Easter+Island+geography+and+settlement

back Describe Easter Island in terms of location, geography, and human settlement history.

Easter Island is a island off the coast of Chile. In the reading, it mentioned that Easter Island was in the shape of a triangle with each tip formed by volcanic rock. There are parts of it's terrain that cannot be walked across and it is scarce in resources. The first settlement was said to be by a Dutch explorer, Jacob Roggeveen, who spotted the island on Easter Day in 1722.

There has been confusion concerning the origins of the Easter Islanders. Thor Heyerdahl said that the people who built the statues were of Peruvian descent. Some have said that Easter Island is the remains of a lost continent, or the result of an extra-terrestrial influence. Archaeological evidence, indicates discovery of the island by Polynesians at about 400 AD.

The population of Easter Island reached its peak at more than 30,000, far exceeding the capabilities of the small island's ecosystem. Resources became scarce, and the palm forests were destroyed for moving the huge stone statues.

Easter Island was pretty isolated and did not have many potential trading neighbors, thus leaving them to rely on themselves and the resources on the island to survive. Because of the shallow water around the island, the fishing possibilities were limited because of the lack of coral reefs or a lagoon meaning that the Easter Island people ate less fish and shellfish than most other Polynesian islanders.

It is estimated that there were from 6,000 to 30,000 people who inhabited the island.

Information from www.sciencemag.org: " Easter Island (Rapa Nui) provides a model of human-induced environmental degradation. A reliable chronology is central to understanding the cultural, ecological, and demographic processes involved. 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.D. Substantial ecological impacts and major cultural investments in monumental architecture and statuary thus began soon after initial settlement."

This link leads to an article(The lessons of Easter Island) about Easter Island's history:**http://www.eco-action.org/dt/eisland.html** The information is a few years old but provides some interesting information. One of the most interesting yet dsturbing ideas is that the first European on the island, Roggeveen found that the Easter Islanders resorted to canbnibalism in a desperate attempt to find sustenance.

This is a clip from the BBC series. It explains about the settlement history of Easter Island and the importance of learning from the collapse.

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This is a link of a map of Easter Island: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/islands_oceans_poles/easterisland.jpg