Analysis of ancient DNA has provided more evidence to upend the long-standing theory that Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, experienced a "self-inflicted population collapse." For years, scholars believed the island’s population crashed in the 1600s due to deforestation, overexploitation of resources, and internal conflict, all before Europeans made contact in the 1700s. The new study posits that this collapse may never have happened, but rather was halted by Peruvian slave raids and subsequent epidemics brought about by European colonial activity in the 1860s. This adds to a study earlier this year which came to similar conclusions based on different evidence.
- The Return of the Moai: Rapa Nui and the Fight for its Ancestors
- Study Challenges Popular Idea That Easter Islanders Committed ‘Ecocide’
Genetic Evidence: Painting a Very Different Picture
"In just a few centuries, the people of Easter Island wiped out their forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and saw their complex society spiral into chaos and cannibalism."This historical misnomer was published by Jared Diamond in his 2005 bestseller, ‘Collapse’, but it turns out that this cautionary tale was very much fictional.