Easter Island

The easternmost inhabited island of Polynesia, a small volcanic one, about 2500 miles from South America and 1250 miles from Pitcairn Island, its nearest inhabited Polynesian neighbors. It was settled by the Polynesians early in 1st millennium AD and developed a horticultural economy. By 700 AD, the inhabitants built large stone platforms (ahu), some of cut stone, and between 1000-1700 AD these platforms supported rows of huge stone statues (moai), some with separate top knots. Shaped by stone tools, as there is no metal on the island, from quarries in volcanic craters, there are about 300 platforms and about 600 statues. By about 1700, the warrior chiefdoms were fighting and all the statues were toppled from their pedestals. The platforms were used for human burial in stone chambers inserted into the stonework. There is a village of stone houses and many petroglyphs. The Europeans discovered Easter Island in 1722, after which the culture and population. The islanders also carved on wooden boards in an undeciphered script, Rongorongo. Easter Island culture represents the cultural development an isolated human community.

4000 km from South America and 2000 km from the closest inhabited islands of Polynesia, Easter Island was settled by Polynesians by about ad 400. The megalithic stone platforms and statues were constructed between 700 and 1700, after which the culture and population declined, virtually to die out after European contact. Only occasional contacts occurred with South America (see sweet potato, Vinapu). The islanders erected stone statues weighing up to 100 tonnes and also carved on wooden boards in an undeciphered script (Rongorongo). Easter Island culture represents perhaps the most bizarre cultural development ever to occur in an isolated human community, and its decline may have been purely internal (through overpopulation or warfare for example). See also Orongo, Punapau, Rang Raraku.