrs. Routledge 1 has given fresh stimulus to the perennial interest of anthropologists in Easter Island and its statues. The additions to our knowledge concerning the statues and their manufacture, which this work has made, allow us to formulate more definitely than before the relation of these objects to other expressions of Oceanic workmanship. The first point to notice in Mrs. Routledge's description of the statues is that they are of two kinds; one, associated with the burial-places or ahu; the other, either lining roads which may have had some ceremonial function, situated in isolated spots about the island. A point which is probably of great significance is that only the statues the ahu or burial-places are surmounted by the objects for which Mrs. Routledge uses the convenient term " crown." The statues on the roads and those in isolated situations do not possess these crowns.
​

Source: Rivers, W. H. R. “The Statues of Easter Island.” Folklore, vol. 31, no. 4, 1920, pp. 294–306

 

[Frideswide]

@Fabio Picasso I really appreciate the work you do to to select the references you post. The historiography of my subject is a prime interest of mine!

 

[Fabio Picasso]

The End of Moai Quarrying and its Effect on Lake Rano Raraku, Easter Island
Abstract:

We reconstruct aspects of the history of Easter Island over the last 4–5 centuries based on the study of a core from Rano Raraku Lake, situated in the crater that contains the quarry of the island’s giant statues or moai. We use microfossils of plants and animals to identify five zones. The last three of these are separated by waves of immigration from South America and from the subantarctic.We argue that the first or South American wave, dated to the second half of the 14th century, may represent a visit by South American Indians. Magnetic information, pollen, diatoms, chrysophyte stomatocysts and fossil plant pigments reveal a synchronism between the South American contact and the cessation of moai quarrying. We therefore suggest that Amerindians contributed to the cultural collapse of the island. The second or subantarctic wave may reflect an early European visit to the island, possibly by Cpt. James Cook in 1774, or by Jacob Roggeveen in 1722​

Source: Dumont, H.J., Cocquyt, C., Fontugne, M. et al. The end of moai quarrying and its effect on Lake Rano Raraku, Easter Island. Journal of Paleolimnology 20, 409–422 (1998).

 

[Fabio Picasso]

@Fabio Picasso I really appreciate the work you do to to select the references you post. The historiography of my subject is a prime interest of mine!

@Frideswide It is a real pleasure to contribute material that may be useful to you and other researchers.

 

[Floyd]

@Frideswide It is a real pleasure to contribute material that may be useful to you and other researchers.

Authentic recipes for Chimichurri would also be very welcome (on the what are you eating and drinking? thread)..................

 

[ramonmercado]

@Frideswide It is a real pleasure to contribute material that may be useful to you and other researchers.

You are a great resource! I don't know if I'll ever finish reading all of the articles you've posted though!

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Survey of the Village and Carved Rocks of Orongo, Easter Island, by the Mana Expedition
Abstract:

This article provides a detailed description of the remains of the village and carved rocks of Orongo, where Easter Islanders held their Bird Cult ceremony. Each structure is measured and described in detail. The text is supplemented by photographs and sketches.

Source: Routledge, Scoresby. “Survey of the Village and Carved Rocks of Orongo, Easter Island, by the Mana Expedition.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 50, 1920, pp. 425–51​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

You are a great resource! I don't know if I'll ever finish reading all of the articles you've posted though!

@ramonmercado I have spent many decades collecting material on Fortean topics, now is the time to share them

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Mapping Prehistoric Statue Roads on Easter Island
Abstract:
High resolution satellite photographs offer a new picture of the tracks along which the Easter Island giant statues were hauled from the central quarry to the exhibition sites. The survey traced 32 km of seven major roads, confirmed by features on the ground, where their current condition gives reasons for concern. The authors suggest that the radial pattern implies social division into small groups.

Figure 3. An island-wide distribution of 702 statues (moai, yellow circles), 87 topknots (pukao, blue triangles) and confirmed ancient statue roads (red lines) made on a mosaic of satellite images. About 32 km of roads are shown. The north-north-west road extends 2.7 km; the west-north-west road, 4.5 km, with a western branch an additional 2.6 km; the west-south-west road (discontinuous) 4.0 km; the main southernmost road 8.6 km; Rano Kao Crater road 3.6 km; and the west-north coast road, 13.0 km. A possible road leads directly north from the quarry at Rano Raraku (4.4 km), but additional field evaluation is necessary to confirm an ancient road given historic and modern activities on the same route.

Source: Lipo CP, Hunt TL. Mapping prehistoric statue roads on Easter Island. Antiquity. 2005;79(303):158-168​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Easter Island Writing: Speculation and Sense
Abstract:
Steven Roger Fischer (1995a, b) is a new investigator of the rongorongo signs. (But his results are awfully incorrect.) He does not agree that the strings of characters engraved on several wooden tablets are real writing, and uses the special term "semasiography", which means the forerunner of writing. He claims that a key to this script has been found, but he has obtained only one strange text. In fact, Alexander Kondratov (1976) has already pointed out the "phallus" glyphs and their function;1 therefore, in my opinion Dr Fischer is not a discoverer. According to Dr Fischer, one can suppose that written language appeared on Easter Island (Rapa Nui) under the influence of Felipe Gonz?lez's expedition (1770). Let us try to consider some problems which indicate that the writing system is more ancient in its origin.

Source: Rjabchikov, Sergei V. “Easter Island Writing: Speculation and Sense.” The Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 106, no. 2, 1997, pp. 203–05​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Quarried away. Thinking about Landscapes of Megalithic Construction on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
Overview:
Monuments have featured strongly within "interpretative" approaches to landscape archaeology (e.g., Richards 1996; Thomas 1992; Tilley 1994, 2004). Within these studies, the "monument" is assumed to be architecturally unproblematic and​

is experienced as a completed entity. In this chapter, we approach landscapes as contexts of construction, whereby the monument is constantly enmeshed within an ongoing process of alteration and transformation.

Source: S Hamilton, SN Arellano, C Richards . Quarried away. Thinking about Landscapes of Megalithic Construction on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in Handbook of Landscape Archaeology, 2008​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Cannibalism and Easter Island: Evaluation, Discussion of Probabilities, and Survey of the lLterature on the Subject.
Abstract:
It is nearly impossible to discuss cannibalism on Easter Island without first discussing cannibalism in general - largely because the subject of cannibalism is sensitive and controversial. And, especially since the publication of William Arens's book The Man-Eating Myth in 1979, a number of anthropologists and other scientists have come to question if cannibalism has occurred on the kind of scale suggested by early reports from around the world. As an extremist of sorts, Arens asserts that cannibalism as a custom has never occurred because he dismisses the veracity of all reports others have taken for granted, an assertion that almost seems to be driven more by a revulsion for the practice than for an unbiased examination of the evidence.

https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2ebc7ec0-69fc-4521-9385-8de8141e9c2e/content

Source: S. McLaughlin 2005. Cannibalism and Easter Island: Evaluation, discussion of probabilities, and survey of the literature on the subject. Rapa Nui J. 19, 30–50.

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Hoa Hakananai'a, a New Study of an Easter Island Statue in the British Museum.
Abstract:
A digital survey, combining photogrammetry and reflectance transformation imaging (RTI), offers significant new insights into the British Museum's Easter Island statue called Hoa Hakananai'a. These include the likelihood that it was made with a tapering base to stand in the ground, as seen by the crew of HMS Topaze in 1868, and that a nearby stone described a century ago was a pukau, a stone ‘hat’. Petroglyphs consisting of two komari (stylised female genitalia) were subsequently added. Succeeding these were bas-relief carvings, here interpreted as a single composition that narrates the island's birdman myth as recorded in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This reading is supported by photographs of Hoa Hakananai'a taken in Chile in 1868. A new model is presented for the relationship between the statue and the birdman cult. As it now stands, in a nineteenth-century plinth, Hoa Hakananai'a appears to lean slightly from its intended placing.

Source: Pitts M, Miles J, Pagi H, Earl G. Hoa Hakananai'a, a New Study of an Easter Island Statue in the British Museum. The Antiquaries Journal. 2014;94,291-321​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Megalithic Astronomy of Easter Island: A Reassessment
Overview:
Ten years have passed since the publication of The ancient solar observatories of Rapanui by the astronomer William Liller, I while his seminal paper "The megalithic astronomy of Easter Island" appeared in this journal five years earlier;' and to our knowledge, no further archaeo- or ethno-astronomical research on the island has been published since. Liller's work is today considered the most reliable source for the astronomy ofthe ancient inhabitants ofEaster Island (or Rapa Nui, as locals, including those ofChilean origin, prefer to call it). This is clearly reflected in Liller's authorship of a recent review on Polynesia in a book of ancient astronomies worldwide,' and in most recent good-quality popular books about Rapanui culture.' Liller's writings build on William Mulloy's work carried out in the 1960s and '70S,5 later confirmed in the 1980s by Liller's research team

Source: Edwards, E. R., & Belmonte, J. A. (2004). Megalithic Astronomy of Easter Island: A Reassessment. Journal for the History of Astronomy, 35(4), 421–433.​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

The Megalithic Astronomy of Easter Island: Orientations of AHU and MOAI.
Abstract:
The great stone statues of Easter Island, as firmly identified with this remote Pacific isle as the Great Pyramids with ancient Egypt and Stonehenge with prehistoric Britain, are believed to have been carved as monuments to dead chieftains. Over 800 of these moai, as they are called in the local Polynesian dialect, have been inventoried: I roughly half of them are found in the vicinity of Rano Raraku, the volcanic quarry where most of them were made; the remainder once stood on massive stone platforms - ahu - the large majority of which are found near the coasts, their long axes roughly parallel to the adjacent shoreline. Nearly all the moai faced inland overlooking neighbouring settlements. (A detailed island map appears in Figure 1.) Some 300 ahu are estimated to exist on the island with slightly over ten percent located more than a half kilometre from the ocean; approximately seven per cent of the coastal ahu have their long axes decidedly anti-parallel to the shore. Not all were intended to support statues, and many seem to have been little more than burial places.

Source: Liller, W. (1989). The Megalithic Astronomy of Easter Island: Orientations of AHU and MOAI. Journal for the History of Astronomy, 20(13), S21–S48.

 

[Fabio Picasso]

A Solstice Oriented Ahu on Easter Island.
Abstract:
The idea of orienting architecture with reference to or otherwise indicating or taking account of the position of the rising or setting sun at the equinox or the solstices is, as far as the writer is aware, not a common one in Polynesia. It does appear to occur with some frequency on Easter Island. Examples were first noted in 1955 in the course of excavations at Vinapu on the island's south coast. Here a perpendicular to the back wall of Ahu No. 1 (Tahiri) was found to be oriented to a true azimuth of 114° or within two degrees of the true azimuth of the rising sun at the southern summer solstice (116°). A perpendicular to the back wall of the adjacent Ahu No. 2 was oriented to a true azimuth of 91°30' or within l°30' of the true azimuth of the rising sun at the equinox (Mulloy, 1961, p. 94

Source: Mulloy, William. “A Solstice Oriented Ahu on Easter Island.” Archaeology & Physical Anthropology in Oceania, vol. 10, no. 1, 1975, pp. 1–39​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Manioc, a Long Concealed Key to the Enigma of Easter Island
Abstract:

Manioc (Manihot esculenta), a food plant of American origin, is not thought to have been introduced to the Pacific Islands until the mid-nineteenth century. However, a book published recently in Madrid has revealed unknown evidence that manioc was reported on Easter Island in 1770 by members a Spanish expedition from Peru. The term they used for it was yuca, borrowed into Peruvian Spanish from Quechua. Many of the documents reproduced in the new book had not previously been published in their original although early this century the most significant documents were translated English and published in volumes of the Hakluyt Society. However, the translator concealed or obfuscated the evidence on manioc. In one instance he rendered the word yuca as taro; in three others he left it untranslated, adding an erroneous footnote in one case. This paper argues that, in the climate of his times, the translator acted as he did because, simply, he could not believe that manioc would have been present on Easter Island in 1770. It also argues that the evidence greatly strengthens the case for prehistoric American Indian influence on Easter Island and other islands of eastern Polynesia​

Source: Langdon, Robert. “Manioc, a Long Concealed Key to the Enigma of Easter Island.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 154, no. 3, 1988, pp. 324–36

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Revisiting Warfare, Monument Destruction, and the ‘Huri Moai’ Phase in Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Culture History
Abstract:

Warfare is widely accepted as a transformative factor in human history. However, as warfare is not inevitable in human groups, archaeologists must critically assess the empirical evidence for war and its importance in the past. Here, we reevaluate the culture history of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), often interpreted as a case of warfare resulting in social upheaval. Common accounts hold that, prior to European contact, clan groups eventually ceased making moai statues and statue platforms (ahu), battled with obsidian spears, sought refuge in fortified caves, and toppled rivals’ moai in a prolonged period of internecine warfare termed the “Huri Moai” phase. Examining this culture historical framework and evidence for warfare and monument destruction, we find a lack of support in archaeological or historical records for a pre-contact Huri Moai phase. Overall, these findings highlight how archaeologists must carefully evaluate assumptions about the prevalence of violence and war in the past given the evidence for each case. In the case of Rapa Nui, our prior understanding of the island’s culture history is in need of fundamental revision.
​

Source: Di Napoli, R. J., Lipo, C. P. and Hunt, T. L. (2020) “Revisiting warfare, monument destruction, and the ‘Huri Moai’ phase in Rapa Nui (Easter Island) culture history”, Journal of Pacific Archaeology, 12(1), pp. 1–24. ​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Three Mysteries of Easter Island
Overview:

On the morning of Easter Sunday in 1722, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen landed on an un charted, thickly populated island in the Pacific 2,000 miles due west of the Chil ean coast and 1,100 miles southeast of Pitcairn, the nearest inhabited island. Roggeveen called his discovery Easter Island. He found a lava-covered strip of land 13 miles long and seven miles across at its widest point, practically destitute of vegetation, hemmed in by extinct volcanoes and precipitous cliffs 1,000 feet high, and covered with a weird profusion of ancient human relics which ever since have remained one of the principal puzzles of anthropology.​

Source Wolff, Werner. “Three Mysteries of Easter Island.” Scientific American, vol. 180, no. 2, 1949, pp. 50–55.

 

[Fabio Picasso]

A Contribution to the Craniology of the Easter Islanders
Abstract:
The object of this paper is to put on record a description of the skulls of the Easter Islanders, and to give some indications as to the place of this race within the human stock, postponing a more comprehensive survey of the inhabitants of the South Sea until more material is available. By good fortune, the author has been enabled to study skulls from Easter Island-or, as it is often but apparently not quite correctly called, Rapanui-in various collections. The largest number was found in the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. These skulls were almost all collected in 1914-15 by Mrs-Routledge, whose book contains valuable information about the history and the ethnology of the island. A second collection was that of the Ethnographical Museum in Leiden. These skulls were purchased in 1885 from a man of the name of J. Weisser*. Eleven more skulls from the British Museum (Natural History) were added to these. They were brought home by the late Lord Crawford who in 1903 had obtained them from a native while in Easter Island (see Nicoll, 1908).

Source: von Bonin, Gerhardt. “A Contribution to the Craniology of the Easter Islanders.” Biometrika, vol. 23, no. 3/4, 1931, pp. 249–70.​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Moving and Movable Images in Easter Island Custom and Myth
Overview:

Were Easter Island small wooden images formerly used in a sacred puppet theatre? Both J. Macmillan Brown and Walter Knoche have advanced this theory and have tried to support it by rationalising the native myths. Alfred M?traux has questioned both the hypothesis and the interpretation of data. My survey will show that the question and the arguments about its answer have obscured dramatic native beliefs about three different types of images and nascent theatrical effects achieved in their use. The three types, all representing human beings, are the small, wooden, skeleton-like carvings, the great stone statues, and the reed constructions. Myths narrate that the wooden carvings and the stone statues formerly had the power of movement. No comparable narratives concern the reed images but their use may suggest how Tahitians animated their wickerwork image of Maui, which in 1768 Captain Cook saw being carried but not used

Source: Luomala, Katharine. “Moving and movable images in Easter Island custom and myth.” The Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 82, no. 1, 1973, pp. 28–46​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

The Heterogeneity of Small Sculptures on Easter Island before 1886
Overview:​

Easter Island art has a unique reputation for its sophisticated originality but also for its repetitious monotony. An ethnologist, art student, or dealer is expected to recognize any sculpture in stone or wood from Easter Island and identify it by its proper Rapanui name as a moai kavakava, moai papa, rei miro, tahonga, ua, and so on. It therefore came as a great surprise to the scientific world when Lavachery ( 1939), during the Franco-Belgian Expedition to Easter Island in 1934, discovered such a quantity ofheterogeneous petroglyphs all over the barren landscape that he, as the only archaeologist of
the expedition, devoted all his fieldwork to the study and registration of this so far totally overlooked aspect of Easter Island art.

Source: Heyerdahl, Thor. “The Heterogeneity of Small Sculptures on Easter Island before 1886.” Asian Perspectives, vol. 22, no. 1, 1979, pp. 9–31​

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Female Stone Figures on Easter Island.
Overview:

During work on Easter Island in 1957-58 the scientific mission of the University of Chile, composed of R. Vargas and the author, devoted part of its archaeological activities to excavations in the Rano Raraku area. Among the results obtained the discovery of female stone figures deserves special mention, given the strictly male character of all moai hitherto known. In two cases completed sculptures were found set up in vertical position on the outward slope of Rano Raraku. Other figures still under construction were investigated in a quarry almost on top of the crater. Here follows a summary of the new data​

Source: Barthel, Thomas S. “Female Stone Figures on Easter Island.” The Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 67, no. 3, 1958, pp. 252–55

 

[Fabio Picasso]

Barthel, Thomas S. “The ‘Talking Boards’ of Easter Island.” Scientific American, vol. 198, no. 6, 1958, pp. 61–72.
Overview:

The fascinating job of deciphering the early writings of mankind is beginning to run short of material. For well over a century scholars have found plenty to occupy them in the hieroglyphs and cuneiform tablets of the ancient civilizations of the Near East. But that task is now just about completed. The decipherment of these writings, which began early in the 19th century when Jean-Fran<;ois Champollion brilliantly cracked the Egyptian hieroglyphs by means of the Rosetta Stone, has come to its last glorious chapter with the recent solving of the Hittite and Minoan scripts.​

Source: Barthel, Thomas S. “The ‘Talking Boards’ of Easter Island.” Scientific American, vol. 198, no. 6, 1958, pp. 61–72.