Easter Island

Easter Island (Spanish: Isla de Pascua, Rapa Nui: Rapa Nui) is a special territory of Chile located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. It is famous for its nearly 1,000 large stone statues called moai, created by the early Rapa Nui people. In 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, and much of the island is protected within Rapa Nui National Park.

Experts are not sure exactly when the first Polynesian people arrived on the island. Some believe it was around the year 800, while others think it may have been closer to 1200. These early inhabitants built a rich culture, shown by the many huge stone statues and other artifacts they left behind. By the time Europeans arrived in 1722, the island's population had grown to between 2,000 and 3,000 people.

Over time, the island faced many challenges. Diseases brought by Europeans, slave raiding by Peruvians in the 1860s, and people moving to other islands like Tahiti greatly reduced the population. At one point, only 111 native people remained. In 1888, Chile annexed Easter Island, and in 1966, the Rapa Nui people became Chilean citizens. In 2007, the island became a "special territory" of Chile.

Today, Easter Island is one of the most remote places where people live. The closest inhabited land is Pitcairn Island, over 2,000 kilometers away. According to the 2017 Chilean census, about 7,750 people live on the island, with many identifying as Rapa Nui.

Etymology

The name "Easter Island" was given by the first European to see the island, Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen. He found it on Easter Sunday in 1722 while looking for a place called "Davis Land". In Dutch, he called it Paasch-Eyland, which means "Easter Island". In Spanish, the island is called Isla de Pascua, also meaning "Easter Island".

Today, the Polynesian name for the island is Rapa Nui, meaning "Big Rapa". This name came after difficult times in the 1860s. Some believe the island's original name was Rapa, and that another island was named after it. The phrase "Te pito o te henua" has been translated as "The Navel of the World". It originally meant one of the three points of land at the ends of the island. There are also other names that have been used for the island, such as "Te pito o te kainga a Hau Maka" and "Mata ki te rangi".

History

Introduction

The island was first settled by a group of people led by a chief named Hotu Matu'a. They came from a place called Marae Renga and arrived in two canoes. At the time, there was already one person living there named Nga Tavake 'a Te Rona. They settled in different parts of the island, and Hotu's heir, Tu'u ma Heke, was born there. The leader Tu'u ko Iho is known for bringing the large statues called moai to the island.

The people of Easter Island are part of Southeast Polynesia. They built special places with statues called marae and ahu, similar to other parts of Eastern Polynesia. When Europeans first arrived, the population was about 3,000 to 4,000 people.

By the 15th century, the island was divided into two groups. The western and northern part was controlled by the Tu'u, including the royal Miru family, while the eastern part belonged to the 'Otu 'Itu. Fighting between these groups happened for many years. This led to famine, loss of homes, and a breakdown of society. Many people lived in underground shelters.

Rapa Nui settlement

The island was likely settled between the years 400 and 1300 CE, with the best estimate being around the 12th century. The first settlement was at a place called Anakena, which offered good protection and a sandy beach for canoes. However, other sites were settled even earlier.

The early settlers probably came from places like the Gambier Islands or the Marquesas Islands. Some theories suggest they may have come from South America because of the presence of the sweet potato, which originated there. Recent studies show that there was contact between Pacific and South American peoples around 800 years ago.

When the explorer James Cook visited the island, a crew member from Bora Bora could communicate with the local people.

Ecocide hypothesis

Some researchers have suggested that the people of Easter Island cut down too many trees, leading to environmental problems. This made it hard to build boats and grow food. Over time, the population may have declined due to these issues.

Criticism of the ecocide hypothesis

Other researchers argue that there is not enough evidence to support the idea that the island's society collapsed because of environmental problems. They point out that the population may have actually grown until European contact. Diseases brought by Europeans, along with raids and exploitation, had a bigger impact on the population decline.

European contact

The first European to visit the island was Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen in 1722. His visit led to the death of some islanders. Later visitors included Spanish ships in 1770 and British explorer James Cook in 1774. Cook reported that some of the statues had been knocked down.

19th century

In the 1860s, many people were taken from the island against their will to work in Peru. This, along with diseases like smallpox, greatly reduced the population. Missionaries arrived in the 1860s, and by 1868, most of the remaining people had become part of the Roman Catholic Church. Tuberculosis also caused many deaths.

20th century

In the early 1900s, the island was managed by a sheep-farming company, and the local people were forced to work there. In 1966, the island was reopened to the public, and the people gained Chilean citizenship. A Mataveri International Airport was built in 1965, allowing easier travel.

21st century

In recent years, the island has faced issues like illegal fishing and forest fires. Tourism was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic but has since resumed. The local community continues to work on preserving their culture and land rights.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Easter Island

Easter Island is one of the most remote places where people live. The closest place with people living there is Pitcairn Island, which is far away—about 1,200 miles to the west. The island is shaped roughly like a triangle, and it covers about 64 square miles. It doesn’t have any rivers, but it does have three lakes high up on the island.

Easter Island is a volcanic island, made from three old volcanoes that have stopped erupting. These volcanoes gave the island its shape and created many interesting rock formations. The island sits on the edge of a large underwater mountain range, formed by a hot spot deep in the Earth.

See also: Climate of Chile

Easter Island has a warm, rainy climate. Temperatures don’t get too hot or too cold because the ocean around it keeps things steady. The rainiest time of year is usually in May, and the warmest months are around February. The island rarely sees strong storms because it is far from where big weather systems usually travel.

Ecology

Easter Island, together with its closest neighbour, the tiny island of Isla Salas y Gómez, is recognized by scientists as a special area called the Rapa Nui tropical broadleaf forests. Long ago, the island had thick forests, but today they are gone. Studies of old pollen, tree marks left by lava, and roots in the soil show that the island once had many trees, shrubs, ferns, and grasses. One big palm tree, related to the Chilean wine palm, used to grow there but is now gone. Rats brought by the first people may have helped reduce the palm trees, but humans cut them down for building and other uses.

The loss of trees changed the island. Without trees, there was less rain, and the land became dry. By the mid-1900s, most of the island was covered in grass and a special plant called nga'atu or bulrush in the crater lakes. Before humans arrived, Easter Island had many seabirds, but most of them are no longer there. Scientists are still learning about the ocean animals around the island, like different kinds of whales that might visit.

Trees are now rare on the island. Some people believe the early islanders cut down too many trees while moving big statues called moai to their places. Others think changes in climate also played a part. The island has faced soil erosion and farming challenges over the years. Scientists continue to study how the island's environment changed and what it means for its history.

Culture

Mythology

Main article: Rapa Nui mythology

Easter Island has many important myths. Some of the most important myths include:

• Tangata manu, the Birdman cult which was practised until the 1860s.
• Makemake, an important god.
• Aku-aku, the guardians of the sacred family caves.
• Moai-kava-kava a ghost man of the Hanau epe (long-ears.)
• Hekai ite umu pare haonga takapu Hanau epe kai noruego, the sacred chant to appease the aku-aku before entering a family cave.

Stone work

The people of Easter Island had a Stone Age culture and used local stone in many ways:

• Basalt, a hard, dense stone used for tools and some of the statues called moai.
• Obsidian, a volcanic glass with sharp edges used for sharp tools and the eyes of the moai.
• Red scoria from Puna Pau, a very light red stone used for special hats on the moai.
• Tuff from Rano Raraku, an easier rock to work with that was used for most of the moai.

Moai (statues)

Main article: Moai

The large stone statues, or moai, for which Easter Island is famous, were carved between 1100–1680 CE. In total, 887 of these stone statues have been found on the island and in museums. Though often called "Easter Island heads", the statues have bodies, most ending at the top of the thighs; a few are complete figures that kneel with their hands over their stomachs. Some upright moai have become buried up to their necks by shifting soils.

Almost all moai were carved from a type of volcanic ash called tuff, found at Rano Raraku. The islanders who carved them used only stone tools called toki, mainly made from basalt. These tools were sharpened by chipping off a new edge when dull. While carving, the volcanic stone was splashed with water to soften it. While many teams worked on different statues at the same time, a single moai took a team of five or six men about a year to complete. Each statue represented the head of a family.

Only a quarter of the statues were installed in their final places. Nearly half stayed in the quarry at Rano Raraku, and the rest were elsewhere, probably on their way to their intended locations. The largest moai raised on a platform is known as "Paro". It weighs 82 tonnes and is almost 10 metres long. Several other statues of similar weight were moved to special stone platforms on the north and south coasts.

There are different ideas about how the statues were moved. One method might have been to use a Y-shaped sledge pulled with ropes made from strong tree bark. Anywhere from 180 to 250 men were needed to pull a moai, depending on its size. Some 50 of the statues were re-erected in modern times using traditional methods.

Another method that might have been used was to rock the statue back and forth with ropes to make it move forward. This would fit the legend of the Mo'ai 'walking' to their final spots. This might have been managed by as few as 15 people.

There is debate about how making the moai affected the island’s environment. Some believe that creating the moai caused deforestation and even fights over scarce resources.

In 2011, a large moai statue was dug up from the ground. During the same digging, some larger moai were found to have special designs on their backs, shown by digging deep into the ground.

In 2020, a car crashed into and damaged a moai statue due to brake failure. No one was hurt in the incident.

• Moais

[Tukuturi](/wiki/Rano_Raraku#Tukuturi), an unusual bearded kneeling moai

All fifteen standing moai at [Ahu Tongariki](/wiki/Ahu_Tongariki), excavated and restored in the 1990s

[Ahu Akivi](/wiki/Ahu_Akivi), one of the few inland ahu, with the only moai facing the ocean

Ahu (stone platforms)

Ahu are stone platforms. Many were changed during or after a time when statues were moved. Many became places to keep bones, one was opened with explosives, and Ahu Tongariki was moved inland by a wave. Of the 313 known ahu, 125 had moai – usually just one, probably because of the time and trouble to move them. Ahu Tongariki, one kilometre from Rano Raraku, had the most and tallest moai, 15 in total. Other notable ahu with moai are Ahu Akivi, restored in 1960, Nau Nau at Anakena and Tahai. Some moai may have been made from wood and were lost.

The classic parts of an ahu design are:

• A rear wall several feet high, usually facing the sea
• A front wall made of rectangular basalt slabs called paenga
• A layer of red scoria that went over the front wall (platforms built after 1300)
• A sloping ramp in the inland part of the platform, extending outward like wings
• A pavement of even-sized, round water-worn stones called poro
• A line of stones before the ramp
• A paved area before the ahu called marae
• Inside the ahu was a fill of rubble.

On top of many ahu would have been:

• Moai on square "pedestals" looking inland, the ramp with the poro before them.
• Special hats called pukao on the moai heads (platforms built after 1300).
• When a ceremony took place, "eyes" were placed on the statues. The whites of the eyes were made of coral, the iris was made of obsidian or red scoria.

Ahu developed from traditional Polynesian marae. In this context, ahu referred to a small structure sometimes covered with a thatched roof where special objects, including statues, were kept. The ahu were usually next to the marae or main central court where ceremonies took place, though on Easter Island, ahu and moai grew to much larger sizes. There the marae is the unpaved area before the ahu. The biggest ahu is 220 metres long and holds 15 statues, some of which are 9 metres high. The filling of an ahu was sourced locally (apart from broken, old moai, fragments of which have been used in the fill). Individual stones are mostly far smaller than the moai, so less work was needed to transport the raw material, but leveling the ground for the area and filling the ahu was hard work.

Ahu are found mostly on the coast, where they are spread out densely and fairly evenly. The exceptions are the western slopes of Mount Terevaka and the Rano Kau and Poike headlands, where they are much fewer. These are the three areas with the least low-lying coastal land and, apart from Poike, the furthest areas from Rano Raraku. One ahu with several moai was recorded on the cliffs at Rano Kau in the 1880s but had fallen to the beach before the Routledge expedition. At least three recorded on Poike in the 1930s have also since disappeared.

Stone walls

One of the highest-quality examples of Easter Island stone work is the rear wall of the ahu at Vinapu. Made without mortar by shaping hard basalt rocks of up to 7,000 kg to match each other exactly, it has a superficial similarity to some Inca stone walls in South America.

Stone houses

Among the various structures, the hare paenga, hare oka, tupa, hare moa, and the distinctive stone houses of Orongo village stand out for their unique designs and functions.

The hare paenga, commonly called "boat houses," were the main homes in ancient Rapa Nui. Their design had an oval shape made from carefully shaped basalt slabs called paenga stones, which supported a roof made of grass that looked like an upside-down boat. This shape was good for the island's strong winds. These homes varied in size, with some up to 45 meters long, showing they were used by families or for big gatherings.

The hare oka were round stone structures whose specific uses are still not well known. Close to these were the tupa, which looked similar but had a special purpose. Tupa were usually near the coast and were lived in by priests who watched the stars, showing how important astronomy was in Rapa Nui culture.

Important to Rapa Nui villages were the hare moa, long stone areas designed to keep chickens. Since chickens were a valuable food source and maybe used in special events, these structures were placed in villages to watch over and protect the birds.

The village of Orongo has a special design. Here, the usual hare paenga design was changed; instead of grass roofs, the homes were built completely from flat basalt slabs from the Rano Kao crater. These stone houses, built around 1400, show how the village was built to handle tough coastal weather and use the basalt stone that was available. The entrances to these homes were very low, so people had to crawl to get in, which may have helped protect against bad weather and made the structure stronger.

Petroglyphs

Easter Island has one of the richest collections of rock carvings in all Polynesia. Around 1,000 places with more than 4,000 carvings are known. Designs and pictures were cut into rock for many reasons: to create symbols, to mark a place, or to remember a person or event. There are different themes in the carvings around the island, with a lot of Birdmen at Orongo. Other subjects include sea turtles, Komari and Makemake, the main god of the Tangata manu or Birdman group.

• Petroglyphs

[Makemake](/wiki/Makemake_\(mythology\)) with two [birdmen](/wiki/Tangata_Manu), carved from red [scoria](/wiki/Scoria)

Fish [petroglyph](/wiki/Petroglyph) found near [Ahu Tongariki](/wiki/Ahu_Tongariki)

Caves

The island and nearby Motu Nui have many caves, many of which show signs of being used by people in the past for growing food and as safe places, including entrances that were made narrower and spaces to hide. Many caves are part of the myths and stories of the Rapa Nui.

Stone aerophone

Main article: Pu o Hiro

The Pu o Hiro (“Trumpet of Hiro”) is a 1.25 metres high ancient stone instrument on the north coast of Easter Island. It was once used by the Rapa Nui as a musical tool in events to ask for rain. The stone is covered with carvings called komari which represent fertility. By blowing wind into the top hole it makes a deep, loud sound to call the god of rain Hiro in Polynesian stories.

Rongorongo

Main article: Rongorongo

Easter Island once had a possible way of writing called rongorongo. The marks include pictures and shapes; the texts were cut into wood upside down. It was first talked about by French missionary Eugène Eyraud in 1864. At that time, several islanders said they could read the writing, but according to tradition, only leaders and priests could ever read it, and none survived the attacks on the islanders and later diseases. Even though many have tried, the remaining texts have not been read, and it is not even sure that they are really a way of writing. Part of the problem is that very little has survived: only two dozen texts, none of which remain on the island. There are also only a couple of similarities with the petroglyphs on the island.

Wood carving

Wood was not easy to find on Easter Island during the 18th and 19th centuries, but some very detailed and special carvings have been found in museums around the world. Some special forms include:

• Reimiro, a neck piece or breast ornament of crescent shape with a head at one or both tips. The same design appears on the flag of Rapa Nui. Two Rei Miru at the British Museum have rongorongo marks.
• Moko Miro, a man with a lizard head. The Moko Miro was used as a tool because of the legs, which formed a handle shape. If it was not held by hand, dancers wore it around their necks during parties. The Moko Miro would also be placed at the door to keep a house safe from harm. It would be hanging from the roof or stuck in the ground. The original form had eyes made from white shells, and the pupils were made of obsidian.
• Moai kavakava are male carvings and the Moai Paepae are female carvings. These detailed human figures, carved from Toromiro pine, represent family ancestors. Sometimes these statues were used in events to ask for plant growth; “the first picking of fruits was piled around them as gifts”. When the statues were not used, they were wrapped in bark cloth and kept at home. There are times when islanders would pick up the figures like dolls and dance with them. The earlier figures are rare and generally show a male figure with a thin body and a small beard. The figures' ribs and bones are shown and many examples have cuts on various parts of the body but more specifically, on the top of the head. The female figures, rarer than the males, show the body as flat and often with the female's hand across the body. The figures, although some were quite large, were worn as decorations around a man's neck. The more figures worn, the more important the man. The figures have a shiny surface from being handled and touched by people.^{[citation needed]}
• Ao, a large dancing tool

21st-century culture

The Rapanui hold an yearly celebration, the Tapati, since 1975 around the start of February to celebrate Rapa Nui culture. In 2016, local band Topatangi played the Tapati celebration. The islanders also have a national football team and three places to dance in the town of Hanga Roa. Other cultural activities include a musical tradition that mixes South American and Polynesian styles and woodcarving.

Sports

The Chilean part of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series takes place on the Island of Rapa Nui.

Tapati festival

Tapati Rapa Nui festival ("week festival" in the local language) is an yearly two-week long celebration of Easter Island culture. The Tapati is centered around a contest between two families/ clans competing in different events to earn points. The winning group has their candidate named ‘queen’ of the island for the next year. The contests are a way to keep and celebrate traditional cultural activities such as cooking, making jewelry, woodcarving, and canoeing.

Demographics

Further information: Europeans in Oceania § Easter Island

The population of Easter Island grew to 5,761 in the 2012 census, up from 3,791 in 2002. Most people living there today have roots in the island's original Rapa Nui people, with many also having family from mainland Chile.

Easter Island's traditional language is Rapa Nui, which is related to languages like Hawaiian and Tahitian. However, the official language is Spanish, as Easter Island is part of Chile. While many people know some Rapa Nui, Spanish is now the main language spoken, especially by younger generations. Efforts are being made to keep the Rapa Nui language alive.

Administration and legal status

Main articles: Isla de Pascua (commune) and Isla de Pascua Province

Easter Island is a special territory of Chile, sharing this status with Juan Fernández since 2007. It is part of the Valparaíso Region and is its own province and commune, including nearby islets and rocks, as well as Isla Salas y Gómez, far to the east. Local leaders are chosen by the people for four-year terms.

In 2018, a new rule started, limiting visits from people not living there to 30 days. Earlier laws on the island had allowed lighter punishments for some serious crimes, but these were changed in 2021.

International relations

Easter Island has special groups that help with international connections, like the Migration and International Police Unit at Mataveri International Airport. There is also an Alliance Française that shares French culture and language.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Mataveri International Airport had flights to Papeete in French Polynesia. This helped the people of Easter Island stay connected with their history and celebrate events like the Festival of Pacific Arts every four years.

Notable people

Easter Island has many important people from its history. Some of the key figures include Hotu Matuꞌa, who is said to have founded the island, and Atamu Tekena, a missionary who helped the island become part of Chile. Other notable people are Angata, who led a rebellion in 1914, and Juan Edmunds Rapahango, who served as the island's mayor.

The island also has notable figures from outside its community. Felipe González de Ahedo was a Spanish navigator who annexed the island in 1770. Katherine Routledge was an English archaeologist who studied the island's history, and Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian adventurer who explored the island’s connections to other cultures.

Transportation

Easter Island has an airport called Mataveri International Airport, where special airplanes known as Boeing 787s land. Flights are provided by LATAM Chile, and sometimes LATAM Perú also offers flights during certain times of the year.