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.
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.
Researchers analyzed the genomes of 15 ancient Rapa Nui inhabitants, and their findings paint a very different picture. With the approval of Rapa Nui community leaders, the team studied human remains housed in a museum in France. These remains had been taken from the island — located 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) west of mainland Chile — during colonization in the late 19th and…
