The History of Easter Island & The Moai Statues

Easter Island is one of the remotest populated islands on earth. It is most famous for the 900 or more huge stone heads called Moai which are only found here. But did you know that each of these Moai are in fact complete bodies, often buried up to their necks? The enigma surrounding these statues, as well as other features on the island is that there appear to have been two distinct populations in the distant past. One, which were and are the Polynesian people, and a mysterious race called the Long Ears who perhaps were the first inhabitants and possibly the makers of the largest of the Moai.

This show endeavors, through scientific study and oral traditions, to shed light on the enigmatic history of Easter Island for those who plan to visit, and for those that never will.

Is there evidence that South Americans visited and lived on Easter Island hundreds or even thousands of years before the first arrival of Europeans in the 18th century? Why were all of the trees cut down?

Easter Island (Rapa Nui: Rapa Nui, Spanish: Isla de Pascua) is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle. Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapa Nui people. In 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park.

Polynesian people settled on Easter Island in the first millennium AD, and created a thriving culture, as evidenced by the moai and other artifacts. However, human activity, the introduction of the Polynesian rat and overpopulation led to gradual deforestation and extinction of natural resources, which caused the demise of the Rapa Nui civilization. By the time of European arrival in 1722, the island's population had dropped to 2,000--3,000 from a high of approximately 15,000 just a century earlier. Diseases carried by European sailors and Peruvian slave raiding of the 1860s further reduced the Rapa Nui population, down to 111 in 1877.

Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. The nearest inhabited land (50 residents) is Pitcairn Island 2,075 kilometres (1,289 mi) away, the nearest town with a population over 500 is Rikitea on island Mangareva 2,606 km (1,619 mi) away, and the nearest continental point lies in central Chile, 3,512 kilometres (2,182 mi) away.

Easter Island is a special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888. Administratively, it belongs to the Valparaíso Region and more specifically, is the only commune of the Province Isla de Pascua. According to the 2012 census, it has about 5,800 residents, of which some 60% are descendants of the aboriginal Rapa Nui.

http://www.jamesswagger.com/ Interview by James Swagger with Brien Foerster @ Capricorn Radio.