Jump to content

Easter Island: Difference between revisions

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
rv unreferenced changes
←Replaced content with 'FAT MEXICANS'
Tag: blanking
Line 1: Line 1:
FAT MEXICANS
{{for|the album by Kris Kristofferson|Easter Island (album)}}
{{Redirect|Rapa Nui}}
{{pp-move-indef}}
<!-- {{Coord|27|7|S|109|22|W|region:CL_type:isle|display=title}} -->
{{Infobox settlement
<!-- See Template:Infobox settlement for additional fields and descriptions -->
| name = Easter Island
| native_name = ''Rapa Nui''
| native_name_lang = es
| other_name = Isla de Pascua
| settlement_type = Special Territory, [[Provinces of Chile|Province]] and [[Communes of Chile|Commune]]
| image_skyline =
| imagesize =
| image_alt =
| image_caption =
| image =
| image_flag = Flag of Rapa Nui, Chile.svg
| flag_size =
| flag_alt =
| flag_link =
| image_shield = Escudo de la Isla de Pascua.svg
| shield_size =
| shield_alt = Coat of arms
| shield_link =
| image_blank_emblem =
| nickname =
| motto =
| anthem =
| image_map = Easter Island map-en.svg
| mapsize =
| map_alt =
| map_caption = Easter Island map showing [[Terevaka]], [[Poike]], [[Rano Kau]], [[Motu Nui]], [[Orongo]], and [[Mataveri International Airport|Mataveri]]; major ahus are marked with [[moai]]
| image_map1 =
| mapsize1 =
| map_alt1 =
| map_caption1 =
| image_dot_map =
| dot_mapsize =
| dot_map_base_alt =
| dot_map_alt =
| dot_map_caption =
| dot_x = |dot_y =
| pushpin_map = Pacific Ocean
| pushpin_label_position = <!-- position of the pushpin label: left, right, top, bottom, none -->
| pushpin_label =
| pushpin_map_alt =
| pushpin_mapsize = <!--omit "px"-->
| pushpin_map_caption = Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean
| pushpin_map1 =
| pushpin_label_position1 =
| pushpin_label1 =
| pushpin_map_alt1 =
| pushpin_mapsize1 =
| pushpin_map_caption1 =
| latd = 27 |latm = 9 |lats = 0 |latNS = S
| longd = 109 |longm = 25.5 |longs = 0 |longEW = W
| coor_pinpoint = <!-- to specify exact location of coordinates (was coor_type) -->
| coordinates_region = CL-VL
| coordinates_display = inline,title
| coordinates_format = dms
| coordinates_footnotes =
<!-- location ------------------>
| subdivision_type = [[List of sovereign states|Country]]
| subdivision_name = [[Chile]]<!-- the name of the country -->
| subdivision_type1 = [[Regions of Chile|Region]]
| subdivision_name1 = [[Valparaíso Region|Valparaíso]]
| subdivision_type2 = [[Provinces of Chile|Province]]
| subdivision_name2 = [[Isla de Pascua]]
| subdivision_type3 = [[Communes of Chile|Commune]]
| subdivision_name3 = [[Isla de Pascua]]
<!-- established --------------->
| established_title =
| established_date =
| established_title1 =
| established_date1 =
| established_title2 =
| established_date2 =
| established_title3 = Special&nbsp;territory&nbsp;status
| established_date3 =
| founder =
| named_for =
<!-- seat, smaller parts ------->
| seat_type =
| seat = [[Hanga Roa]]
| parts_type = <!-- defaults to: Boroughs -->
| parts_style = <!-- list, coll (collapsed list), para (paragraph format) -->
| parts = <!-- parts text, or header for parts list -->
| p1 =
| p2 = <!-- etc., up to p50: for separate parts to be listed-->
<!-- government type, leaders -->
| government_footnotes =
| government_type = [[Municipality]]
| governing_body = [[Municipal council]]
| leader_party =
| leader_title = Provincial Governor
| leader_name = [[Carmen Cardinali Paoa]]
| leader_title1 = [[Alcalde]]
| leader_name1 = Luz Zasso Paoa
| total_type = <!-- to set a non-standard label for total area and population rows -->
| unit_pref = Metric
| area_footnotes = <ref name="INE">{{cite web |url= http://www.ine.cl/canales/chile_estadistico/censos_poblacion_vivienda/censo_pobl_vivi.php |title= National Statistics Institute |accessdate=1 May 2010}}</ref>
| area_magnitude = <!-- use only to set a special wikilink -->
| area_total_km2 = 163.6
| area_rank =
<!-- elevation ----------------->
| elevation_footnotes =
| elevation_m =
| elevation_ft =
| elevation_max_footnotes =
| elevation_max_m =
| elevation_max_ft =
| elevation_min_footnotes =
| elevation_min_m =
| elevation_min_ft =
<!-- population ---------------->
| population_footnotes = <ref name="INE"/>
| population_total = 5,806<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.censo.cl/2012/08/resultados_preliminares_censo_2012.pdf|title=Resultados Preliminares Censo de Población y Vivienda 2012|publisher=Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas|date=31 August 2012|language=Spanish}} Note: Data are preliminary.</ref>
| population_as_of = 2012 Census
| population_rank =
| population_density_km2 = auto <!-- for automatic calculation of any density field, use: auto -->
| population_blank1_title = [[Urban area|Urban]]
| population_blank1 =
| population_blank2_title = [[Rural area|Rural]]
| population_blank2 =
| population_demonym = <!-- demonym, ie. Liverpudlian for someone from Liverpool -->
| population_note =
| demographics_type1 =
| demographics1_footnotes = <ref name="INE"/>
| demographics1_title1 =
| demographics1_info1 =
| demographics1_title2 =
| demographics1_info2 =
| timezone = [[Time in Chile|EAST]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.world-time-zones.org/zones/chile-time.htm| accessdate= 2007-05-05| title= Chile Time |publisher=WorldTimeZones.org}}</ref>
| utc_offset = -6
| timezone_DST = [[Time in Chile|EASST]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.world-time-zones.org/zones/chile-summer-time.htm |accessdate=2007-05-05 |title=Chile Summer Time| publisher = WorldTimeZones.org}}</ref>
| utc_offset_DST = -5
<!-- postal codes, area code --->
| postal_code_type = <!-- enter ZIP code, Postcode, Post code, Postal code... -->
| postal_code =
| postal2_code_type = <!-- enter ZIP code, Postcode, Post code, Postal code... -->
| postal2_code =
| area_code_type = <!-- defaults to: Area code(s) -->
| area_code = 56
| geocode =
| registration_plate =
| twin1 =
| twin1_country =
| twin2 =
| twin2_country =
| blank_name_sec1 = [[Currency]]
| blank_info_sec1 = [[Chilean Peso|Peso]] ([[ISO 4217|CLP]])
| blank1_name_sec1 = [[Language]]
| blank1_info_sec1 = [[Spanish Language|Spanish]], [[Rapa Nui language|Rapa Nui]]
| blank2_name_sec1 =
| blank2_info_sec1 =
| blank_name_sec2 =
| blank_info_sec2 =
| blank1_name_sec2 =
| blank1_info_sec2 =
| blank2_name_sec2 =
| blank2_info_sec2 =
| website = [http://www.municipalidaddeisladepascua.cl/ Municipality of Isla de Pascua]
| footnotes = [[National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency|NGA]] UFI=-905269
}}
'''Easter Island''' ({{lang-rap|Rapa Nui}}, {{lang-es|Isla de Pascua|links=no}}) is a [[Polynesia]]n island in the southeastern [[Pacific Ocean]], at the southeasternmost point of the [[Polynesian Triangle]]. A special territory of [[Chile]] that was [[annexation|annexed]] in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called ''[[moai]]'', created by the early [[Rapanui]] people. It is a [[UNESCO]] [[World Heritage Site]], with much of the island protected within [[Rapa Nui National Park]]. In recent times the island has served as a warning of the cultural and environmental dangers of [[exploitation]]. [[ethnography|Ethnographers]] and [[archaeologists]] also blame diseases carried by European sailors and Peruvian [[slave raiding]] of the 1860s for devastating the local peoples.<ref name=peiser>B. Peiser (2005) [http://www.uri.edu/artsci/ecn/starkey/ECN398%20-Ecology,%20Economy,%20Society/RAPANUI.pdf ''From Genocide to Ecocide: The Rape of Rapa Nui''] Energy & Environment volume 16 No. 3&4 2005</ref>

Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world.<ref>[http://www.portalrapanui.cl/easterisland/index.htm "Welcome to Rapa Nui - Isla de Pascua - Easter Island"] on Portal RapaNui, the island's official website</ref> The nearest inhabited land (50 residents) is [[Pitcairn Island]] at {{convert|2075|km|mi}}, and the nearest continental point lies in central Chile, at {{convert|3512|km|mi}}.

The island belongs to Chile's [[Valparaíso Region]] and more specifically, is the only one [[Communes of Chile|commune]] of the [[Provinces of Chile|Province]] '''Isla de Pascua'''.<ref>[http://www.leychile.cl/Navegar?idNorma=1026285 List of Chilean Provinces, Congreso Nacional], retrieved on 20 February 2013</ref>

==Name==
The name "Easter Island" was given by the island's first recorded European visitor, the [[Dutch people|Dutch]] explorer [[Jacob Roggeveen]], who encountered it on [[Easter Sunday]] (5 April<ref>[http://www.assa.org.au/edm "Calculate the Date of Easter Sunday]", Astronomical Society of South Australia. Retrieved 7 February 2013.</ref>) 1722, while searching for [[Edward Davis (buccaneer)|Davis or David's island]]. Roggeveen named it ''Paasch-Eyland'' (18th century [[Dutch language|Dutch]] for "Easter Island").<ref name=jrjournal>An English translation of the originally Dutch journal by Jacob Roggeveen, with additional significant information from the log by Cornelis Bouwman, was published in: Andrew Sharp (ed.), The Journal of Jacob Roggeveen (Oxford 1970).</ref> The island's official Spanish name, ''Isla de Pascua'', also means "Easter Island".

The current Polynesian name of the island, ''Rapa Nui'', "Big Rapa", was coined after the slave raids of the early 1860s, and refers to the island's topographic resemblance to the island of [[Rapa Iti|Rapa]] in the [[Bass Islands (French Polynesia)|Bass Islands]] of the [[Austral Islands]] group.<ref>William Thompson (1891) [http://web.archive.org/web/20071224061303/http://www.rongorongo.org/thomson/453.html Invention of the name "Rapa Nui"]</ref> However [[Thor Heyerdahl]] argued that ''Rapa'' was the original name of Easter Island, and that ''Rapa Iti'' was named by refugees from there.<ref>{{harvnb|Heyerdahl|1961}} Heyerdahl's view was that the two islands were about the same size, and that "big" and "small" were not physical but historical attributes, "big" indicating the original. In reality, however, Easter Island is more than four times bigger than Rapa Iti. Heyerdahl also stated that there is an island called "Rapa" in [[Lake Titicaca]] in South America, but so far there is no map available showing an island of that name in the lake.</ref>

The phrase ''Te pito o te henua'' has been said to be the original name of the island since [[Alphonse Pinart]] gave it the romantic translation "the Navel of the World" in his ''Voyage à l'Île de Pâques'', published in 1877. However, there are two words pronounced ''pito'' in Rapa Nui, one meaning 'navel' and one 'end', and the phrase can thus also mean "land's end". This was apparently its actual meaning: [[William Churchill (ethnologist)|William Churchill]] (1912) inquired about the phrase and was told that there were three ''te pito o te henua'', these being the three capes (land's ends) of the island. He was unable to elicit a Polynesian name for the island itself, and concluded that there may not have been one.<ref>William Churchill, 1912. ''The Rapanui Speech And The Peopling Of Southeast Polynesia''</ref> According to Barthel (1974), [[oral tradition]] has it that the island was first named ''Te pito o te kainga a Hau Maka'' "The little piece of land of Hau Maka".<ref>Thomas S. Barthel: The Eighth Land: The Polynesian Settlement of Easter Island (Honolulu: University of Hawaii 1978; originally published in German in 1974)</ref> Another name, ''Mata ki te rangi'', means "Eyes looking to the sky".{{citation needed|date=November 2011}}

{{anchor|Geography}}
==Location and physical geography==
[[File:Easter island and south america.jpg|thumb|160px|right|Easter Island, ''Salas y Gómez Islands'', South America and the islands in between]]
Easter Island is one of the world's most isolated inhabited islands. Its closest inhabited neighbour is [[Pitcairn Island]], {{convert|2075|km|mi|abbr=on}} to the west, with fewer than 100 inhabitants. The nearest continental point lies in central Chile near [[Concepción, Chile|Concepción]], at {{convert|3512|km|mi}}. Easter Island's [[latitude]] is similar to that of [[Caldera, Chile]], and it lies {{convert|3510|km|mi|abbr=on}} west of continental Chile at its nearest point (between [[Lota, Chile|Lota]] and [[Lebu, Chile|Lebu]] in the [[Biobío Region]]). [[Isla Salas y Gómez]], {{convert|415|km|mi|abbr=on}} to the east, is closer but is uninhabited. Archipelago [[Tristan da Cunha]] in southern Atlantic competes for the title of the most remote island, lying {{convert|2430|km|mi|0}} from [[Saint Helena]] island and {{convert|2816|km|mi|0}} from South African coast.

The island is about {{convert|24.6|km|mi|abbr=on}} long by {{convert|12.3|km|mi|abbr=on}} at its widest point; its overall shape is triangular. It has an area of {{convert|163.6|km²}}, and a maximum altitude of {{convert|507|m|ft|sp=us}}. There are three ''Rano'' (freshwater [[crater lake]]s), at [[Rano Kau]], [[Rano Raraku]] and [[Rano Aroi]], near the summit of Terevaka, but no permanent streams or rivers.

==Geology==
Easter Island is a [[volcanic]] [[high island]], consisting mainly of three extinct coalesced [[volcano]]es: [[Terevaka]] (altitude 507 metres) forms the bulk of the island, while two other volcanoes, [[Poike]] and [[Rano Kau]], form the eastern and southern headlands and give the island its roughly triangular shape. Lesser cones and other volcanic features include the crater [[Rano Raraku]], the [[cinder cone]] [[Puna Pau]] and many volcanic caves including [[lava tubes]].<ref name="gvp">
{{cite gvp
|vnum = 1506-011
|title = Easter Island
|accessdate = 2010-03-18}}</ref> Poike used to be a separate island until volcanic material from Terevaka united it to the larger whole. The island is dominated by [[hawaiite]] and [[basalt]] flows which are rich in iron and show affinity with [[igneous rock]]s found in the [[Galápagos Islands]].<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.springerlink.com/content/q752224584lr8qk1/fulltext.pdf|last1=Baker|first1=P. E.|last2=Buckley|first2=F.|last3=Holland|first3=J. G. |title=Petrology and geochemistry of Easter Island|journal= Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology|volume=44|pages=85–100|year=1974|doi=10.1007/BF00385783|bibcode=1974CoMP...44...85B|issue=2}}</ref>

Easter Island and surrounding islets such as [[Motu Nui]] and [[Motu Iti (Rapa Nui)|Motu Iti]] form the summit of a large volcanic mountain rising over {{convert|2000|m}} from the sea bed. The mountain is part of the Sala y Gómez Ridge, a (mostly submarine) [[mountain range]] with dozens of [[seamount]]s. The range begins with [[Pukao (Seamount)|Pukao]] and next [[Moai (seamount)|Moai]], two seamounts to the west of Easter Island, and extends {{convert|2700|km|mi|abbr=on}} east to the [[Nazca Ridge]].<ref name=petro1>[http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/petroj/online/Volume_38/Issue_06/html/ega038_gml.html#hd1 Inst of Petrology Vol 38 Haase, Stoffers & Garbe-Schoneberg 1]{{dead link|date=June 2012}}</ref> The ridge was formed by the [[Nazca Plate]] floating over the [[Easter hotspot]].<ref>[http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/petroj/online/Volume_38/Issue_06/html/ega038_gml.html#hd15 Inst of Petrology Vol 38 The Petrogenetic Evolution of Lavas from Easter Island and Neighbouring Seamounts, Near-ridge Hotspot Volcanoes in the SE Pacific – Haase, Stoffers & Garbe-Schoneberg 15]{{dead link|date=June 2012}}</ref> The movement of Nazca and formerly the [[Farallon Plate]] over the hotspot has created a long underwater ridge, the [[Nazca Ridge]], whose eastern end is being [[subduction|subducted]] under [[Peru]]. Only at Easter Island, its surrounding islets and [[Sala y Gómez]] does the Sala y Gómez Ridge form dry land.

Pukao, Moai and Easter Island were formed in the last 750,000 years and are the ridge's youngest islands. The most recent eruption was a little over 100,000 years ago.

In the first half of the 20th century, steam reportedly came out of the Rano Kau crater wall. This was photographed by the island's manager, Mr. Edmunds.<ref>[http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/rapanui/Box13E01.html Rapanui: Edmunds and Bryan Photograph Collection]. Libweb.hawaii.edu. Retrieved on 2010-11-06.</ref> According to geologists the last volcanic activity on the island occurred 10,000 years ago.

An alternative explanation for the islands is the activity of the [[Easter Fracture Zone]].

==Climate and weather==
{{See also|Climate of Chile}}

The climate of Easter Island is [[Humid subtropical climate|subtropical maritime]]. The lowest temperatures are recorded in July and August ({{convert|18|°C|0|lk=on|disp=or}}) and the highest in February (maximum temperature {{convert|28|°C|0|disp=or}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.enjoy-chile.org/easter-island-climate-chile.php |title=Enjoy Chile – climate |publisher=Enjoy-chile.org |date= |accessdate=2012-06-23}}</ref>), the summer season in the southern hemisphere. Winters are relatively mild. The rainiest month is April, though the island experiences year-round rainfall.<ref>[http://www.letsgochile.com/locations/central-zone/pacific-islands/easter-island Easter Island Article] in Letsgochile.com</ref> Easter Island's isolated location exposes it to winds which help to keep the temperature fairly cool. Precipitation averages {{convert|1118|mm|0|disp=or}} per year. Occasionally, heavy rainfall and rainstorms strike the island. These occur mostly in the winter months (June–August). Since it is close to the [[South Pacific High]] and outside the range of the [[Intertropical Convergence Zone|ITCZ]], [[cyclone]]s and [[hurricane]]s do not occur around Easter island.<ref>[http://www.islandheritage.org/vg/vg06.html Weather] Easter Island Foundation</ref>
{{-}}

{{Weather box
|location = Easter Island
|metric first = Y
|single line = Y
|Jan high C = 25
|Feb high C = 26
|Mar high C = 25
|Apr high C = 24
|May high C = 22
|Jun high C = 21
|Jul high C = 20
|Aug high C = 20
|Sep high C = 21
|Oct high C = 21
|Nov high C = 22
|Dec high C = 24
|Year high C = 22
|Jan record high C = 36
|Feb record high C = 37
|Mar record high C = 34
|Apr record high C = 31
|May record high C = 31
|Jun record high C = 27
|Jul record high C = 27
|Aug record high C = 29
|Sep record high C = 31
|Oct record high C = 33
|Nov record high C = 36
|Dec record high C = 37
|Year record high C = 37
|Jan low C = 21
|Feb low C = 21
|Mar low C = 21
|Apr low C = 20
|May low C = 18
|Jun low C = 17
|Jul low C = 16
|Aug low C = 16
|Sep low C = 16
|Oct low C = 16
|Nov low C = 18
|Dec low C = 19
|Year low C = 18
|Jan record low C = 15
|Feb record low C = 16
|Mar record low C = 7
|Apr record low C = 3
|May record low C = 10
|Jun record low C = 7
|Jul record low C = 9
|Aug record low C = 7
|Sep record low C = 10
|Oct record low C = 7
|Nov record low C = 12
|Dec record low C = 3
|Year record low C = 3
|Jan precipitation cm = 9
|Feb precipitation cm = 8
|Mar precipitation cm = 8
|Apr precipitation cm = 11
|May precipitation cm = 12
|Jun precipitation cm = 10
|Jul precipitation cm = 9
|Aug precipitation cm = 8
|Sep precipitation cm = 8
|Oct precipitation cm = 7
|Nov precipitation cm = 8
|Dec precipitation cm = 9
|year precipitation cm = 113
|source 1 = Weatherbase <ref name=Weatherbase>{{cite web
| url =http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=096458&refer=&units=us |title =Weatherbase: Weather for Easter Island, Chile | publisher=Weatherbase | year=2011 }} Retrieved on November 23, 2011.</ref>
|date=November 2011
}}</center>

==History==
[[File:Hodges easter-island.jpg|thumb|left|The first known painting of Easter Island in 1775 by [[William Hodges]]]]
{{Infobox World Heritage Site
|WHS =[[Rapa Nui National Park]]
|Image =[[File:Moai Rano raraku.jpg|200px|[[Moai]] at [[Rano Raraku]], Easter Island]]
|State Party=[[Chile]]
|Type =Cultural
|Criteria =i, iii, v
|ID =715
|Region =Latin America and the Caribbean
|Year =1995
|Session =19th
|Link =http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/715}}
{{Main|History of Easter Island}}
The history of Easter Island is rich and controversial. Its inhabitants have endured [[famine]]s, [[epidemic]]s, [[civil war]], [[slavery|slave]] raids, [[colonialism]], and near [[deforestation]]; its population declined precipitously more than once.

Estimated dates of initial settlement of Easter Island have ranged from 300 to 1200 [[Common Era|CE]], approximately coinciding with the arrival of the first settlers in [[Hawaii]]. Rectifications in [[radiocarbon dating]] have changed almost all of the previously posited early settlement dates in Polynesia. Rapa Nui has more recently been considered to have been settled in the narrower range of 700 to 1100 CE. An ongoing study by archaeologists Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo suggests a still-later date: "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 CE. Significant ecological impacts and major cultural investments in monumental architecture and statuary thus began soon after initial settlement."<ref name="huntlipo2006">{{cite journal|last1=Hunt|first1=T. L.|last2=Lipo|first2=CP|title=Late Colonization of Easter Island|journal=Science|volume=311|issue=5767|pages=1603–6|year=2006|pmid=16527931|doi=10.1126/science.1121879|bibcode = 2006Sci...311.1603H }}</ref><ref name="huntlipo2011">{{Cite book
| publisher = Free Press
| isbn = 1-4391-5031-1
| last1 = Hunt
| first1 = Terry
| last2 = Lipo
| first2 = Carl
| title = The Statues that Walked: Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island
| year = 2011
}}</ref>

According to oral tradition, the first settlement was at [[Anakena]]. [[Jared Diamond]] notes that the Caleta Anakena landing point provides the best shelter from prevailing swells, as well as a sandy beach for canoe landings and launchings, so it seems likely to have been an early place of settlement.<ref>''[[Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed]]''</ref> However, this hypothesis contradicts radiocarbon dating, according to which other sites preceded Anakena by many years, especially the Tahai, whose radiocarbon dates precede Anakena's by several centuries.

The island was most likely populated by Polynesians who navigated in canoes or [[catamaran]]s from the [[Gambier Islands]] (Mangareva, {{convert|2600|km|mi|abbr=on}} away) or the [[Marquesas Islands]], {{convert|3200|km|mi|abbr=on}} away. When [[James Cook]] visited the island, one of his crew members, a Polynesian from [[Bora Bora]], was able to communicate with the Rapa Nui. The language most similar to Rapa Nui is [[Mangarevan]] with an 80% similarity in vocabulary. In 1999, a voyage with reconstructed Polynesian boats was able to reach Easter Island from Mangareva in 19 days.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Voyage to Rapa Nui 1999–2000|url=http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/hawaiian/voyaging/pvs/rapanuiback.html|publisher=Polynesian Voyaging Society}}</ref>

According to oral traditions recorded by [[Mission (Christianity)|missionaries]] in the 1860s, the island originally had a strong class system, with an ''ariki'', high [[Tribal chief|chief]], wielding great power over nine other [[clans]] and their respective chiefs. The high chief was the eldest descendent through first-born lines of the island's legendary founder, [[Hotu Matu'a]]. The most visible element in the culture was the production of massive statues called [[moai]] that represented [[ancestor worship|deified ancestors]]. It was believed that the living had a [[symbiotic relationship]] with the dead where the dead provided everything that the living needed (health, fertility of land and animals, fortune etc.) and the living through offerings provided the dead with a better place in the spirit world. Most settlements were located on the coast and moai were erected along the coastline, watching over their descendants in the settlements before them, with their backs toward the spirit world in the sea.

Diamond suggested that [[cannibalism]] took place on Easter Island after the construction of the [[Moai]] contributed to [[Natural environment|environment]]al degradation when extreme [[deforestation]] destabilized an already precarious ecosystem.<ref>[[Bo Rothstein]] (2005). ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ECQY4M13-yoC&pg=&dq&hl=en#v=onepage&q=&f=false Social traps and the problem of trust]''. Cambridge University Press. p. 20. ISBN 0-521-84829-6</ref> Archeological record shows that, by the time of the initial settlement, the island was home to many species of trees, including at least three species which grew up to 50 feet or more: ''[[Paschalococos]]'' - possibly the largest palm trees in the world at the time, ''[[Alphitonia|Alphitonia zizyphoides]]'', and ''[[Elaeocarpus|Elaeocarpus rarotongensis]]'', as well as at least six species of native land birds. Barbara A. West wrote, "Sometime before the arrival of Europeans on Easter Island, the Rapanui experienced a tremendous upheaval in their social system brought about by a change in their island's ecology... 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."<ref>Barbara A. West (2008) ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=pCiNqFj3MQsC&pg=&dq&hl=en#v=onepage&q=&f=false Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania]''. Infobase Publishing. p. 684. ISBN 0-8160-7109-8</ref> By that time, 21 species of trees and all species of land birds went extinct through some combination of overharvesting/overhunting, rat predation, and climate change, the island was largely deforested, and it did not have any trees more than 10 feet tall. Loss of large trees meant that residents were no longer able to build seaworthy vessels, significantly diminishing their fishing abilities. This was further exacerbated by the loss of land birds and the collapse in seabird populations. By the 18th century, residents of the island were largely sustained by farming, with domestic [[chicken]]s as the primary source of protein.<ref>{{harvnb|Diamond|2005|pp=103–107}}</ref>

As the island became overpopulated and resources diminished, warriors known as ''matatoa'' gained more power and the Ancestor Cult ended, making way for the Bird Man Cult. Beverly Haun wrote, "The concept of mana (power) invested in hereditary leaders was recast into the person of the birdman, apparently beginning circa 1540, and coinciding with the final vestiges of the moai period."<ref>Beverley Haun (2008). ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=jHItbEsAQxMC&pg=&dq&hl=en#v=onepage&q=&f=false Inventing 'Easter Island']''. University of Toronto Press. p. 8. ISBN 0-8020-9888-6</ref> This cult maintained that, although the ancestors still provided for their descendants, the medium through which the living could contact the dead was no longer statues, but human beings chosen through a competition. The god responsible for creating humans, [[Makemake (mythology)|Makemake]], played an important role in this process. Katherine Routledge, who systematically collected the island's traditions in her 1919 expedition,<ref name=routledge>{{harvnb|Routledge|1919}}</ref> showed that the competitions for Bird Man (Rapanui: ''[[tangata manu]]'') started around 1760, after the arrival of the first Europeans, and ended in 1878, with the construction of the first church by Roman Catholic missionaries who formally arrived in 1864. [[Petroglyphs]] representing Bird Men on Easter Island are exactly the same as some in Hawaii, indicating that this concept was probably brought by the original settlers; only the competition itself was unique to Easter Island.

European accounts from 1722 and 1770 mention standing statues, but Cook's 1774 expedition noted that several moai were lying face down, having been toppled in war.

[[File:Rano-Kau-2b-Birdman-Cult.JPG|thumb|left|185px|[[Motu Nui]] islet, part of the Birdman Cult ceremony]]
According to Diamond and Heyerdahl's version of the island's history, the ''huri mo'ai''—"statue-toppling"—continued into the 1830s as a part of fierce internal wars. By 1838 the only standing moai were on the slopes of [[Rano Raraku]], in [[Hoa Hakananai'a]] in [[Orongo]], and Ariki Paro in Ahu Te Pito Kura. A study headed by Douglas Owsley published in 1994 asserted that there is little archaeological evidence of pre-European societal collapse. [[Bone pathology]] and [[osteometric]] data from islanders of that period clearly suggest few fatalities can be attributed directly to violence.<ref>{{harvnb|Owsley, Douglas W. et al. "Biological effects of European contact on Easter Island" C.S. Larson and G.R. Milner, eds. ''In the Wake of Contact: Biological Responses to Conquest'' |1994}}</ref>

The first-recorded European contact with the island was on April 5 ([[Easter|Easter Sunday]]), 1722, when [[Netherlands|Dutch]] navigator [[Jacob Roggeveen]] visited the island for a week and estimated a population of 2,000 to 3,000 inhabitants. The number may have been greater, since some may have been frightened into hiding by a misunderstanding that led Roggeveen's men to fire on the natives, killing more than a dozen and wounding several more. The next foreign visitors (on November 15, 1770) were two Spanish ships, ''San Lorenzo'' and ''Santa Rosalia''. The Spanish reported the island as largely uncultivated, whose seashore was lined with stone statues. Four years later, in 1774, British explorer [[James Cook]] visited Easter Island; he reported that some statues had fallen over. The British ship {{HMS|Blossom|1806|6}} arrived in 1825 and reported seeing no standing statues. Easter Island was approached many times during the 19th century, but by then the islanders had become openly hostile to any attempt to land, and very little new information was reported before the 1860s.

A series of devastating events killed or removed most of the population in the 1860s. In December 1862, [[Peru]]vian slave raiders struck. Violent abductions continued for several months, eventually capturing around 1,500 men and women, half of the island's population.<ref>{{harvnb|Diamond|2005|p=171}}</ref> Among those captured were the island's paramount chief, his heir, and those who knew how to read and write the [[rongorongo]] script, the only Polynesian script to have been found to date. When the slave raiders were forced to repatriate the people they had kidnapped, they disembarked carriers of [[smallpox]] together with a few survivors on each of the islands. This created devastating [[epidemics]] from Easter Island to the [[Marquesas]] islands. Easter Island's population was reduced to the point where some of the dead were not even buried. [[Tuberculosis]], introduced by whalers in the mid-19th century, had already killed several islanders when the first Christian missionary, [[Eugène Eyraud]], died from this disease in 1867. About a quarter of the island's population succumbed along with him. In the following years, the managers of the sheep ranch and the missionaries started buying the newly available lands of the deceased, and this led to great confrontations between natives and settlers.

[[File:Queen of Easter Island meets Pinart in 1877.jpg|thumb|200px|"Queen Mother" Koreto with her daughters "Queen" Caroline and Harriette in 1877]]
[[Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier]] bought up all of the island apart from the missionaries' area around [[Hanga Roa]] and moved a couple of hundred Rapanui to [[Tahiti]] to work for his backers. In 1871 the missionaries, having fallen out with Dutrou-Bornier, evacuated all but 171 Rapanui to the [[Gambier islands]].<ref>{{harvnb|Routledge|1919|p=208}}</ref> Those who remained were mostly older men. Six years later, only 111 people lived on Easter Island, and only 36 of them had any offspring.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rongorongo.org/cooke/712.html |title=Collapse of island's demographics in the 1860s and 1870s |publisher=Rongorongo.org |date= |accessdate=2012-06-23}}</ref> From that point on the island's population slowly recovered. But with over 97% of the population dead or gone in less than a decade, much of the island's cultural knowledge had been lost.

[[Alexander Salmon, Jr.]], a son of an English Jewish merchant and [[Pōmare Dynasty]] princess, eventually worked to repatriate workers from his inherited copra plantation. He eventually bought up all lands on the island with the exception of the mission, and was its sole employer. He worked to develop tourism on the island, and was the principal informant for the British and German archaeological expeditions for the island. He sent several pieces of genuine [[Rongorongo]] to his niece's husband, the German consul in Valparaíso, Chile. Salmon sold the Brander Easter Island holdings to the Chilean government in 1888 January 2 and signed as a witness to the cession of the island. He returned to Tahiti in December of that year. He effectively ruled the island from 1878 until his cession to Chile in 1888.

Easter Island was annexed by Chile on September 9, 1888, by [[Policarpo Toro]], by means of the "Treaty of Annexation of the Island" (Tratado de Anexión de la isla). Toro, then representing the government of Chile signed with Atamu Tekena, designated "King" by the Chilean government after the paramount chief and his heir had died. The validity of this treaty is still contested by some Rapanui. Officially, Chile purchased the nearly all encompassing Mason-Brander sheep ranch, comprised from lands purchased from the descendants of Rapanui who died during the epidemics, and then claimed sovereignty over the island.

Until the 1960s the surviving Rapanui were confined to [[Hanga Roa]]. The rest of the island was rented to the [[Williamson-Balfour Company]] as a sheep farm until 1953.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.netaxs.com/~trance/annex.html|title=Annexation by Chile}}</ref> The island was then managed by the [[Chilean Navy]] until 1966, at which point the island was reopened in its entirety. In 1966 the Rapanui were given Chilean citizenship.<ref>{{harvnb|Diamond|2005|p=112}}</ref>

===20th Century===
[[image:General Pinochet junto a una pascuense.jpg|thumb|right|200px|General Pinochet posing with a native [[Rapa Nui people|Rapa Nui]] woman.]]
Following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état]] that brought [[Augusto Pinochet]] to power, Easter Island was placed under [[martial law]]. Tourism slowed down and private property "restored". During his time in power, Pinochet visited Easter Island on three occasions. The military built a number of new military facilities and a new city hall.<ref>Raymond J. Lewis reiview of [https://ojs.lib.byu.edu/spc/index.php/CCR/article/viewFile/12655/12527 Rapanui; Tradition and Survival on Easter Island].</ref>

After an agreement in 1985 between Chile and United States, the runway at [[Mataveri International Airport|Mataveri Airport]] was enlarged and was inaugurated in 1987. The runway was expanded 423 meters reaching 3353 m. Pinochet is reported to have refused to attend the inauguration in protest to pressures from the United States to attend human rights cases.<ref>[http://elpais.com/diario/1987/08/17/internacional/556149618_850215.html Pinochet no asiste a la inauguración de la pista de la isla de Pascua]</ref>

===21st century===
On 30 July 2007, a constitutional reform gave Easter Island and the [[Juan Fernández Islands]] (also known as [[Robinson Crusoe Island]]) the status of "special territories" of Chile. Pending the enactment of a special charter, the island continued to be governed as a province of the V Region of [[Valparaíso]].<ref>[http://www.bcn.cl/leyes/pdf/original/263040.pdf Chilean Law 20,193], [[National Congress of Chile]]</ref>

A [[Solar eclipse of July 11, 2010|total solar eclipse]] visible from Easter Island occurred for the first time in over 1300 years on July 11, 2010, at 18:15:15.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38166769/ns/technology_and_science-space/|title=Eclipse fever focuses on remote Easter Island|publisher=www.msnbc.msn.com}}</ref>

===Indigenous rights movement===
Starting in August 2010, members of the indigenous Hitorangi clan occupied the Hangaroa Eco Village and Spa.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">{{cite news|title=Police evict Rapa Nui clan from Easter Island hotel|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12378736|accessdate=29 November 2011|newspaper=BBC Online|date=Feb 6, 2011}}</ref> The occupiers allege that the hotel was bought from the Pinochet government, in violation of a Chilean agreement with the indigenous Rapa Nui, in the 1990s.<ref>{{cite web|title=Indian Law.org|url=http://www.indianlaw.org/rapa-nui/congressman-faleomavaega-visit-rapa-nui|work=Congressman Faleomavaega to Visit Rapa Nui|accessdate=29 November 2011}}</ref> The occupiers say their ancestors had been cheated into giving up the land.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hinto|first=Santi|title=Giving Care to the Motherland: conflicting narratives of Rapanui|url=http://saverapanui.org/?page_id=187|work=Save Rapanui|accessdate=29 November 2011}}</ref> According to a [[BBC]] report, on December 3, 2010, at least 25 people were injured when Chilean police using pellet guns attempted to evict from these buildings a group of Rapa Nui who had claimed that the land the buildings stood on had been illegally taken from their ancestors.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11917511|title=Easter Island land dispute clashes leave dozens injured|publisher=www.bbc.co.uk | date=December 4, 2010}}</ref>

In January 2011, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Indigenous People, James Anaya, expressed concern about the treatment of the indigenous Rapa Nui by the Chilean government, urging Chile to "make every effort to conduct a dialogue in good faith with representatives of the [[Rapa Nui people]] to solve, as soon as possible the real underlying problems that explain the current situation".<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/>

The incident ended in February 2011, when up to 50 armed police broke into the hotel to remove the final five occupiers. They were arrested by the government and no injuries were reported.<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/>

==Ecology==
Easter Island, together with its closest neighbor, the tiny island of [[Isla Sala y Gómez]] {{convert|415|km|mi|sp=us}} further east, is recognized by ecologists as a distinct [[ecoregion]], the Rapa Nui subtropical broadleaf forests. The original [[tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests|subtropical moist broadleaf forests]] are now gone, but [[paleobotany|paleobotanical]] studies of [[fossil]] [[pollen]] and tree moulds left by [[lava]] flows indicate that the island was formerly forested, with a range of trees, shrubs, ferns, and grasses. A large [[extinction|extinct]] [[Arecaceae|palm]], ''[[Paschalococos|Paschalococos disperta]]'', related to the [[Chilean wine palm]] ''([[Jubaea]] chilensis)'', was one of the dominant trees as attested by fossil evidence. Like its Chilean counterpart it probably took close to 100 years to reach adult height. The [[Polynesian rat]], which the original settlers brought with them, played a very important role in the disappearance of the Rapanui palm. Rat teeth marks can be observed in 99% of the nuts found preserved in caves or excavated in different sites, indicating that the Polynesian rat impeded the palm's reproduction. That, and the clearance of the palms to make the settlements, led to their extinction almost 350 years ago.<ref>C. Michael Hogan. 2008. [http://globaltwitcher.auderis.se/artspec_information.asp?thingid=82831 ''Chilean Wine Palm: Jubaea chilensis'', GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. N. Stromberg]</ref> The [[toromiro]] tree ''([[Sophora]] toromiro)'' was prehistorically present on Easter Island, but is now extinct in the wild. However the [[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]] and the [[Göteborg Botanical Garden]] are jointly leading a scientific program to reintroduce the toromiro to Easter Island. With the palm and the toromiro virtually gone, there was considerably less rainfall as a result of less condensation. After the island was used to feed thousands of sheep for almost a century, by the mid 1900s the island was mostly covered in [[grassland]] with [[totora (plant)|''nga'atu'' or bulrush]] (''Schoenoplectus californicus tatora'') in the crater lakes of [[Rano Raraku]] and [[Rano Kau]]. The presence of these reeds, which are called ''totora'' in the [[Andes]], was used to support the argument of a South American origin of the statue builders, but pollen analysis of lake sediments shows these reeds have grown on the island for over 30,000 years.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}} Before the arrival of humans, Easter Island had vast [[seabird]] colonies containing probably over 30 resident species, perhaps the world's richest.<ref>{{harvnb|Steadman|2006|pp=251, 395}}</ref> Such colonies are no longer found on the main island. [[Fossil]] evidence indicates five species of landbirds (two [[Late Quaternary prehistoric birds#Gruiformes|rails]], two [[Late Quaternary prehistoric birds#Psittaciformes|parrots]] and a [[Late Quaternary prehistoric birds#Ciconiiformes|heron]]), all of which have become extinct.<ref>{{harvnb|Steadman|2006|pp=248–252}}</ref>

<gallery caption="Vegetation on the island" align="center" widths="180px">
File:RapaNui L7 03jan01.jpg|View of Easter Island from space, 2001. The Poike peninsula is on the right
File:RAPA NUI.JPG|Digital recreation of its ancient landscape, with tropical forest and palm trees
File:EasterIslandInterior.jpg|View toward the interior of the island
File:Easter Island.jpg|View of [[Rano Raraku]] and Pacific Ocean
</gallery>

The [[immunosuppressant]] drug [[sirolimus]] was first discovered in the [[bacterium]] ''[[Streptomyces hygroscopicus]]'' in a [[soil]] sample from Easter Island. The drug is also known as rapamycin, after Rapa Nui.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/local/projects/russell/index.html |title=Rapamycin — Introduction|accessdate=2009-07-10}}</ref> It is now being studied for extending longevity in mice.<ref>{{cite web |title=Rapamycin Extends Longevity in Mice |url=http://www.medpagetoday.com/Geriatrics/GeneralGeriatrics/15016}}</ref>
{{-}}

Trees are sparse, rarely forming natural [[grove (nature)|groves]], and it has been argued whether native Easter Islanders deforested the island in the process of erecting their statues,<ref name=Jones>{{cite news |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7052/is_2007_Nov_6/ai_n28472343/pg_1 |title=Easter Island, What to learn from the puzzles? |work=American Diplomacy |last=David T. Jones |year=2007}}</ref> and in providing sustenance for an [[overpopulation|overpopulated]] island.{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}} [[Experimental archaeology]] demonstrated that some statues certainly could have been placed on "Y" shaped wooden frames called ''miro manga erua'' and then pulled to their final destinations on ceremonial sites.<ref name=Jones/> Other theories involve the use of "ladders" (parallel wooden rails) over which the statues could have been dragged.<ref name=Diamond>{{harvnb|Diamond|2005|p=107}}</ref> Rapanui traditions metaphorically refer to spiritual power ''(mana)'' as the means by which the moai were "walked" from the quarry. Recent experimental recreations have proven that it is fully possible that the moai were literally walked from their quarries to their final positions by use of ropes, casting doubt on the role that their existence plays in the environmental collapse of the island.<ref name=Walk>{{cite news |url=http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/10/easter-island-moai/ |title=Easter Island Statues Could Have ‘Walked’ Into Position| work=Wired}}</ref>

Given the island's southern latitude, the climatic effects of the [[Little Ice Age]] (about 1650 to 1850) may have exacerbated deforestation, although this remains speculative.<ref name=Jones/> Many researchers<ref>Finney (1994), Hunter Anderson (1998); P.D. Nunn (1999, 2003); Orliac and Orliac (1998)</ref> point to the climatic downtrend caused by the Little Ice Age as a contributing factor to resource stress and to the palm tree's disappearance. Experts, however, do not agree on when exactly the island's palms became extinct.

[[Jared Diamond]] dismisses past climate change as a dominant cause of the island's deforestation in his book ''[[Collapse (book)|Collapse]]'' which assesses the collapse of the ancient Easter Islanders. Influenced by Heyerdahl's romantic interpretation of Easter's history (as he acknowledges in chapter 2 of Collapse), Diamond insists that the disappearance of the island's trees seems to coincide with a decline of its civilization around the 17th and 18th centuries. He notes that they stopped making statues at that time and started destroying the ahu. But the link is weakened because the Bird Man cult continued to thrive and survived the great impact caused by the arrival of explorers, whalers, [[sandalwood]] traders, and slave raiders.

[[Midden]] contents show that the main source of protein was [[tuna]] and [[dolphin]]. With the loss of the trees, there was a sudden drop in the quantities of fish bones found in middens as the islanders lost the means to construct fishing vessels, coinciding with a large increase in bird bones. This was followed by a decrease in the number of bird bones as birds lost their nesting sites or became extinct. A new style of art from this period shows people with exposed ribs and distended bellies, indicative of malnutrition, and it is around this time that many islanders moved to living in fortified caves and the first signs of warfare and [[cannibalism]] appear. [[Soil erosion]] because of lack of trees is apparent in some places. Sediment samples document that up to half of the native plants had become extinct and that the vegetation of the island drastically altered. Polynesians were primarily farmers, not fishermen, and their diet consisted mainly of cultivated staples such as taro root, sweet potato, yams, cassava, and bananas. With no trees to protect them, sea spray led to crop failures exacerbated by a sudden reduction in fresh water flows. There is evidence that the islanders took to planting crops in caves beneath collapsed ceilings and covered the soil with rocks to reduce evaporation. Cannibalism occurred on many Polynesian islands, sometimes in times of plenty as well as famine. Its presence on Easter Island (based on human remains associated with cooking sites, especially in caves) is supported by oral histories.{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}}

[[Benny Peiser]]<ref name=peiser/> noted evidence of self-sufficiency when Europeans first arrived. The island still had smaller trees, mainly [[toromiro]], which became extinct in the 20th century probably because of slow growth and changes in the island's ecosystem. Cornelis Bouman, [[Jakob Roggeveen]]'s captain, stated in his [[logbook]], "... of [[Yam (vegetable)|yams]], bananas and small [[coconut palm]]s we saw little and no other trees or crops." According to Carl Friedrich Behrens, Roggeveen's officer, "The natives presented palm branches as peace offerings." According to ethnographer Alfred Mètraux, the most common type of house was called "hare paenga" (and is known today as "boat house") because the roof resembled an overturned boat. The foundations of the houses were made of buried basalt slabs with holes for wooden beams to connect with each other throughout the width of the house. These were then covered with a layer of totora reed, followed by a layer of woven sugarcane leaves, and lastly a layer of woven grass. There were reports by European visitors who said they had seen "boles of large palm trees".{{Citation needed|date=May 2007}} Peiser claims that these reports indicate that large trees existed at that time, which is perhaps contradicted by the Bouman quote above. Plantations were often located farther inland, next to foothills, inside open-ceiling lava tubes, and in other places protected from the strong salt winds and salt spray affecting areas closer to the coast. It is possible many of the Europeans did not venture inland. The statue quarry, only one kilometre from the coast with an impressive cliff {{convert|100|m|abbr=on}} high, was not explored by Europeans until well into the 19th century.

{{wide image|Pano Anakena beach.jpg|800px|Panorama of [[Anakena]] beach, Easter Island. The moai pictured here was the first to be raised back into place on its ''ahu'' in 1955 by islanders using the ancient method.}}

Easter Island has suffered from heavy soil erosion in recent centuries, perhaps aggravated by agriculture and massive [[deforestation]]. This process seems to have been gradual and may have been aggravated by [[sheep farming]] throughout most of the 20th century. [[Jakob Roggeveen]] reported that Easter Island was exceptionally fertile. "Fowls are the only animals they keep. They cultivate bananas, sugar cane, and above all sweet potatoes." In 1786 [[Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse|Jean-François de La Pérouse]] visited Easter Island and his gardener declared that "three days' work a year" would be enough to support the population.

Rollin, a major in the Pérouse expedition, wrote, "Instead of meeting with men exhausted by famine... I found, on the contrary, a considerable population, with more beauty and grace than I afterwards met in any other island; and a soil, which, with very little labor, furnished excellent provisions, and in an abundance more than sufficient for the consumption of the inhabitants."<ref>{{harvnb|Heyerdahl|1961|p=57}}</ref>

According to Diamond, the oral traditions (the veracity of which has been questioned by Routledge, [[Henri Lavachery|Lavachery]], Mètraux, Peiser and others) of the current islanders seem obsessed with cannibalism, which he offers as evidence supporting a rapid collapse. For example, he states, to severely insult an enemy one would say, "The flesh of your mother sticks between my teeth." This, Diamond asserts, means the food supply of the people ultimately ran out.<ref>{{harvnb|Diamond|2005|p=109}}</ref> Cannibalism, however, was widespread across Polynesian cultures.<ref>[http://sscl.berkeley.edu/~oal/background/pacislands.htm Pacific islands archaeology]{{dead link|date=June 2012}}</ref> Human bones have not been found in earth ovens other than those behind the religious platforms, indicating that cannibalism in Easter Island was a ritualistic practice. Contemporary ethnographic research has proven there is scarcely any tangible evidence for widespread cannibalism anywhere and at any time on the Island.<ref>{{harvnb|Flenley|Bahn|2003}}</ref> The first scientific exploration of Easter Island (1914) recorded that the indigenous population strongly rejected allegations that they or their ancestors had been cannibals.<ref name=routledge/>

==Culture==
[[File:Easter Island cave.jpg|thumb|right|Birdmen ([[Tangata manu]]) paintings in the so-called "Cave of the Men Eaters"]]

===Mythology===
{{Main|Rapa Nui mythology}}
The most important [[Mythology|myths]] are:
* [[Tangata manu]], the Birdman cult which was practiced until the 1860s.
* [[Makemake (mythology)|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 Rapa Nui people had a Stone Age culture and made extensive use of several different types of local stone:
* [[Basalt]], a hard, dense stone used for [[basalt toki|toki]] and at least [[Hoa Hakananai'a|one of the moai]].
* [[Obsidian]], a volcanic glass with sharp edges used for sharp-edged implements such as [[Mataa]] and also for the black pupils of the eyes of the moai.
* Red [[scoria]] from [[Puna Pau]], a very light red stone used for the [[pukao]] and a few moai.
* [[Tuff]] from [[Rano Raraku]], a much more easily worked rock than basalt, and was used for most of the moai.

====Mo'ai (statues)====
{{Main|Moai}}

The large stone statues, or ''[[moai]]'', for which Easter Island is world-famous, were carved from 1100–1680 [[Common Era|CE]] (rectified radio-carbon dates).{{citation needed|date=April 2011}} A total of 887 monolithic stone statues have been inventoried on the island and in museum collections so far.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/ioa/eisp/|title=Easter Island Statue Project|accessdate=2009-030-30}}</ref> Although often identified as "Easter Island heads", the statues have torsos, most of them ending at the top of the thighs, although a small number of them are complete, with the figures kneeling on bent knees with their hands over their stomachs.<ref>Skjølsvold, Arne "Report 14: The Stone Statues and Quarries of Rano Raraku In Thor Heyerdahl and Edwin N. Ferdon Jr. (eds.) 'Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific'", Volume 1, ''Archaeology of Easter Island'', Monographs of the School of American Research and The Museum of New Mexico, Number 24, Part 1, 1961, pp. 339–379. (esp. p. 346 for the description of the general statues and Fig. 91, p. 347, pp. 360-362 for the description of the kneeling statues)</ref><ref>Van Tilburg, Jo Anne. ''Easter Island. Archaeology, Ecology and Culture'', British Museum Press 1994:134-135, fig. 106</ref> Some upright moai have become buried up to their necks by shifting soils.

Almost all (95%) moai were carved out of distinctive, compressed, easily worked solidified volcanic ash or [[tuff]] found at a single site inside the extinct volcano [[Rano Raraku]]. The native islanders who carved them used only stone hand chisels, mainly [[basalt]] ''toki'', which lie in place all over the quarry. The stone chisels were sharpened by chipping off a new edge when dulled. The volcanic stone was first wetted to soften it before sculpting began, then again periodically during the process. While many teams worked on different statues at the same time, a single moai took a team of five or six men approximately one year to complete. Each statue represented the deceased head of a [[:wikt:linage|lineage]].

Only a quarter of the statues were installed, while nearly half remained in the quarry at Rano Raraku and the rest sat elsewhere, probably on their way to final locations. The largest moai ever raised on a platform is known as "Paro". It weighs 82 tons and is {{convert|9.8|m|2|abbr=on}} long.<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/easter/explore/paro.html NOVA Online|Secrets of Easter Island|Paro]. Pbs.org. Retrieved on 2010-11-06.</ref> Several other statues of similar weight were transported to several ahu on the North and South coasts. It is not yet known how they transported the statues. Possibilities include employing a [[miro manga erua]], a Y-shaped sledge with cross pieces, pulled with ropes made from the tough bark of the [[Triumfetta semitriloba|hau-hau]] tree,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Flenley|first1=J. R.|last2=King|first2=Sarah M.|title=Late Quaternary pollen records from Easter Island|journal=Nature|volume=307|page=47|year=1984|doi=10.1038/307047a0|issue=5946|bibcode = 1984Natur.307...47F }}</ref> and tied around the statue's neck. Anywhere from 180 to 250 men were required for pulling, depending on the size of the moai. Some 50 of the statues were re-erected in modern times. One of the first was on Ahu Ature Huke in [[Anakena]] beach in 1958. It was raised using traditional methods during a Heyerdahl expedition.

In 2011, a large moai statue was excavated from the ground, suggesting that the statues are much older and larger than previously thought.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eisp.org/3879/ |title=Field Season IV |publisher=Eisp.org |date= |accessdate=2012-06-23}}</ref>

<gallery align="center" caption="Moais" widths="180px">
File:Kneeled moai Easter Island.jpg|[[Rano Raraku#Tukuturi|Tukuturi]], an unusual bearded kneeling moai
File:Ahu Tongariki.jpg|Six of the fifteen moai at [[Ahu Tongariki]]
File:Ahu-Akivi-1.JPG|[[Ahu Akivi]], one of the few inland ahu, with the only moai facing the ocean
File:AhuTongariki.JPG|[[Ahu Tongariki]] near [[Rano Raraku]], a 15-moai ahu excavated and restored in the 1990s
</gallery>

====Ahu====
[[File:Hangaroa Moais.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Two ahu at [[Hanga Roa]]. In foreground Ahu [[Ko Te Riku]] (with a [[pukao]] on its head). In the mid-ground is a side view of an [[Easter Island#Ahu|ahu]] with five moai showing retaining wall, platform, ramp and pavement. The Mataveri end of Hanga Roa is visible in the background with [[Rano Kau]] rising above it.]]

''Ahu'' are stone platforms. Varying greatly in layout, many were reworked during or after [[Moai#1722–1868 toppling of the moai|the ''huri mo'ai'' or ''statue-toppling'']] era; many became [[ossuary|ossuaries]]; one was dynamited open; and [[Ahu Tongariki]] was swept inland by a [[tsunami]]. Of the 313 known ahu, 125 carried moai—usually just one, probably because of the shortness of the moai period and transportation difficulties. [[Ahu Tongariki]], one kilometer from Rano Raraku, had the most and tallest moai, 15 in total. Other notable ahu with moai are [[Ahu Akivi]], restored in 1960 by [[William Mulloy]], Nau Nau at [[Anakena]] and Tahai. Some moai may have been made from wood and were lost.

The classic elements of ahu design are:
* A retaining rear wall several feet high, usually facing the sea
* A front wall made of rectangular basalt slabs called ''paenga''
* A facia made 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''
* An alignment of stones before the ramp
* A paved plaza before the ahu. This was called ''marae''
* Inside the ahu was a fill of rubble.

On top of many ahu would have been:
* Moai on squareish "pedestals" looking inland, the ramp with the poro before them.
* Pukao or Hau Hiti Rau 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 evolved from the traditional Polynesian ''[[marae]]''. In this context ''ahu'' referred to a small structure sometimes covered with a thatched roof where sacred objects, including statues, were stored. The ahu were usually adjacent to the marae or main central court where ceremonies took place, though on Easter Island ahu and moai evolved to much greater size. There the marae is the unpaved plaza before the ahu. The biggest ahu is {{convert|220|m|ft|sp=us}} and holds 15 statues, some of which are {{convert|9|m|ft|sp=us}} high. The filling of an ahu was sourced locally (apart from broken, old moai, fragments of which have also been used in the fill).<ref>{{harvnb|Heyerdahl|1961}}</ref> Individual stones are mostly far smaller than the moai, so less work was needed to transport the raw material, but artificially leveling the terrain for the plaza and filling the ahu was laborious.

Ahu are found mostly on the coast, where they are distributed fairly evenly except on the western slopes of Mount [[Terevaka]] and the [[Rano Kau]] and [[Poike]]<ref>Heavy erosion and landslides may have buried them in soil.</ref> headlands. 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 [[Katherine Routledge|Routledge expedition]].<ref name=routledge/>

[[File:Rapa nui cyark 2.jpg|thumb|300px|right|A Hare Moa, a Chicken House, image cut from a [[3D scanner|laser scan]] collected by nonprofit [[CyArk]]]]

====Stone walls====
One of the highest-quality examples of Easter Island stone masonry is the rear wall of the ahu at [[Ahu Vinapu|Vinapu]]. Made without mortar by shaping hard [[basalt]] rocks of up to seven [[ton]]s to match each other exactly, it has a superficial similarity to some [[Inca]] stone walls in South America.<ref>{{harvnb|Heyerdahl|1961}} However, [[Alfred Metraux]] pointed out that the rubble filled Rapanui walls were a fundamentally different design to those of the Inca, as these are trapezoidal in shape as opposed to the perfectly fitted rectangular stones of the inca. See also [http://web.archive.org/web/20071011083729/http://islandheritage.org/faq.html this FAQ]</ref>

====Stone houses====
Two types of houses are known from the past: ''hare paenga'', a house with an elliptical foundation, made with basalt slabs and covered with a thatched roof that resembled an overturned boat, and ''hare oka'', a round stone structure. Related stone structures called ''Tupa'' look very similar to the ''hare oka'', except that the ''Tupa'' were inhabited by astronomer-priests and located near the coast, where the movements of the stars could be easily observed. Settlements also contain ''hare moa'' ("chicken house"), oblong stone structures that were used to house chickens. The houses at the ceremonial village of [[Orongo]] are unique in that they are shaped like ''hare paenga'' but are made entirely of flat basalt slabs found inside Rano Kao crater. The entrances to all the houses are very low, and entry requires crawling.

In early times the people of Rapa Nui reportedly sent the dead out to sea in small funerary canoes, as did their Polynesian counterparts in other islands. They later started burying people in secret caves in order to save the bones from desecration by enemies. During the turmoil of the late 18th century, the islanders seem to have started to bury their dead in the space between the belly of a fallen moai and the front wall of the structure. During the time of the epidemics they made mass graves that were semi-pyramidal stone structures.

====Petroglyphs====
''[[Petroglyph]]s'' are pictures carved into rock, and Easter Island has one of the richest collections in all [[Polynesia]]. Around 1,000 sites with more than 4,000 petroglyphs are catalogued. Designs and images were carved out of rock for a variety of reasons: to create totems, to mark territory or to memorialize a person or event. There are distinct variations around the island in terms of the frequency of particular themes among petroglyphs, with a concentration of [[Birdmen (Rapa Nui)|Birdmen]] at [[Orongo]]. Other subjects include [[sea turtle]]s, Komari (vulvas) and [[Makemake (mythology)|Makemake]], the chief god of the ''[[Tangata manu]]'' or Birdman cult.<ref>{{harvnb|Lee|1992}}</ref>

Petroglyphs are also common in the [[Marquesas]] islands.

<gallery widths="300px" heights="200px" align="center" caption="Petroglyphs">
File:Makemake.jpeg|[[Makemake (mythology)|Makemake]] with two [[Tangata Manu|birdmen]], carved from red [[scoria]]
File:Ahu-Tongariki-4-Petroglyph.JPG|Fish petroglyph found near [[Ahu Tongariki]]
</gallery>

====Caves====
The island and neighboring [[Motu Nui]] are riddled with caves, many of which show signs of past human use for planting and as fortifications, including narrowed entrances and crawl spaces with ambush points. Many caves feature in the myths and legends of the Rapa Nui.

[[File:Rongo-rongo script.jpg|thumb|left|182px|Sample of [[rongorongo]]]]

===Rongorongo===
{{Main|Rongorongo}}
Easter Island once had an apparent script called ''[[rongorongo]]''. Glyphs include pictographic and geometric shapes; the texts were incised in wood in reverse [[boustrophedon]] direction. It was first reported by a French missionary, [[Eugène Eyraud]], in 1864. At that time, several islanders said they could understand the writing, but according to tradition, only ruling families and priests were ever literate, and none survived the slave raids and subsequent epidemics. Despite numerous attempts, the surviving texts have not been deciphered, and without decipherment it is not certain that they are actually writing. Part of the problem is the small amount that has survived: only two dozen texts, none of which remain on the island. There are also only a couple similarities with the [[Easter Island#Petroglyphs|petroglyphs]] on the island.<ref>Fischer, pp. 31, 63.</ref>

===Wood carving===<!-- [[Gallery of flags by design]], [[Flag of Rapa Nui]] both link here -->
{| class="wikitable" align="right"
|- caption="Wood carving"
| [[File:Skeletal easter island statue.JPG|100px|]] || [[File:Fat wooden Moai.JPG|130px|]]
|-
| Skeletal statuette || Atypical tubby statuette
|}
Wood was scarce on Easter Island during the 18th and 19th centuries, but a number of highly detailed and distinctive carvings have found their way to the world's museums. Particular forms include:<ref>{{harvnb|Routledge|1919|p=268}}</ref>

* [[Reimiro]], a [[gorget]] or breast ornament of crescent shape with a head at one or both tips.<ref>[http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aoa/enwiki/w/wooden_gorget_rei_miro.aspx Wooden gorget (rei miro)]. British Museum.</ref> The same design appears on the [[flag of Rapa Nui]]. Two Rei Miru at the British Museum are inscribed with Rongorongo.
* [[Moko Miro]], a man with a lizard head
* [[Moai kavakava]], grotesque and highly detailed human figures carved from Toromiro pine, representing ancestors. The earlier figures are rare and generally depict a male figure with an emaciated body and a goatee. The figures' ribs and vertebrae are exposed and many examples show carved glyphs on various parts of the body but more specifically, on the top of the head. The female figures, rarer than the males, depict the body as flat and often with the female's hand lying across the body. The figures, although some were quite large, were worn as ornamental pieces around a tribesman's neck. The more figures worn, the more important the man. The figures have a shiny [[patina]] developed from constant handling and contact with human skin.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}}
* Ao, a large dancing paddle

===21st-century culture===
The [[Rapanui]] sponsor an annual festival, the ''Tapati'', held since 1975 around the beginning of February to celebrate Rapanui culture. The islanders also maintain a [[CF Rapa Nui|national football team]] and three [[disco]]s in the town of [[Hanga Roa]]. Other cultural activities include a [[music of Easter Island|musical tradition]] that combines South American and Polynesian influences and woodcarving.

==Demography==
{{Further|Europeans in Oceania}}

===2002 census===
Population at the 2002 census was 3,791;<ref>[http://www.estrellavalpo.cl/site/edic/20020611093623/pags/20020611124031.html Primeros datos del Censo: Hay 37.626 mujeres más que hombres en la V Región]. Estrellavalpo.cl (2002-06-11). Retrieved on 2010-11-06.</ref> 60% were Rapanui, [[Demographics of Chile|Chileans]] of European or mixed European and Amerindian descent were 39% of the population, and the remaining 1% were [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] from mainland Chile.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ine.cl/cd2002/index.php |title=Censo 2002 |publisher=Ine.cl |date= |accessdate=2012-06-23}}</ref> Population density on Easter Island is only {{convert|23|PD/sqkm}}.
<gallery align="center" caption="Real life in Rapa Nui">
File:TAMURE.png|[[Polynesian culture|Polynesian]] dancing with feather costumes is on the tourist itinerary.
File:HangaroaAlcaldía.jpg|Hanga Roa town hall.
File:EasterIslandsFishingBoats.jpg|Fishing boats on Easter Island.
</gallery>

===Demographic history===
The 1982 population was 1,936. The increase in population in the last census was partly caused by the arrival of people of [[European ethnic groups|European]] or mixed European and Native American descent from the Chilean mainland. However, most married a Rapanui partner. Around 70% of the population were natives. Estimates of the pre-European population range from 7–17,000. Easter Island's all-time low of 111 inhabitants was reported in 1877. Out of these 111 Rapanui, only 36 had descendants, but all of today's Rapanui claim descent from those 36.

==Administration and legal status==
Easter Island shares with [[Juan Fernández Islands]] the constitutional status of "special territory" of Chile, granted in 2007. As of 2011 a special charter for the island was under discussion in the [[Congress of Chile|Chilean Congress]].

Administratively, the island is a [[Provinces of Chile|province]] of the [[Valparaíso Region]] and contains a single [[Communes of Chile|commune]] (''comuna''). Both the province and the commune are called ''Isla de Pascua'' and encompass the whole island and its surrounding islets and rocks, plus [[Isla Salas y Gómez]], some {{convert|380|km|0|abbr=on}} to the east.<ref name="INE">{{es}} {{cite web |url=http://www.ine.cl/canales/chile_estadistico/territorio/division_politico_administrativa/pdf/DPA_COMPLETA.pdf |format=PDF |title=Territorial division of Chile |accessdate=14 March 2011 |work=[[National Statistics Institute (Chile)|National Statistics Institute]] |year=2007}}</ref>

===Authorities and representatives===
Within the [[electoral divisions of Chile]], Easter Island belongs to the 13th electoral district and 6th senatorial constituency. The people are represented in the [[Chamber of Deputies]] by Joaquín Godoy ([[National Renewal (Chile)|RN]]) and Aldo Cornejo ([[Christian Democrat Party (Chile)|PDC]]). Constituents are also represented by two [[Senate of Chile|senators]], Francisco Chahuán (RN) and [[Ricardo Lagos Weber]] ([[Party for Democracy|PPD]]).

* [[Governor|Provincial Governor]]: [[Carmen Cardinali Paoa]] (2010–). Appointed by the [[President of Chile|President of the Republic]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.emol.com/noticias/nacional/2010/08/13/430440/profesora-seria-designada-como-nueva-gobernadora-de-isla-de-pascua.html |title=Profesora sería designada como nueva gobernadora de Isla de Pascua |publisher=Emol.com |date=2010-08-13 |accessdate=2012-06-23}}</ref><ref name="Gobernadores">{{es}} {{cite web |url=http://www.subdere.gov.cl/autoridades-nacionales/gobernadores |title=Gobernadores |accessdate=23 June 2012 |work=[[Government of Chile]]}}</ref>
* [[Alcalde|Mayor]]: Luz Zasso Paoa (PDC), directly elected for four years (2008–2012). [[Municipality]] located in [[Hanga Roa]].
* [[Municipal council]], directly elected for four years (2008–2012):
** Marta Raquel Hotus Tuki (PDC)
** Ximena Trengove Vallejos (PDC)
** Julio Araki Tepano ([[Independent Democrat Union|UDI]])
** Eliana Amelia Olivares San Juan (UDI)
** Alberto Hotus Chávez (PPD)
** Marcelo Pont Hill (PPD)

==Notable people==
* [[Hotu Matuʻa]]—island founder
* [[King Nga'ara]]—one of the last [[ariki|‘ariki]]
* [[Kings of Easter Island]]
* [[Thor Heyerdahl]]—ethnographer
* [[Sebastian Englert|Fr Sebastian Englert, OFM Cap.]]—missionary and ethnologist
* [[William Mulloy]]—archaeologist
* [[Pedro Pablo Edmunds Paoa]]—former Governor
* [[Melania Carolina Hotu Hey]]—former Governor (2006–2010)
* [[Juan Edmunds Rapahango]]—former Mayor

==Transportation==
{{Expand section|date=April 2012}}
Easter Island is served by [[Mataveri International Airport]], with jet service (currently [[Boeing 767]]s) from [[Lan Airlines]] and, seasonally, subsidiaries such as [[Lan Peru]].

==See also==
{{Portal|Oceania}}
{{Div col}}
* [[North Sentinel Island]]
* [[Omphalos]]
* [[List of islands]]
* [[List of islands named after calendar entries]]
* [[List of megalithic sites]]
* [[Mataveri International Airport]] {{nb10}}
* [[Podesta (island)]]
* [[Rapa Nui language]]
* [[Rapa Nui mythology]]
{{Div col end}}

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== References ==
* {{cite book|last= McLaughlin|first= Shawn|year= 2007|title= The Complete Guide to Easter Island|location=Los Osos| publisher=Easter Island Foundation}}
* {{cite book|authorlink=Jared Diamond|last=Diamond|first= Jared|year=2005|title=[[Collapse (book)|Collapse. How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.]]|location=New York|publisher=Viking|isbn=0-14-303655-6 |ref=harv}}
* {{cite journal|last= Fischer|first= Steven Roger|year= 1995|title= Preliminary Evidence for Cosmogonic Texts in Rapanui's Rongorongo Inscriptions|journal= Journal of the Polynesian Society |issue=104|pages=pp. 303–21}}
* {{cite book|last= Fischer|first= Steven Roger|year= 1997|title= Glyph-breaker: A Decipherer's Story|location=New York| publisher=Copernicus/Springer-Verlag}}
* {{cite book|last=Fischer|first=Steven Roger|year= 1997|title= RongoRongo, the Easter Island Script: History, Traditions, Texts|location= Oxford and New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-823710-3}}
* {{cite book|authorlink=Thor Heyerdal|last=Heyerdal|first=Thor |year=1961|title=The Concept of Rongorongo Among the Historic Population of Easter Island|editor=Thor Heyerdahl & Edwin N. Ferdon Jr.|location=Stockholm|publisher=Forum |ref=harv}}
* Heyerdal, Thor ''Aku-Aku; The 1958 Expedition to Easter Island.''
* {{cite journal|authorlink=Alfred Metraux|last=Metraux|first=Alfred|year=1940|title=Ethnology of Easter Island|journal=Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin |issue=160|location= Honolulu|publisher= Bernice P. Bishop Museum Press}}
* {{cite book|authorlink=Katherine Routledge|last=Routledge|first=Katherine|year=1919|title= The Mystery of Easter Island. The story of an expedition|location= London|isbn=0-404-14231-1 |ref=harv}}
* {{cite book|authorlink=David Steadman|last=Steadman|first=David|year=2006|url=http://books.google.com/?id=vBZXJQ3HDg0C|title=Extinction and Biogeography in Tropical Pacific Birds|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-77142-7 |ref=harv}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book|last=Altman|first= Ann M.|year= 2004|title= Early Visitors to Easter Island 1864–1877 (translations of the accounts of Eugène Eyraud, Hippolyte Roussel, Pierre Loti and Alphonse Pinart; with an Introduction by Georgia Lee)|location=[[Los Osos]]|publisher=Easter Island Foundation}}
* {{cite book| last=Englert|first=Sebastian F. |year=1970|title=Island at the Center of the World|location=New York|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons}}
* {{cite journal|last=Hunt|first=Terry L.|title=Rethinking the Fall of Easter Island|journal=American Scientist|issue=94|page=p. 412|date=September–October 2006}}
* {{cite book|last= Lee|first= Georgia|year= 1992|title= The Rock Art of Easter Island. Symbols of Power, Prayers to the Gods|location= Los Angeles|publisher= The Institute of Archaeology Publications|isbn= 0-917956-74-5}}
* {{cite journal|last= Thomson|first=William J. |year=1891|title=Te Pito te Henua, or Easter Island. Report of the United States National Museum for the Year Ending June 30, 1889|journal=Annual Reports of the Smithsonian Institution for 1889|pages=pp. 447–552|location=Washington|publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}[http://books.google.com/books?id=8gKvwnWvwjsC in Google Books]
* {{cite book|last= van Tilburg|first=Jo Anne|year=1994|title=Easter Island: Archaeology, Ecology and Culture|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press|isbn= 0-7141-2504-0}}
* Vergano, Dan. [http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2009-11-13-easter-island_N.htm "Were rats behind Easter Island mystery?"] ''[[USA Today]]'' (November 15, 2009)

==External links==
{{Commons category|Easter Island}}
* {{Wikivoyage-inline}}
* [http://www.chileculture.org/easter-island/ Chile Cultural Society - Easter Island]
* [http://archive.cyark.org/rapa-nui-intro Rapa Nui Digital Media Archive]—[[Creative Commons]]–licensed photos, laser scans, panoramas, focused in the area around Rano Raraku and Ahu Te Pito Kura with data from an Autodesk/[[CyArk]] research partnership
* [http://video.pbs.org/video/2299677471 Mystery of Easter Island] - PBS Nova program

{{Navboxes
|title=Articles and topics related to Easter Island
|state=collapsed
|list1=</span>
{{Easter Island}}
{{Polynesia}}
{{Culture of Oceania}}
{{Austronesian-speaking countries and territories}}
{{Provinces of Chile}}
{{Communes in Valparaíso Region}}
{{Countries and territories of Oceania}}
}}

[[Category:Archaeological sites in Chile]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Oceania]]
[[Category:Communes of Chile]]
[[Category:Easter Island| ]]
[[Category:Ecoregions of Chile]]
[[Category:Islands of Oceania]]
[[Category:Polynesia]]
[[Category:Populated places in Isla de Pascua Province]]
[[Category:Populated places in Oceania]]
[[Category:Provinces of Chile]]
[[Category:Volcanic islands]]

{{Link FA|de}}
{{Link FA|he}}
{{Link FA|no}}
{{Link FA|ka}}
{{Link FA|ru}}
{{Link GA|lv}}
{{Link GA|uk}}

[[be-x-old:Востраў Пасхі]]
[[es:Isla de Pascua]]
[[eu:Pazko uhartea]]
[[pt:Ilha de Páscoa]]

Revision as of 16:19, 25 February 2013

FAT MEXICANS

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Easter_Island&oldid=540286935"