Are there cannibals on Easter Island?
Surprisingly few of the human remains from the island show actual evidence of injury, just 2.5 percent, and most of those showed evidence of healing, meaning that attacks were not fatal. Crucially, there is no evidence, beyond historical word-of-mouth, of cannibalism.
How were the Easter Island heads buried?
Most production of Moai had ceased in the early 1700s due to western contact. The two statues Van Tilburg’s team excavated had been almost completely buried by soils and rubble.
Why is Easter Island uninhabitable?
It is likely the decline of the palm and the rapid deforestation that took place on the island caused societal collapse and population collapse. Those who survived were forced to completely adapt to their changing environment. In December 1862, Peruvian slave raiders struck Easter Island.
What really happened on Easter Island?
In this story, made popular by geographer Jared Diamond’s bestselling book Collapse, the Indigenous people of the island, the Rapanui, so destroyed their environment that, by around 1600, their society fell into a downward spiral of warfare, cannibalism, and population decline.
How do you pronounce Isla de Pascua?
Isla de Pascua
- ees. – lah. deh. pahs. – kwah.
- is. – la. ðe. pas. – kwa.
- is. – la. de. pas. – cua.
What happened to the palm trees on Easter Island?
There is good evidence that the trees largely disappeared between 1200 and 1650. Assuming that wood was used to move statues, a popular proposal was formulated that the islanders, besotted with their moai, cut down all the palm trees in order to move statues.
How big is the head of the Easter Island Moai?
This monumental carving of the head and torso of a man is almost twice life-size. The proportions are typical of these statues, with the head one-third of the total height. Easter Island is famous for its stone statues of human figures, known as moai (meaning “statue”). The island is known to its inhabitants as Rapa Nui.
What is the main quarry on Easter Island?
The Main Quarry at Easter Island: Rano Raruku. One of largest moai ever carved on Easter Island waits in its bay at Rano Raruku. Phil Whitehouse. The main bodies of most of the moai statues at Easter Island were sculpted out of the volcanic tuff from the Rano Raraku quarry, the remains of an extinct volcano.
How did the moai get buried?
One of the things that the team discovered in the course of their work is that the Moai aren’t just heads. The statues also have bodies, which have become buried by rocks and sediment from natural erosion on the island. Being buried helped preserve the lower parts of the statues,…
What is special about eastereaster Island?
Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, is an island in the Pacific Ocean which is famous for immense, carved stone statues called moai.