Easter island

The History of Easter Island

Easter Island is believed to have been settled between 700 to 1200 CE, around the same time that settlers first arrived in Hawaii. The first Easter Island settlement is said to have been at Anakena, the landing point on the island that provides the most protection from rough maritime weather. Recent radiocarbon dating seems to contradict this theory however with multiple other Easter Island locations outdating Anakena by as much as hundreds of years.

The first people to settle Easter Island are believed to have been the Polynesians from the Marquesas and Gambier Islands. The language with the most similarity to that used on Easter Island is Mangarevan, the official language of Mangareva in the Gambier Islands, the official language of Mangareva in the Gambier Islands. It is believed that the initial community structure on the island focused around a high chief or ariki, who controlled nine smaller clans and the chiefs who led them. As legend has it, the grand chief was always the eldest descendent through first-born lines of the founder of the island – Hotu Matu’a.

The Building of the Moai

Under the leadership of the ariki the Moai were constructed. In the belief system of those living on Easter Island, the dead and living were dependent upon each other. It was the dead that provided the living with all that they needed to live and in return, the living offered the dead with offerings that gave them a better place in the spirit world. Moai are generally situated along the coastlines of the island since this is where the settlements of Easter Island stood. These Moai were always built with their backs against the water (where the spirit world was located) and their faces turned towards the tribes which they oversaw.

Thriving on Easter Island

The well structured society of Easter Island was thriving until the point that the ecosystem changed drastically. It is unsure as to what really led to this decline in the civilization but some hypothesize that deforestation played a significant role. On an island where the ecosystem was already very delicately balanced, the shift in ecology of the island led to a severe drop in the island’s population. When the European settlers arrived on Easter Island in 1722, the population had dropped to between 2,000 to 3,000 from the 15,000 it was 100 years earlier. This population drop is believed to have resulted directly from deforestation which resulted in less wood to build fishing vessels, which resulted in a lower food supply.

More Devastation on Easter Island

As if internal warfare had not been enough to devastate Easter Island, in the 1860’s Peruvian slave raiders struck. Abducting more than 1,500 men and women – at that time approximately half of the island’s population, the raiders took indiscriminately. The slave raids took enough of a toll on the island that eventually the Peruvians were forced to return some of those taken from the island. Unhappy about having to return their ‘bounty’, the Peruvians returned Easter Island inhabitants along with the smallpox virus. The epidemic that would follow decimated the Easter Island population. In the years following whalers would also introduce tuberculosis to the island and further reduce the island’s population. As natives began to die from these diseases, missionaries and ranchers would move in and buy up the land of the deceased islanders.

As the island was slowly bought up and settled both the overall population and the cultural background of the island were lost. French mariner, Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier, bought most of the land with the exception of the missionary settlements in Hanga Roa to use it for farming. As conflict began to take place between natives, Dutrou-Bornier and the missionaries, the population of the island plummeted to just 111 in 1871. Somehow over time the islanders built up their numbers, however, it was too late to preserve much of the culture’s heritage.

Removing Moai from the Island

With numerous Moai statues on display around the world, researchers at some point had to move some of the statues from Easter Island. While moving these incredibly heavy statues was a feat for islanders, technology made it much easier to transport these ancient relics. In total, approximately 11 of the Moai have been taken from the island, 6 of these 11 were carved from basalt.

Resurrecting the Moai

It was not only Moai taken from Easter Island that were resurrected, after the TADANO company volunteered a crane to Easter Island, a number of the statues were resurrected. By May of 1995, islanders had utilized the crane to stand 15 of the Moai statues which had fallen in Tongariki ahu. The statues were all placed back on the ahu and can be viewed now as they once were by the original islanders. The Ahu Tongariki restoration project was undertaken by Chilean archaeologist Claudio Cristino.