How that was done is still a matter of dispute. Archaeologists have proposed other methods for moving the statues, using various combinations of log rollers, sledges and ropes. Apart from oral tradition, there is no historical record before the first European ships arrived. But evidence from many disciplines, such as the excavation of bones and weapons, the study of fossilized vegetation, and the analysis of stylistic changes in the statues and petroglyphs allows a rough historical sketch to emerge: the people who settled on the island found it covered with trees, a valuable resource for making canoes and eventually useful in transporting the moai.
They brought with them plants and animals to provide food, although the only animals that survived were chickens and tiny Polynesian rats. Artistic traditions, evolving in isolation, produced a rich imagery of ornaments for the chiefs, priests and their aristocratic lineages.
Too many trees had been cut down. The early moai were thinner, but these last statues have great curved bellies. Some archaeologists point to a layer of subsoil with many obsidian spear points as a sign of sudden warfare. Islanders say there was probably cannibalism, as well as carnage, and seem to think no less of their ancestors because of it. Smithsonian forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley, who has studied the bones of some individuals from the island, has found numerous signs of trauma, such as blows to the face and head.
But only occasionally, he says, did these injuries result in death. In any case, a population that grew to as many as 20, was reduced to only a few thousand at most when the captains of the first European ships counted them in the early 18th century. Over the next years, with visits by European and American sailors, French traders and missionaries, Peruvian slave raiders, Chilean imperialists and Scottish ranchers who introduced sheep and herded the natives off the land, fencing them into one small village , the Rapa Nui people were all but destroyed.
By there were only natives left on the island. The Chilean government claimed possession of Easter Island in and, in , designated it a national park, to preserve thousands of archaeological sites. Archaeologist Van Tilburg estimates that there could be as many as 20,00o sites on the island. Under growing pressure, the Chilean government is giving back a small number of homesteads to native families, alarming some archaeologists and stirring intense debate.
But though they remain largely dispossessed, the Rapa Nui people have re-emerged from the shadows of the past, recovering and reinventing their ancient art and culture. Carving a small wooden moai in his yard, Andreas Pakarati, who goes by Panda, is part of that renewal. I try to find a different point of view. The dancers and musicians of the Kari Kari company, shouting native chants and swaying like palms in the wind, are among the most striking symbols of renewal.
The people are feeling a lack of what they lost. Even the oldest and most traditional of artisans, like Benedicto Tuki, agree that tourists provide essential support for their culture—but he insisted, when we spoke, that the culture is intact, that its songs and skills carry ancient knowledge into the present. When I ask McCall, who has recorded the genealogies of island families since , how a culture could be transmitted through only people, he tugs at his scruffy blond mustache.
Sitting in his office at the University of Chile in Santiago, he is not sanguine. And now people are already clearing land and plowing it for agriculture, destroying archaeological sites. These cookies expire after a short time, or when you close your web browser after using our website.
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Load more. This platform is 18 meters long, has not been restored, and allows you to see the state in which the island was found by the first European explorers. The area of Ahu Te Peu is nestled in a fascinating landscape along the cliffs, which very few visitors go to, so the feeling of loneliness and isolation is overwhelming.
This is due to an old legend which tells of a widow that walked in the bay with a mouse in her mouth, a sign of mourning for the death of her husband, whose remains she buried here. This platform is intact and its moai lies in the position it was when it was knocked down by the Rapa Nui. Although most ceremonial platforms and their respective moai are found along the coast, there were also inland villages with ahus, especially in the agricultural regions.
It is characterized by its numerous petroglyphs designs carved into rock with motifs related to the sea and fishing. Your message has been sent correctly. Thank you very much. Archaeological sites Facebook. Rano Raraku The Rano Raraku volcano is one of the most incredible and extraordinary archaeological sites on the planet.
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