One of the most interesting features of this island is its 887 giant monolithic statues named moai. Among all such vanished civilizations that of the former polynesian society on easter island remain unsurpassed in mystery and isolation. Easter island rapa nui has become widely known as a case of eco cide, where the. Except for the phd thesis of georgia lee, little attention was paid to the islands rock art to understand rapa nui civilization, even if more than four. F ew places on earth are as wellknown for their socalled mysteries as easter island, also known as rapa nui. Lonely planet chile and easter island pdf free download. Easter island had about 5,800 people living there in 2012.
Easter island flora doesnt have a great variety, unlike the other polynesian islands. Most scholars suspect that the moai were created to honor ancestors, chiefs, or other important personages, however, no written and little oral history exists on the island, so its impossible. A guide to easter island, chile national geographic. However, in spite of their abundance, there are around 600 moai distributed throughout the whole island and 397 are in the rano raraku quarry, there are. A major enigma in the recent history of easter island rapa nui fig. It is the easternmost outpost of the polynesian island world and is famous for its giant stone statues. Pdf easter island the forgotten book by the easter island. Walter knoche left an oeuvre of 308 osterinsel easter island an. The history of easter island has been a topic of intense debate and this paper is another entry into the story. Rapa nui easter island monument ahu locations explained by. The moai are some of the worlds most fascinating and widelyrecognised monolithic statues. Too often is the identity of easter island confined to giant stone sculptures.
This is a great website but i cant find the authors last name. Its inhabitants, the rapa nui, have endured famines, epidemics of disease and cannibalism, civil war, environmental collapse, slave raids, various colonial contacts, and have seen their population crash on more than one occasion. It is one of the most isolated islands in the world. They brought along a lot of knowhow about carving, masonry, and other gigantic building technology, and they will bring. We visited easter island in sept 2017 and have compiled this list of best easter island books for the curious traveler. Easter island demise what really happened on easter island. Easter island rapa nui provides a model of humaninduced environmental degradation. The mystery of easter island imagine arriving on a small island in the pacific ocean about halfway between the island of tahiti and the west coast of south america to find giant rock statues of humanlike figures greeting you along the coastline. Easter island is often given as a metaphor, a dire warning for all of human life on our planet. The islanders who lived on rapa nui easter island were amazing builders, creating huge statues that still exist there today. More stories from a womans world travelers tales pdf free download.
The world monuments fund on easter island opposite. Easter island ancient civilizations for kids and teachers. They are a powerful magician with a cigarette scarred surface island easter history essay. It lies in the pacific ocean more than 2,000 miles west of the nearest continent south america. Easter island could this happen to the whole planet. An answer for an enduring question barzin pakandam abstract easter island is the most isolated inhabited spot on earth, devoid of heavy timber and most resources. A brief history of easter islands incredible moai statues. What happened along the way that caused the island ecosystem to collapse. Easter island, chilean dependency in the eastern pacific ocean. The island is 90% covered by grassland, 5% by wooded land or crops and the remaining 5 % by sparse vegetation however, botanical and archaeological studies indicate that the vegetation wasnt always like this. The mysterious stone statues carved and erected by the rapa nui people have enthralled people since their discovery. A look at the origins of the holiest day on the christian calender. Easter island travel your ultimate tourism resource.
Easter island history unit with reading, writing, and mathlearn all about easter island with this 5day miniunit. A brief historical account is provided to the following on how. The history continues with the arrival and establishment of man on the island, his sociocultural development and his inter action with a relatively poor environment. Best womens spiritual travel writing travelers tales pdf. Virtual tour of the hidden history of ancient easter island. Easter island today, easter island also known as rapa nui is a primarily pastoral grassland island in the southeastern pacific ocean, some 3,600 kilometres west of chile. Geologically one of the youngest inhabited territories on earth, easter island, located in the midpacific ocean, was, for most of its history, one of the most isolated. Migrations and settlements, the evolution of a culture, wars between tribes, and ultimate decimation of a whole population define the course of easter island history. In 1995, unesco named easter island a world heritage site. I am doing a research project on easter island and i cant decide what website to use. Much research has been carried out on these famous statues and many of the damaged and fallen statues have since been restored around the island. From once existing in the numbers of only a bit more than a hundred people, there are today approximately 3000 people who share the rapa nui lineage, in a small society mainly driven by tourism.
Pdf fishing in easter island, a recent history 1950 2010. Radiocarbon dates for the earliest stratigraphic layers at anakena, easter island, and analysis of previous radiocarbon dates imply that the island was colonized late, about 1200 a. Easter island, located in the south pacific, has been included among the most. While the initial name of the island was considered to be te pito o te henua, which means the navel of the world, it was renamed in 1722 when the dutch explorer. The nearest island, which has people living on it, is pitcairn island and its 2,075km away. Easter island covers roughly 64 square miles in the south pacific ocean, and is located some 2,300 miles from chiles west coast and 2,500 miles east of.
Fishing in easter island, a recent history 1950 2010 article pdf available in latin american journal of aquatic research 424. The island s isolation, mysterious history, and fascinating stone moai statues generate a natural, appealing curiosity. Students will use reading, writing, and math skills while. J easter island history 6 02 book ofers 16 03 guest article. The people who found the island and lived there have quite an interesting story. Located on the remote chilean territory of easter island, they tell a mysterious story of the island s early people and their obsession with rock carvings. The abundance of archaeological evidence and historical debate has recently loaned itself to economists interested in using easters history as a case study for. Easter island history essay for essay on pandit jawaharlal nehru in hindi pdf. F or a long while it wasnt clear whether the island s native population originated in polynesia or south america. Learn more about easter island and its potential connection to extraterrestrials in this scene from season, earths black holes. On easter sunday, april 5, 1722, a dutch sea captain named jacob roggeveen landed his ship on an island known as te pito o te henua, meaning the center of the world.
One of the most remote habitable places on the earth, easter island, lies about 3200 km west of. More than 60% of these people descend from the native rapa nui people. Captain roggeveen renamed the island easter island. The events that happened there make it an icon of environmental degradation and collapse. For a tiny island of 64 square miles, with its nearest neighbors some 1,300 miles away, it has seen more than its fair share of controversy.
To its original inhabitants the island is known as rapa nui, and its population is predominantly of polynesian descent. The mystery of easter island travel smithsonian magazine. A travellers history of japan travellers history book pdf. This is what dutch sea captain jacob roggeveen found when he arrived there in 1722 on easter sunday. Pdf history of easter island on the rocks researchgate. It lies in the pacific ocean more than 2,000 miles west of the nearest. Pdf easter island, the key to south america jacques. Chilean antarctica, easter island, juan fernandez archipelago book. Easter island is most famous for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early rapa nui people. Katherine routledge is a central figure in the history of easter island, one of the worlds most remote and mysterious locales. On the road, in fact, a long maritime road with some islands inbetween, easter island is the last stop before south america. Yet, the first european travellers to the island marvelled at large and delicately carved statues covering the whole of the island.
The story of easter island reads like a preindustrial version of the lorax. Polynesians landed there, farmed, thrived, built their famous statues, and then things went very bad, very fast. Head of a moat on temporary exhibition at the seagram building in new york city. Easter island, also known as rapa nui, is a tiny island in the pacific ocean, thousands of kilometers away from its nearest neighbors. Fascinating history is present in an almost surreal way. New research challenges reason for easter island collapse. Easter island history the island itself many people have found easter island history very fascinating. Score a books total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book. Brien has explored more than 90 countries but his true passion is researching and writing about the ancient megalithic works found in peru, bolivia, mexico, easter island, egypt, england, and beyond.
By the time dutch explorersthe first europeans to reach the remote island arrived on easter day in 1722, the land was nearly barren. Using rapa nui as an example of ecocide, as diamond has called it, makes for a compelling narrative, but the reality of the islands tragic history is no less. The great sebastian englert, a priest and scientist who loved the islanders like his predecessor brother eyraud, came to the conclusion that the island s culture had been defined after the arrival of three consecutive invasions. Easter island, with an area of only 64 square miles, is the worlds most isolated scrap of habitable land. Born to a wealthy and prestigious english quaker family in 1866, katherine rebelled against victorian values, becoming one of. The authors, after careful consideration of natural.
One part of their paper i found particularly neat is that v. A reliable chronology is central to understanding the cultural, ecological, and demographic processes involved. He has appeared 15 times on the ancient aliens television series as well as numerous. Natural and anthropogenic drivers of cultural change on easter island. Easter island, or rapa nui, in the polynesian language, is a small remote island a few thousand miles west of south america. The moai or easter island heads or easter island statues, represent the most important pieces of rapa nui art and they have become its trademark. Easter island one of the most isolated islands in the world. Pdf on the geology of easter island sergei rjabchikov. Among the numerous questions regarding easter island many of them still unexplained, are the origin and the date of the first immigrants. Easter island is the place where history meets legend.
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