A civilization that ruined itself

Apr 3, 2007 16:18 GMT  ·  By

Rapa Nui or Easter Island, also called by the locals Tepitothenua (the navel of the world) is an almost barren triangular island of 170 square kilometers, believed to be the most isolated inhabited place on Earth, at 3,760 km (2,300 mi) off Chile, to which it belongs, at 27o 08' S and 109o 23' V. It is a volcanic island with two impressive craters: Orongo and Rano Aroi (618 m or 2,060 ft tall) on the sole mountain, Rano Raraku. Due to its magnificent stone statues, 6 to 16 m (20 to 50 ft) tall and weighing 1-20 tonnes, numbering about 800, the island was declared historical monument. The statues, called moai, are the remnants of once a vivid civilization. Some represents birds and fish, but most of them huge busts with prolonged heads and well fixed in the soil. Other enigmas of the island are represented by the Ahu tombs (about 260, being covered by funerary monuments) and the slates with the rongo-rongo writing.

The rongo rongo writing is the only one so far found in Polynesia. The last Native who knew to read them died at the beginning of the 20th century, without leaving a clue. The writing is made of about 500 signs, human figures, animals and plants.

Carved in volcanic rock, the moai are buried so deep that only their heads are visible. In some cases, the torso is over the ground and some moai still wear a stone head dress named pukao. Most of the statues remained unfinished in the quarries or spread over the ancient streets, like the workers had abandoned their work.

Those in vertical position vary from soles to lines made up of 15 statues, backing the sea. Of course, the moai puzzled the scientists for a long time. Today most moai have empty sockets, but once they had pupils made of white corrals and irises carved in red volcanic tuff.

Modern technologies, involving fossil pollen analysis, archeology and paleontology, managed to solve the mysteries of the Easter Island civilization, which proved to be like a story on a small scale of the whole human civilization and resources' exploitation.

Scientists found that initially, the island was covered by forests made of palm trees, Triumfetta semitriloba and Sophora species, ferns and grasses. There were at least six terrestrial birds, including owls, herons, parrots and rails. Moreover, the Island could have been the most important breeding place for marine birds on the whole Pacific.

But on the 400 A.D., the first Polynesians colonizers, probably 20 to 50 immigrants, arrived on their 15 m (50 ft) long canoes, each one carrying 8 tonnes, bringing with them chickens and comestible rats, but also cultivable plants like taro, yam, sweet potato, banana trees and sugar cane. The soil was rich, and they started the clearing, a process that increased with the population. But Rapa Nui was small, thus the number of the trees was limited.

By 800, the grass vegetation dominated the island. Between 900-1300, about one third of the animal bones in the alimentation of the islanders were dolphins.

To hunt dolphins on the open sea, they employed large canoes made of big palm trunks. The trees also delivered material for building the moai, whose building was at its fullest. Agriculture is widespread and fire wood is a high necessity, further diminishing the forest.

1200-1500. This is the peak of the moai construction. About 1,000 moai have been made between 800-1300 A.D., a stature for every 7-9 persons. The moai seem not to have been worshiped but implied in burial and agriculture rites. Or they could have been home for the sprites. They also symbolized the power, status and genealogy of the maker.

1400-1600. The population is about 7-9,000 inhabitants. The last forest patches disappear, fact accelerated by the disappearance of all the bird species from the island, as they pollinated the trees and spread their seeds. Rats too also contributed to this, as they consumed palm seeds.

Soon after erosion installed, the rivers started to dry and water supply shortened. There are no dolphin bones after 1500, as the lack of large trees impeded the islanders to built the canoes required for their hunting.

The people are totally blocked on the island. The hungry people started to eat the population of marine birds, eggs and chickens included.

1600-1722. The impoverishment of the soil makes agriculture even harder to practice. The hunger is general and the islanders split off in two opposing confederations. The first chaos signs appear, even cannibalism. The war is the rule and for protection, people lived in caves. By 1700, the population dropped to 2,000.

1722. The Danish explorer Jacob Roggeveen is the first European to step on the island, on an Easter day, hence the European name of the island. He wrote: "The barren aspect of the Island could not give us other impression than infertility and extreme poverty". Roggeveen treated bad the locals, shooting in unarmed people that gathered on the shore.

1770. The rival clans started demolishing each other's statues. When James Cook, the British explorer, visited the island in 1774, he saw many overturned statues.

1804-1863. Diseases brought by Europeans take their toll. The traditional culture ends. Many locals are taken as handwork for guano on the islands of the Peruvian and Chilean coasts. The rongo rongo slates with local writings are destroyed by missionaries, being considered devilish.

1864. Now, all the moai are overturned, and the heads of some are deliberately cut off.

1872. On the island are left just 111 natives. In 1888, the Island was annexed by Chile.

Now, its mixed population counts about 2,100 people and many of the moai have been elevated back. The question is: how could a tropical paradise turn into a disaster case? That's because the changes occurred slowly, over the decades.

Every attempt of warning would have encountered selfishness of the sculptors and chieftains. The faith of Rapa Nui adverts about the results of the uncontrolled development and the drive to exploit to the maximum the environment, traits that characterize not just the industrialized world but the whole humankind.

Every village was stuck on the competition of raising bigger statues than those of the neighboring villages. They wasted increasing efforts in carving, transporting and raising a statue, and senseless work that finished all the resources.

Photo Gallery (2 Images)

A line of moai
Moai with pukao
Open gallery