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Mystery Of Easter Island’s Ancient Culture: Why Did Rapa Nui Culture Die Out?
MessageToEagle.com - Long before the Europeans arrived on Easter Island in 1722, the native Polynesian culture known as Rapa Nui showed signs of demographic decline.
However, the catalyst has long been debated in the scientific community.
Was environmental degradation the cause, or could a political revolution or an epidemic of disease be to blame?
Moai on Easter Island Previous Pause Next Monolithic human figures called moai were carved from rock between 1250 and 1500 by the inhabitants of Easter Island, which lies more than two thousand of miles off the coast of Chile.
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A new study conducted by international researchers, including UC Santa Barbara’s Oliver Chadwick, offers a different explanation and helps to clarify the chronological framework. The investigators expected to find that changes coincided with the arrival of the Europeans, but their work shows instead that the demise of the Rapa Nui culture began prior to that. |
“In the current Easter Island debate, one side says the Rapa Nui decimated their environment and killed themselves off,” said Chadwick, a professor in UC Santa Barbara’s Department of Geography and the Environmental Studies Program.
“The other side says it had nothing to do with cultural behavior, that it was the Europeans who brought disease that killed the Rapa Nui. Our results show that there is some of both going on, but the important point is that we show evidence of some communities being abandoned prior to European contact.”
Chadwick joined archaeologists Christopher Stevenson of Virginia Commonwealth University, Cedric Puleston of UC Davis and Thegn Ladefoged of the University of Auckland in examining six agriculture sites used by the island’s statue-building inhabitants.
Easter Island’s Statues Reveal Bodies Covered With Unknown Ancient Petroglyphs
Easter island was part of the ancient continent Lemuria, which sunk a long time ago.
The answers are out there just look for them for once