Location: Map
Area: 164 km
Easter Island (in Rapanui language: Rapa Nui,
"Rapa Grande") is an island in Chile located in Polynesia, in the
middle of the Pacific Ocean at 3700 km from Caldera. It covers a
total area of 163.6 km², which makes it the largest of the islands
of Chile, and a population of 7,750 inhabitants, concentrated in
Hanga Roa, capital and only existing town on the island. The nearest
inhabited land is the British territory of the Pitcairn Islands.
The island is one of the main tourist destinations of the
country due to its natural beauty and its mysterious ancestral
culture of the Rapanui ethnic group, whose most notable vestige
corresponds to huge statues known as moái. To preserve these
characteristics, the government administers the Rapa Nui National
Park through Conaf, while Unesco declared this park a World Heritage
Site in 1995. Every statue was erected by a particular family that
lives on the island. Despite years of abandonment these magnificent
structures survive in near perfect condition.
Administratively, it forms, together with the uninhabited island
Salas y Gómez, the commune of Easter Island that forms the province
of Easter Island, belonging to the Valparaíso Region. However, a
constitutional reform - the 20193 law, published on July 30, 2007 -
established the Easter island as a "special territory", so that its
government and administration will be governed by a special statute,
contemplated in the constitutional organic law respective, still to
be dictated.
Geology
Easter Island is a volcanic peak that sits
atop the Salas-y-Gómez Ridge, a 2500 km long submarine ridge in the
Southeast Pacific. It is, along with the island of Salas y Gómez, the
only mountain in this submarine chain made up of numerous volcanoes that
rises above the sea surface.
The coral reef characteristic of
many Pacific islands is absent, the coast drops steeply to a depth of
3000 meters. The coastline is rocky and rugged, small sandy beaches can
only be found in a few places, for example in Anakena Bay on the north
coast. Steep cliffs, up to 300 m high, rise up on the south-west tip and
in the east, on the Poike Peninsula.
Easter Island is roughly in
the shape of an isosceles right triangle with a maximum length of 24 km,
a maximum width of 13 km, and an area of 162.5 km². The landscape is
characterized by its volcanic origin and consists essentially of the
three volcanoes Rano Kao in the southwest, the Poike with its main peak
Maunga Puakatiki in the east and Maunga Terevaka in the north as well as
their more than 70 side craters, some of which have eroded beyond
recognition. At 507.41 meters, Maunga Terevaka is the highest point on
Easter Island. The volcanoes have long since died out, no activities
have been observed in recent times, nor have such been handed down in
legends and myths.
In the southwest of Easter Island are the
small, uninhabited side islands Motu Nui (3.9 ha), Motu Iti (1.6 ha) and
Motu Kau Kau (0.1 ha), in the west Motu Ko Hepoko (0.1 ha) and Motu
Tautara (0.1 ha), and off the Poike Peninsula Motu Marotiri (0.2 ha).
The climate is subtropically warm, the seasons are only slightly pronounced. Strong trade winds prevail. The rainfall is about 1150 mm per year. The average annual temperature is 21 °C. The coldest months are July and August, the warmest January and February. The rainiest months are April and May, the rainiest October, November and February. The average water temperature is 18 °C.
Like most Pacific islands, Easter Island is affected
by the effects of global climate change. A study by Karnauskas et al.
(2016) in the journal Nature Climate Change indicate that progressive
climate change could lead to a menacing drought on the island by 2090.
However, drastic climate changes in the Southeast Pacific are not a
new phenomenon. Palynological studies suggest that Easter Island's
climate has not always been what it is today for the past 35,000 years.
This had a decisive impact on the vegetation. The climate around 35,000
years ago was warm and dry and promoted the growth of herbaceous plants.
From 35,000 to 26,000 BC there was a wetter and significantly warmer
period that allowed dense palm forests and bushy vegetation to thrive.
Then, until about 12,000 B.C. It cooled and became drier again, which
reduced forest growth and favored the development of grasslands. From 12
000 BC until the arrival of the first Polynesian settlers, the palm
forests recovered and formed dense stands again. Around 4500 BC BC,
before human settlement, there seems to have been a dry period of
several years, sediment samples show that the crater lake of Rano Raraku
had dried up around this time.
The climatic changes were not
without consequences for the people of Easter Island. Anthropologist
Grant McCall of the University of New South Wales believes that
prolonged droughts were much more common in the Little Ice Age than they
are today. Sediment samples from the crater of Rano Kao have confirmed a
dry period around 1466 AD. McCall assumes that climate change during the
Little Ice Age was partly responsible for the destabilization and
upheaval of society in the 17th century. The increasingly difficult
living conditions could have contributed to dissatisfaction, unrest and
thus to social change.
Easter Island is one of the most species-poor islands
in the South Pacific. Less than 30 indigenous seed plants
(spermatophytes) are known. This is mainly a consequence of the isolated
location; the island was never connected to a continental landmass.
Birds, wind and oceanic currents were able to collect seeds to a much
lesser extent than on other islands.
The most successful carrier
of plant material may therefore have been humans. According to the
legend of Hotu Matua, the first settlers brought crops to the island.
Roggeveen, Forster, and other early explorers reported paper mulberry,
sweet potato, yam, taro, and bottle gourd, among others. The Europeans
also brought in plants on a large scale, for example various types of
grass as grazing plants for sheep and cattle.
The vegetation that
predominates today does not correspond to the original one. It is the
result of massive human interference in the ecosystem. Archaeobotanical
evidence shows that the island was once densely covered with palm
forests of a species closely related to the honey palm (Jubaea
chilensis). Deforestation has been demonstrated in samples from Rano Kao
to have occurred over an extended period beginning in the year 1010 (±
70 years).
It is estimated that more than ten million palm trees
were felled on the island during this period. The loss of the palm
forest, which had protected the crops from the constant winds and from
drying out, led to extensive soil erosion, which in turn may have had a
decisive impact on the food supply and with it the rapid population
decline.
Totora reeds (Scirpus californicus) survive as remnants
of the original vegetation in the crater lakes of Rano-Kao and Rano
Raraku. Totora reeds were used by the indigenous people in many ways,
for example to build the characteristic boat-shaped houses (paenga
house).
The toromiro (Sophora toromiro), a butterfly family that
is extinct in the wild, was of great ritual importance. The hard and
fine-pored wood was used in many ways, especially for cult carvings.
Specimens of this endemic tree species have only survived in botanical
gardens (for example: Gothenburg, Bonn, London, Valparaíso).
The
small stock of ferns is striking. Only 15 species have been discovered,
four of which - Diplazium fuenzalidae, Doodia paschalis, Elaphoglossum
skottsbergii and Polystichum fuentesii - are endemic. The latter was
only collected once in 1911 and is believed to be extinct. Compared to
other South Pacific islands (e.g. Marquesas with 27 families, 55 genera
and 117 species of ferns) this is very little.
Another indigenous
plant that only occurs in a few specimens as a small bush on Easter
Island is Triumfetta semitriloba, which belongs to the linden family
(Tiliaceae). Pollen analyzes have shown that the plant has been growing
on the island for 35,000 years. From the fibers of the bark, the Rapanui
knotted fishing nets and possibly the transport ropes for the Moai.
Today the landscape of Easter Island is predominantly characterized
by extensive grassy areas. The most common plant families are sweet
grasses (Poaceae), of which only four species are indigenous, and sedges
(Cyperaceae). Another common plant family is the daisy family
(Asteraceae), exclusively anthropochoric plants. Introduced guava bushes
have spread over larger areas in the southwest. In recent years there
have been afforestations with eucalyptus and Monterey pine. A palm grove
with the coconut palm, which originally did not occur on the island, has
developed near Anakena.
Sweet potatoes, taro, yams, sugar cane
and subtropical fruits are now grown as crops for personal use. A very
important food crop, often prepared in an earth oven (umu), is the sweet
potato, originally from Central America. It has been widespread
throughout the South Seas and in South Asia for centuries.
According to the reports of European explorers, the cultivation of crops
in historical times took place in carefully worked and demarcated
fields. La Pérouse estimated in 1787 that about a tenth of the island,
particularly the low-lying parts of the coastal region, was cultivated
with crops. This approximately 20 km² of cultivated area would be enough
to feed a population of several thousand people. Farming was done with a
digging stick or, due to a lack of wood, with a suitably prepared stone.
Numerous lava tubes run through the volcanic soil of Easter Island.
Erosion caused the ceiling to collapse in some places, forming
sinkhole-like crevices that gradually filled with humus. Since the
constant wind made it difficult to grow food crops, the depressions in
the ground were used as productive deep beds (manavai) for the
cultivation of larger plants, especially bananas. Some are still in use
today, such as near the Vinapu plant.
fauna
Archaeological excavations show that 25
species of seabirds and six species of landbirds were native to Easter
Island before Polynesian settlement. Of these, only three seabird
species and four landbird species remain today on the island itself
(excluding offshore motus), none of them indigenous or endemic.
The only mammals found today are domestic animals that have been
introduced – horses, sheep, cattle, pigs – and rats. The released horses
have now become a problem. They propagate the guava bushes by eating the
fruit and excreting the seeds elsewhere. They also rub against the
statues, thus promoting erosion. The Pacific rat (Rattus exulans), which
was probably brought along as food by the first settlers, has now become
extinct or has been displaced by European rat species. There are no
animals directly dangerous to humans or carriers of infectious diseases
on Easter Island.
Among the reptiles, the skink Cryptoblepharus
poecilopleurus is worth mentioning. His name in Rapanui is moko uri uri.
The golden-brown animal, about 12 cm long, apparently enjoyed religious
veneration, as several anthropomorphic figures carefully carved from
toromiro wood have survived as ceremonial objects (e.g. Musées Royaux
d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels).
Numerous seabirds nest on the
offshore motus, including frigatebirds, shearwaters, gannets, and sooty
and fairy terns.
No coral fringe formed on the steeply sloping
lava base. The diverse ecosystem of a coral sea, with its diverse
population of marine life, has not been able to develop. 164 species of
fish have been counted around Easter Island, of which 107 species are
coastal fish. This is comparatively little, there are more than 1000
species of fish in the waters around the Fiji Islands. James Cook wrote
in his log:
"The sea seems clear of fish, for we could not catch a
single one, and there were very few which we discovered among the
natives."
– James Cook: Logs of Voyages 1768–1779
The relative
poverty of species could have been one of the reasons for the population
decline and the associated cultural decline on Easter Island.
It
is not uncommon to see sperm whales. It is assumed that the giant squid
also occurs in the depths. The deep sea has the densest concentration of
black smokers known to date, active volcanic vents from which hot,
mineral-rich water gushes from the earth's interior and around which
bizarre communities of life have formed. In 2005, a new species called
the yeti crab (Kiwa hirsuta) was discovered 1500 km south of Easter
Island.
Of particular interest is an endemic cowrie species,
named after Father Englert, Erosaria englerti, which is found only off
Easter Island and the uninhabited island of Salas y Gómez, 400 km to the
east.
colonization
Easter Island's early history is
difficult to reconstruct due to the complete lack of written records.
Even the settlement history is disputed. Both a mono- and a
multi-settlement thesis were advocated.
Thor Heyerdahl divided
the island's history into an early period in the 1st millennium AD and a
middle period between 1100 and 1600 AD. In both periods there were,
according to him, immigrations from South America. Another settlement is
said to have taken place in the late period from 1680 from Polynesia.
That theory didn't last long.
Based on the legend of Hotu Matua
and based on archaeological, genealogical and linguistic findings, the
assumption of a settlement as part of the Polynesian expansion from the
west was popular for a long time. It is said to have taken place
relatively late in two waves: the first settlement in the 5th or 6th
century, the second wave of settlement in the 14th century. Today it is
generally accepted in anthropology that Easter Island was settled from
the west, as part of the Polynesian migration, with only one wave of
settlements from the Greater Mangareva, Henderson, Pitcairn area. Modern
genetic research provided the proof in the 1990s. Erika Hagelberg of the
University of Cambridge analyzed the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of 12
skulls recovered from tombs at Ahu Vinapu and Ahu Tepeu and held at the
Natural History Museum depot in Santiago de Chile. The comparison with
the mtDNA of historical bone finds from other Polynesian settled islands
on the one hand and with the South American peoples on the other hand
proved beyond doubt the Polynesian descent of the Rapanui. There was
also no evidence of any further gene transfer, caused, for example, by a
second wave of settlements from South America and the mixing with the
indigenous population, as Thor Heyerdahl had suspected in later years.
It is disputed when the initial settlement took place, but since Easter
Island is located on the outermost edge of the Polynesian triangle, one
can assume that it was settled relatively late. Linguistic comparisons
have shown that the Rapanui split off from the eastern subgroup of the
Proto-Polynesian language family. According to the time of the
separation, a settlement in the first millennium AD can be assumed.
Based on palynological studies on Rano Kao, one can assume that
interventions in the ecology of the island, which could have been caused
by humans, cannot be set earlier than 500 AD. The earliest date
determined with the radiocarbon method that could be associated with
building activity and thus an already established civilization is the
year 690 AD (± 130 years). Far more common are radiocarbon dates in a
time window from 800 to 1000 AD, they are also more widely spread and
occur both in ceremonial complexes and in settlement remains. The
anthropologist Terry L. Hunt from the University of Hawaii assumes -
based on stratigraphic excavations near Anakena - that Easter Island was
first settled around 1200 AD.
There are now further genetic studies that confirm the
origin of the Rapanui from the Polynesian settlement area. However, in a
very small percentage of the samples examined, they show DNA of American
(or European) origin. These investigations are based on blood samples
taken from living Rapanui. Even with a careful selection of the test
persons, they therefore only document the current situation and not the
conditions in pre-European times. Accordingly, this result also confirms
the previous findings about the Polynesian origin of the Rapanui,
because the Y chromosome markers typical of Polynesians could be
detected in each of the samples. The theory that peoples from the
American continent settled Easter Island can be disproved using modern
genetic research. However, evidence of genetic traces of American origin
suggests that there may have been contact between the continent and
Easter Island in pre-European times, but probably only as an occasional
or even one-off event. The spread of the sweet potato as a staple food
on Easter Island also makes contacts between Polynesia and the continent
seem possible. The sweet potato originally comes from South America. It
was (and is) a common food crop in the arid regions of South America
from the Gulf of Guayaquil to central Chile. The tuber does not survive
a longer stay in sea water, so that the natural transport by wind and
waves to Easter Island is ruled out. It can only have gotten there with
the help of humans. The cultivation of the Kumara on Easter Island has
long been taken as evidence of the first settlement from the continent.
However, this is contradicted by the fact that it also occurs on other
Polynesian islands that are far away from South America and were
undoubtedly not settled from there. The sweet potato was probably first
introduced in the Greater Cook Islands, the Society Islands and the
Marquesas. It appears in this region as early as 1000 AD. Between 1000
and 1200 AD, the sweet potato was also widespread in the fringes of the
Polynesian Triangle, in New Zealand and Hawaii. It is noteworthy that
although the plant was imported into Polynesia, the cultivation
technique was not. South American peoples originally grew sweet potatoes
in artificially irrigated fields or in piled mounds mixed with soil, a
kind of raised bed, but the Polynesians in pits. Such plant pits near Te
Niu on the northwest coast of Easter Island date back to the 13th
century AD. However, it cannot be ruled out that the first settlers
brought the sweet potato with them from another Polynesian island.
Early history
A strictly stratified society developed, with ten
independent tribes (máta) associated with different parts of the island,
although there were no defined borders. Initially, only the coastal
region was settled. From about 1100 AD the construction of large-scale
technical structures, the ceremonial platforms (ahu), the stone statues
(moai), cisterns and observation towers (turtle towers) began. This
period of cultural heyday lasted until the mid-17th century, with
increasing signs of degeneration becoming evident towards the end of the
period:
After the soil was cultivated in a way that was gentle on the
surface up to the end of the 13th century, radical deforestation with
increasing soil erosion has been proven from 1300 AD at the latest. This
led to the abandonment of settlements and the construction of large
canoes that could be used to fish offshore.
From the 13th century,
the interior of the island was increasingly populated without access to
the sea, an important source of food.
After 1425, a highly
intensified agriculture using innovative possibilities (small cultivated
areas protected by walls, stone mulch) can be seen, which was abandoned
again with the collapse of the tribal society in the first half of the
17th century.
From about 1500 until the arrival of the Europeans,
there were more raids and tribal wars using new types of weapons (mata'a
= short spears with sharp obsidian tips). Cannibalism is also likely to
spread. The warrior caste gains influence.
As can be seen from
archaeo-biological studies of settlement rubbish heaps, the number and
species diversity of seabirds as a food source decreases rapidly after
1650 AD. Instead, stone chicken coops are increasingly being built.
From the middle of the 17th century, the construction of monumental
sculptures comes to a standstill.
From the end of the 17th century,
at the latest in the first half of the 18th century, the islanders
systematically destroyed the cult platforms and knocked over the
statues. There is a complete decay of the traditional culture based on
ancestor worship.
It is hotly debated where the roots of this cultural
decline are to be found. The majority of researchers now assume that the
problems were caused by the islanders. Jared Diamond's thesis of the
overexploitation of natural resources, which has led to the disruption
of the ecological balance on the isolated island, is popular.
Other theories assume that a drought lasting several years, the Little
Ice Age, the Polynesian rat introduced by the first settlers, the
European influence on culture or a tribal or religious war were the
causes of the decline.
European influence
The first European
who probably saw Easter Island was the pirate Edward Davis, who wanted
to sail around Cape Horn coming from the Galápagos Islands in 1687 with
his ship Bachelors Delight. He sighted the island rather by accident and
believed to have found the legendary southern continent, but did not
land.
Easter Island got its current name from the Dutchman Jakob
Roggeveen, who landed there with three ships on behalf of the West India
Trading Company on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1722. He named it
Paasch-Eyland, which is the German name for Easter Island, after the day
it was discovered. Carl Friedrich Behrens from Mecklenburg took part in
the expedition, and his report, published in Leipzig, drew Europe's
attention to the hitherto unknown island.
The Catalan Manuel
d'Amat i de Junyent, governor of Chile and viceroy of Peru, aspired to
consolidate Spain's influence in South America (against England) and to
extend it to Oceania. He commissioned Don Felipe González to sail to the
Strait of Magellan, doing a.o. to annex the "Earth of Davis" for the
Spanish crown. González landed on November 15, 1770 with the battleship
San Lorenzo and the frigate Santa Rosalia on Easter Island, erected
several crosses at prominent points as a sign of the Spanish claim and
gave it the name San Carlos. In the years that followed, however, Spain
lost interest in Amat's oceanic visions and did not renew its claim to
Easter Island.
During his second South Sea expedition, James Cook
visited Easter Island from March 13-17, 1774. He was not enthusiastic
about the island and wrote in his logbook:
"No nation will ever
fight for the honor of having explored Easter Island, for there is
scarcely another island in the sea which offers less refreshments and
navigable amenities than this one."
– James Cook: Logs of Voyages
1768–1779
Nevertheless, the stay brought important insights into
the geological structure, the vegetation, the population and the statues
(most of which had already been overturned). We owe them to the German
naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Johann Georg Adam
Forster, who took part in the Cook expedition. Reinhold Forster also
made the first sketches of the Moais, which, when published as copper
engravings in the then typical romantic exaggeration, caused a sensation
in the salons.
In 1786, the French Count Jean-François de La
Pérouse landed on Easter Island. He had as part of his circumnavigation
of Louis XVI. the order to draw precise maps and to contribute to the
formation of the French heir to the throne (Dauphin) by researching the
peoples of the South Seas.
Diseases such as influenza and
syphilis introduced by European explorers caused a steady decline in
Easter Island's population.
In 1862 Peruvian Blackbirders raided
the island in search of cheap labor. Within two years, 1,400 islanders
(34% of the estimated population) were abducted to haciendas in Peru,
where many died of infectious diseases in the unfamiliar climate. When
fifteen survivors were allowed to return to Easter Island under
international pressure, they brought smallpox with them. Most of the
population died from the epidemic; In 1864 about 150 islanders were
still alive.
In 1866, Frenchman Jean Baptiste Dutroux-Bornier, a
former French officer who had defected to Tahiti after the Crimean War,
came to Easter Island with his British-Tahitian business partner, John
Brander. In the years that followed, the two took over extensive lands
from the chiefs and established a reign of terror. The islanders were
expelled from their settlements and assigned a small area on the west
coast (in the area of today's Hangaroa), which they were not allowed
to leave under threat of punishment. The rest of the island became
grazing land for sheep and cattle. When conditions finally became
unbearable, the islanders murdered the despot Dutroux-Bornier in 1876,
and Brander died a year later of natural causes. The island remained in
the Brander family after a lengthy legal battle between the heirs before
French courts.
In 1877 only 111 people lived on the island.
From September 20th to 25th, 1882, the German gunboat SMS Hyäne visited
Easter Island as part of an extended South Sea expedition. Captain
Lieutenant Wilhelm Geiseler was commissioned by the Imperial Admiralty
to conduct scientific research for the ethnological department of the
Royal Prussian Museums in Berlin. The expedition delivered i.a. detailed
descriptions of the manners and customs, language and writing of Easter
Island, as well as exact drawings of various cult objects, Moais, floor
plans of houses and a detailed site plan of the Orongo cult site.
The ship's doctor William Thomson, who visited Easter Island in 1886
on board the US ship Mohican, took the first photos of the Moais.
Since the annexation by Chile
Against the background of their
territorial, economic and military expansion in the second half of the
19th century, the Republic of Chile annexed the island on September 9,
1888 Experiences of the Saltpetre War believed it to be of strategic
value as a naval base and supply base. A treaty was drawn up in Spanish
and Polynesian, which Toro and 20 tribal chiefs signed aboard the
warship Angamos. The reason for the conclusion of the contract was the
expectation of the Rapanui to be able to defend themselves better
against attacks with the help of the Chilean government.
In 1895,
the Chilean government leased the island to businessman Enrique Merlet,
who continued to raise cattle. In 1903 he sold his ownership rights to
the British trading house Williamson-Balfour. In 1911, a scientific
commission headed by the German-Chilean Walter Knoche reached the island
to set up a meteorological and seismic station there and to carry out
interdisciplinary biological, ethnological and archaeological research
for the first time.
The various European visitors, but especially
those returning from Peruvian slavery, brought infectious diseases to
the island, which spread rapidly and decimated the population. From
around 1900, leprosy, probably imported from Tahiti, also spread to
Easter Island. A leper colony was therefore set up away from Hangaroa,
in which - according to the residents - the company also isolated
unpopular people who only contracted the disease there.
During
the First World War, the island played a not insignificant role in the
naval war. Coming from Tahiti, a squadron with the armored cruisers SMS
Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau, the light cruiser SMS Leipzig and escort
ships met transport ships coming from the Atlantic to take over fuel and
food. The stay off the island lasted from October 12 to 19, 1914. On
December 23, 1914, the German auxiliary cruiser SMS Prinz Eitel
Friedrich sank the French merchant ship Jean just off the Bay of
Hangaroa. The crew of the sunken ship was left on the island. When the
German auxiliary cruiser SMS Seeadler of the "Sea Devil" Felix Graf von
Luckner sank off Mopelia (Society Islands) in 1917, the crew sailed to
Easter Island with the captured British ship Fortuna. The ship drifted
onto the cliffs while attempting to land and sank. The crew escaped to
the island and lived there for four months before finally being interned
in neutral Chile.
When Angata, an elderly Easter Islander who was
said to be gifted with vision, dreamed in 1914 that God had given the
entire island back to the Rapanui, a rebellion broke out. The islanders
could no longer accept being barred from most of the island. When Angata
also claimed that God had made the insurgents bulletproof and therefore
nothing could happen to them, the conflict escalated.
The
uprising was ended by the deployment of a Chilean warship, but its
commander recognized the intolerable conditions and criticized the
management of the sheep farm. The spatial restrictions remained
unchanged, but the government appointed an administrator independent of
the company.
Chilean martial law prevailed on the island until
1967. The island's residents were under a restrictive military
administration headed by a Chilean-appointed military governor. Although
Chilean citizens, the islanders were not entitled to a Chilean passport
and were not allowed to leave Easter Island. Their stay was limited to a
fenced and guarded area around Hangaroa, the rest of the island could
only be entered with the governor's permission. Independent, democratic
structures in local administration were not permitted until the late
1960s.
As part of a research project at the University of Chile,
the German-born Capuchin Father Sebastian Englert came to Easter Island
in 1935. He remained there as a pastor until his death on a lecture tour
in 1969. Father Englert saw his task not only in missionary work, he
also took care of social issues, health care and education of the
islanders. Significant records of archaeological, linguistic,
cultural-historical and botanical findings can be traced back to the
multifaceted interest. His systematic collection of artifacts now forms
the basis of the Hanga Roa museum that bears his name.
In the
first half of the 20th century there were several research expeditions
to Easter Island. Researchers worth mentioning are the Englishwoman
Katherine Routledge, the Frenchman Alfred Métraux and the German Thomas
Barthel from the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, who found the
essential approaches to decoding the mysterious Easter Island script.
Thor Heyerdahl stayed on Easter Island from 1955 to 1956. He
conducted excavations and practical experiments and raised the first
Moai again.
On May 22, 1960, the Valdivia earthquake, measuring
9.5 magnitude, devastated the city of Valdivia in mainland Chile. The
earthquake triggered a tsunami that hit the south coast of Easter Island
and completely destroyed Ahu Tongariki, which had been restored only a
few years earlier. The Moai, which weighed several tons, were thrown
more than 100 meters inland. With Japanese support, the damage was
repaired in the years that followed, so that the facility is now in its
original condition.
In 1967/68 the US military set up a secret
listening station at Rano Kao. With her came American military personnel
to the island, who ensured a small economic upswing. Under the Allende
government, the base was abandoned again.
The gradual development
of Easter Island's independence began with the Chilean dictator Augusto
Pinochet. Pinochet showed a special kindness towards Easter Island. He
was the first Chilean President to visit the island in 1974 and he
returned twice, in 1980 and 1987. Significant resources were invested in
infrastructure improvements during his reign, and he appointed the first
ethnic Rapanui, US-trained archaeologist Sergio Rapu, as governor of
Easter Island in 1984.
In 1989, the Senckenberg Museum in
Frankfurt am Main held a landmark exhibition that brought together for
the first time some of the relics of Easter Island culture scattered
around the world.
In 1994, Easter Island was featured in the film
Rapa Nui - Rebellion in Paradise, produced a.o. by Hollywood star Kevin
Costner, attracted worldwide attention. Embedded in many landscape shots
of the island, the film shows the erection of the Moai, the
interventions by humans in nature and the associated negative
consequences in a drama typical of feature films. Another film project,
a soap opera by Chile's national television station Televisión Nacional
de Chile entitled: "Iorana, Bienvenido al Amor", made Easter Island
popular in Chile. Since it was broadcast in 1997/98 (with several
repeats), the number of Chilean tourists has multiplied.
Arts and Culture
Easter Islanders made objects from
both stone and wood. The surviving woodcarvings entered the collections
through purchase or exchange with the European expeditions.
The
Moai
Easter Island's world-renowned colossal stone statues are called
Moai. Father Sebastian Englert numbered and cataloged 638 statues, the
Archaeological Survey and Statue Project from 1969 to 1976 identified
887, but there were probably over 1000 originally.
Despite
extensive research, its real purpose and the exact time of its
construction are still disputed among experts. Today it is assumed that
they represent famous chiefs or universally revered ancestors who acted
as a link between this world and the next.
Rongorongo script
The Easter Island culture is the only one in the Pacific to have its own
script, the Rongorongo script. It is a pictorial script interspersed
with phonetics. It is written in lines in a variant of the bustrophedon:
each line is upside down compared to the previous one and is written in
the opposite direction. It is read from left to right and at the end of
the line the tablet is rotated 180 degrees. The beginning is at the
bottom left. The characters, which are an average of one centimeter
high, show graphic symbols, birdmen, people, animals, body parts,
astronomical symbols and everyday implements (boat, house, spear, stone
ax, paddle). However, the pictograms are not composed of pictograms that
directly depict real objects. Thomas Barthel, probably the most profound
expert on the Easter Island script, considers it merely a memory aid, i.
In other words, core concepts are shown around which words and sentences
from memory are to be supplemented.
Archaeologist Kenneth P.
Emory of the Bishop Museum in Hawaii takes a very different view. From
the fact that the few surviving Rongorongo tablets were found between
1722 and 1868, he draws the conclusion that the script is merely an
imitation of European written documents.
The complete
decipherment of the Easter Island script was long considered an unsolved
problem, especially since the written culture in the South Seas region
has no parallels. Only the systematic comparison with calendar knowledge
and the inclusion of oral traditions brought the first approaches to the
interpretation of the content. Thomas Barthel already suspected a lunar
calendar, at least in parts, in a tablet called Tablet Mamari (today in
the archive of the Congregazione dei SS Cuori in Grottaferrata near
Rome), since lines 6 to 9 on the front show a striking number of
astronomical signs and moon symbols. This view has now been confirmed.
Worldwide, only 25 authentic written testimonies on wooden tablets,
the Rongorongo tablets, but also on other cult objects (Rei-Miro in
London, Vogelmann in New York and ceremonial staff in Santiago de Chile)
are known. The surviving Rongorongo tablets are mostly carved from
toromiro wood. The characters were probably engraved with obsidian chips
or shark teeth, Kenneth P. Emory claims, with iron tools of European
origin. The tablets are now scattered throughout museums and collections
around the world.
The attempts at interpretation are countless,
especially since amateur researchers have tried it. The serious
explanations for the recorded texts range from genealogies to ritual
chants. So far, however, it has still not been possible to translate the
texts line by line.
On the slope of Rano Kao, perilously close to a
300-meter sheer cliff, are the well-known Orongo petroglyphs. The main
motif is that of the bird man (Polynesian: Tangata Manu), a hybrid of
human and frigate bird. The cult of the bird man gained increasing
importance from about 1500 AD. The reasons for turning away from the old
religion of ancestor worship, which ultimately led to the later
overthrow of the Moais, are unknown. Archaeologist Georgia Lee, editor
of the Rapa Nui Journal, argues that this is related to the rise of a
warrior caste to power as a result of ecological destruction. Others,
such as Alfred Métraux, assume that ancestor worship and the Vogelmann
cult coexisted for at least a time.
Every spring, young men would
swim from Orongo to offshore Motu Nui to find the first Sooty Tern
(Sterna fuscata) egg. Whoever brought back an undamaged egg first was
declared a birdman, presided over ritual sacrifices, and enjoyed special
privileges.
Birdman figures are widespread throughout the South
Seas (Samoa, Sepik region in New Guinea).
Another motif in the
rock carvings at Orongo is Makemake, a mask-like face with large,
owl-like eyes, representing the creator god. There are also animal
representations (birds, whales, sharks, turtles) and graphic motifs.
The Orongo place of worship includes carefully erected stone huts
with sod roofs, which were not permanently inhabited but only used for
ritual purposes.
Rei-Miro
Rei Miro is a wooden pectoral known
only in Easter Island culture, carved primarily from toromiro wood. It
has a crescent-like shape, which can also be interpreted as a boat body.
The two ends are often designed as human or animal heads with fine
facial features. There are holes for a neck cord at the upper ends. Some
pectorals are inscribed with characters. Rei Miro from Easter Island can
be found in various museums around the world. Their meaning (cult
object, jewelry or insignia of rank) is unknown.
Ao and Rapa
Ao and rapa are paddle-shaped ritual objects carved out of wood, which
were used as insignia of high dignitaries, but also in ritual dances.
Cult caves
The volcanic origin of the island means that numerous
caves and chasms have formed in the rock. The caves were used as places
of worship, as evidenced by numerous rock paintings. The motifs have
their origin mainly in the Vogelmann cult. Thor Heyerdahl found numerous
small stone sculptures in the caves with a wide variety of motifs:
depictions of bird men, moais, head sculptures, anthropomorphic and
zoomorphic figures through to depictions of sailing ships. The secret
caves are assigned to individual families. This knowledge was
communicated orally to specially selected members of the next
generation. Bone finds prove that the caves were also used as burial
sites, but probably only in the late period. According to islander lore,
the caves also served as places of refuge during the period of cultural
decline and subsequent civil wars. A cult cave with numerous rock
paintings that is frequently visited by tourists is Ana Kai Tangata, the
so-called "man-eater's cave", near Mataveri on the west coast.
Administration
Easter Island is one of eight provinces of the Chilean
Región de Valparaíso (Spanish: Provincia de Isla de Pascua). Unlike most
other departments in Chile, it is not further subdivided into
municipalities, but corresponds to one municipality.
Infrastructure
Mataveri International Airport (IATA airport code IPC)
has been in existence since the 1950s. At that time, the first plane
landed on a makeshift strip of grass near Mataveri. In the 1960s, Chile
recognized the importance of Easter Island as a way station in a
transpacific air network, not least from a military point of view. After
plans for a new construction at Anakena were rejected as too expensive,
the grass runway at Mataveri was widened and paved. However, the primary
purpose of the airfield operated by the Chilean Air Force was to supply
the American base. When Mataveri Airport was expanded by NASA in 1984 as
an emergency landing site for space shuttles, wide-bodied aircraft could
land there. This has led to a significant increase in tourism, which is
now the island's main source of income. LATAM Airlines operates flights
to and from Santiago de Chile several times a week, the flight lasts a
good four and a half hours. There is a flight connection to and from
Papeete in Tahiti twice a week, the flight takes around six hours.
There has been a central water supply system with a
deep well since 1967; until then, the population had to rely on the
supplies in the crater lakes or on the groundwater seeping out on the
coast. Properties located outside are also connected to the power supply
network, which is operated with diesel generators. Paved roads can be
found in the immediate area of Hanga Roa and Mataveri. The routes from
Hanga Roa to Anakena Beach and along the south coast to the Poike
Peninsula are also now paved. All streets in Hangaroa have a name, but
they are not indicated on street signs. The only gas station is near the
airport, but there is no car dealership. There is also no public
transport. Some taxis, rental cars and rental bicycles are available.
Some of the local families keep horses, which are a means of everyday
transportation, or ride motorbikes.
All educational
qualifications up to university entrance qualification (Enseñanza Media,
corresponds to the German Abitur and the Austrian/Swiss Matura) can be
obtained at the five schools in Hangaroa. However, a technical or
university degree is only possible on the mainland. In one of the
elementary schools there is a UNESCO-supported pilot project of
bilingual teaching in Rapa Nui and Spanish. The problem is that there is
no printing company on Rapa Nui - all printed matter on Rapa Nui has to
be printed on the Chilean mainland, which makes production considerably
more expensive.
Health care is far better than in other remote
regions of Chile. In 1964, a Canadian scientific commission (Medical
Expedition to Easter Island – METEI) came to Easter Island on behalf of
the UN to carry out a pilot project to investigate the connection
between heredity, environment and diseases. When she left the island in
1964, what remained were the modern medical facilities housed in a few
containers. They formed the basis for the health care of the island
according to modern standards. The small hospital building was erected
in 1975, which today houses a doctor, a dentist, a midwife and a nursing
service. An ambulance is also stationed there. An ophthalmologist comes
regularly from the Chilean mainland and holds consultations.
The
other infrastructure with a church, post office, bank, pharmacy, small
shops, a few small supermarkets, snack bars and restaurants has improved
significantly since the 1960s, not least to meet the needs of tourism.
Most of the shops are on Avenida Atamu Tekena, the main street in the
village. Fresh fish is sold at the harbor in the morning, but the
selection and quantity offered are small. In front of some houses there
are stalls where locals offer home-grown fruit and vegetables. Satellite
telephone, internet and e-mails are a matter of course. Mobile phones
currently only work in Hangaroa and the surrounding area (more or less
without interference), but the network is constantly being expanded.
There is now also a nightclub for the younger islanders.
population
It is estimated that Easter Island had around 10,000
inhabitants at the time of its cultural heyday in the 16th and 17th
centuries. As a result of the man-made ecological catastrophe, the
scarcity of food and armed conflicts, this number was reduced to around
2000 to 3000 before the arrival of the Europeans. Deportation to Peru as
forced labor reduced the population to around 900 in 1868, and diseases
brought in by the few returnees led to a further decline in population.
The exploitation of the island by intensive sheep farming by a
European consortium resulted in the population being pushed back to a
small settlement area in the north-west of the island. This conflict of
interest led to 168 residents emigrating in 1871 with the help of
missionaries. In 1877 the population was only 111. After that, the
population slowly recovered. In 1888, the year of annexation by Chile,
178 inhabitants were counted.
At the beginning of the twentieth
century there was a widespread desire, especially among the young
population, to leave the island. Corresponding efforts were, however,
prevented by the Chilean military administration. Living conditions only
improved in the 1950s, and the number of inhabitants also increased. In
1960 more than 1000 inhabitants were counted.
From 1988 to 2002, the population rose from 1938 to
3791. The increase between 2002 and 2012 is one of the highest in Chile
at over 54%. The significant increase within a few years is mainly due
to immigration from the Chilean mainland. As a result, the demographic
composition of the population changed to the detriment of the Polynesian
natives, the Rapanui.
In 1982, 70% of the inhabitants were
Rapanui, in 2002 their share was only 60%. 39% were of European type
(predominantly temporary residents such as administrators, military
personnel, scientists and their families) and one percent were other.
In recent decades, there has not only been immigration. Easter
Island residents have also emigrated to the mainland. The 2002 census
found that 2,269 Rapanui lived outside of Easter Island in Chile.
In 2012, 5806 people lived on Easter Island, the population density
was 36 inhabitants per square kilometer. According to the census, 7750
people lived there in 2017.
In the mid-19th century there were
still six settlements: Anakena, Tongariki, Vaihu, Vinapu, Mataveri and
Hanga Roa. Today, residents are concentrated in the villages of Hanga
Roa and Mataveri in the southwest, which have grown together to be
considered one settlement. In the remaining regions of the island there
are only a few scattered settlements.
The official language is
Spanish, but in everyday life language varieties are also spoken that
contain both elements of Spanish and the indigenous language Rapanui →
Spanish on Easter Island.
Tourism on a significant scale has only existed since
1967, when the first passenger plane landed on the island. Even today,
Easter Island can only be reached by plane with LATAM Airlines from
Santiago de Chile or from Tahiti. However, the number of tourists is
still very low compared to other holiday islands. The Chilean government
lowered the maximum length of stay for tourists and non-locals from 90
to 30 days in 2018, citing the need to protect the island and its
limited resources.
Easter Island has only one harbor for small
boats. There is no regular ship connection. Cruise ships are anchored
off Hanga Roa. The passengers are disembarked, which is often not
pleasant given the consistently rough sea.
The accommodation of
tourists ranges from private quarters to hotels, the comfort of which
corresponds to the three-star category (according to Central European
standards). However, the majority of tourists only stay on the island
for two or three days as part of round trips. The high price level is
due to the fact that everything – with the exception of some
agricultural products – has to be imported from the mainland at high
prices.
Since the population lives mainly from tourism today,
there are knowledgeable local guides for all common languages, including
German. The sights can be reached by off-road vehicle, on horseback or,
for experienced hikers, on foot.
The Rano Raraku, the "birthplace" of the Moai, is
probably the most interesting point on the island for tourists. On the
slopes of the volcano and around the crater lake stand or lie more than
300 statues of different sizes and different stages of manufacture. Not
far from there is the Ahu Tongariki, the largest ceremonial platform in
Polynesia with 15 erected statues of impressive size in a sea bay.
Anakena has the island's only notable beach of fine, white coral sand.
Swimming is possible here. Picnics are organized for tourists in the
coconut grove. At Anakena are two interesting ceremonial platforms, the
Ahu Naunau and the Ahu Ature Huki. A smaller Moai is built into the Ahu
Naunau, recycled, so to speak.
Te Pito o te Henua (The Navel of the
World) (actually: Te Pito Kura - the red navel) is a ceremonial
structure centered around a spherical stone believed to be of natural
origin. Esotericists attribute unusual properties to the place.
Christian Walter, an anthropologist who lives on the island, says the
facility was built in the 1960s for gullible tourists. In fact Thor
Heyerdahl did not mention the site, although he has carried out
extensive archaeological research in the vicinity. Others claim that the
stone sphere is identical to the stone that Hotu Matua brought to Easter
Island from his home island of Hiva. Another stone ball was excavated at
Ahu Tongariki, but this one has been shown to have been worked by
humans.
From the crater rim of Rano Kao there is a spectacular view
of the three motus off the southwest coast. The Orongo ceremonial
complex is also located directly there.
Puna Pau to the west is the
quarry on the slope of a Rano Kao subsidiary volcano where the Moai's
headpieces were made from red volcanic slag.
The Museo Antropologico
Padre Sebastian Englert, located just outside of Mataveri, is modestly
equipped compared to many other ethnological museums in Europe or
America. Nevertheless, the visit is recommended because of the original
eye of a Moai found near Anakena in 1978.