They are tall sculptures made out of volcanic rock, with disproportionately large heads. Tiare will show you the island and engage you with stories of the island and its people. Ancient observatories locations and observatories easter. Gray, founder of the world monuments fund originally called international fund for monu ments, visited easter island in the early 1970s. Easter island is most famous for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early rapa nui people. Finally, critical examination of the myths and legends shows that these texts do not record historical events, but the view which easter islanders at. On this page you will find practical information about easter island that you may need to prepare your trip to the remote and fascinating rapa nui. 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. 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. Jun 01, 2009 easter island s inhabitants used up all their resources and eventually died out a lesson for us all.
Easter island is the place where history meets legend. An isolated triangle shaped island measuring 14 miles long by 7 miles wide. Use the easter island resource bundle to answer this question and engage your students in a study of polynesian expansion across the pacific. Easter island, with an area of only 64 square miles, is the worlds most isolated scrap of habitable land. By the time dutch explorersthe first europeans to reach the remote island arrived on easter day in 1722, the land was nearly barren.
When i first went to rapa nui to con duct archaeological research, i expect ed to help confirm this story. The mystery of easter island travel smithsonian magazine. Pdf easter island and pitcairn island researchgate. Easter island travel your ultimate tourism resource. She makes it fun for adults and children and will make sure you get the most out of your visit.
Easter island is a popular tourist destination, so this website contains a wealth of information about the island and what it has to offer tourists. The debated origin point includes an island in the mar quesas group, and mangareva amongst the possibilities flenley and bahn, 2003. Jun 5, 2018 how easter island s mysterious statues got their 12ton hats. Easter island few areas in the world possess a more mystical pull than this tiny speck of land, one of the most isolated places on earth. The natives were fenced in around guarded borders in the area that today is the town of hanga roa to prevent sheep theft. This page was last edited on 16 december 2017, at 03. Of volcanic origin, easter island is mostly covered with grasslands and is swept by strong trade winds. Summary we develop a new methodology for the register of the medical indications in the clinical record using a tabular format with rows and.
Jan, 2010 a 0 year exploration of easter island history. A lot of art is produced and sold by residents replicating the form. Easter island, chilean dependency in the eastern pacific ocean. By the time dutch explorersthe first europeans to reach the remote islandarrived on easter day in 1722, the land was nearly barren. Jun, 2018 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. Pdf history of easter island on the rocks researchgate. In 1450 moai statues were carved and was still standing in1722. Acdseh0, acdseh066, acdseh067, acdseh068 this resource is delivered as a 12 page pdf in a4 size. The great sebastian englert, a priest and scientist who loved the islanders like his predecessor brother eyraud, came to the conclusion that the islands culture had been defined after the arrival of three consecutive invasions. Archaeologists describe a technique that the ancient rapa nui may have used to leverage the hats on the island s giant. Students will use reading, writing, and math skills while. Famous for its enigmatic statues and farflung location, easter island, and the mystery around its population collapse, has confounded researchers since captain cook and his crew visited it in 1774. It is unprecedented in human history for a sophisticated fully developed writing system to be invented and put into use by a small, isolated island community. It lies in the pacific ocean more than 2,000 miles west of the nearest continent south america.
It is one of the most isolated islands in the world but 1200 years ago a doublehulled canoe filled with seafarers from a distant culture landed upon its shores. Among the numerous questions regarding easter island many of them still unexplained, are the origin and the date of the first immigrants. Jun 5, 2018 how easter islands mysterious statues got their 12ton hats. William mulloys map easier to read here and locator reference map. The polynesian settlers took a lot to easter island, including bananas, sugarcane and wild pugs, so by the sound of it they had a lot of fun there smoking dope. Among all such vanished civilizations that of the former polynesian society on easter island remain unsurpassed in mystery and isolation. Easter island uncyclopedia, the contentfree encyclopedia. New evidence finds that easter island wasnt destroyed by. Files are available under licenses specified on their description page. It is commonly said that the remarkable aspect of ahu akivi is that the moai also are the only ones that face out to sea, however from their central location on the island, all sightlines are towards the ocean. Easter island is located 2,300 miles from chiles west coast in the south paci.
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 still plenty of unanswered questions regarding. If you want to experience easter island you need to go on tour with easter island guides. The average height of a moai is about ft 4m and can weigh around. Easter island is a small volcanic island, about 14 miles long by seven miles wide, in the south pacific ocean. 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. Pdf on the geology of easter island sergei rjabchikov. The islanders who lived on rapa nui easter island were amazing builders, creating huge statues that still exist there today. Easter island history unit with reading, writing, and mathlearn all about easter island with this 5day miniunit.
Instead, i found evidence that just didnt fit the underlying. A major enigma in the recent history of easter island rapa nui fig. 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. 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 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 occasi. Easter island history cultural development the cultural development on the island has been fodder for widespread speculation. To its original inhabitants the island is known as rapa nui, and its population is predominantly of polynesian descent. What happened on easter island a new even scarier scenario robert krulwich, december 10, 20, npr we all know the story, or think we do. Yet easter island does have its own script, examples of which, mostly incised on wooden boards, copies of copies of copies of much older lost originals, were collected in the nineteenth. Natural and anthropogenic drivers of cultural change on easter island. Easter islands location in the midst of the south pacific is.
At some point during their early history, the polynesians discovered chocolate and egg nog, something which would later come back to haunt them. The story of easter island reads like a preindustrial version of the lorax. Fascinating history is present in an almost surreal way. Useful information on which is the best time to go, how to get there, what documents are required, how to get around, how to connect to the internet, how much the tours cost, etc. It lies in the pacific ocean more than 2,000 miles west of the nearest. The easter island foundation also hosts a very useful website for tourists. Fishing in easter island, a recent history 1950 2010 article pdf available in latin american journal of aquatic research 424. Remnant symbols of easter islands rise and fall and the modern story of the rapa nui people. Over the centuries that followed a remarkable society developed in isolation on the 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. Dec 01, 2008 detailed topographic map in spanish of easter island. Archaeologists describe a technique that the ancient rapa nui may have used to leverage the hats on the islands giant. Mythologizing the history of easter island through documentary films. The world monuments fund on easter island opposite. Easter island oral history from the fewer than 700 remaining natives do not indicate a deep interest in astronomical knowledge. Easter island has an interesting history since it was discovered on easter by jacob roggoeveen, a dutch captain with approximately 3000 inhabitants with the presence of many statues that were all in the same position and shape with long unsmiling faces that appear as alienating creatures.
List of books and articles about easter island online. Since the island consists of volcanic rock, the early inhabitants quarried the material into giant statues, some as tall as 14 feet, 6 inches and weighing about 14 tons. What happened along the way that caused the island ecosystem to collapse. It is the easternmost outpost of the polynesian island world and is famous for its giant stone statues. A brief history of easter islands incredible moai statues. In 1722 on april 5th easter sunday a dutch navigator jacob roggeveen arrived and named the island easter island. 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. All structured data from the file and property namespaces is available under the creative commons cc0 license.