Rapa Nui: The Truth About Easter Island

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2022

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

1,900 miles west of South America and 1,250 miles from any other population centre, Easter Island - or Rapa Nui - is world famous for its monolithic stone statues. But new evidence indicates that the isle's infamous prehistoric 'societal collapse' may actually be a myth.

With the help of fresh techniques and research, Robert DiNapoli and his team from Binghamton University in the US have found that descendants of Polynesian seafarers who settled Easter Island in the 13th century continued to erect statues for at least 150 years past 1600 - the date long hailed as the start of societal collapse. In this episode Cat is joined by Robert DiNapoli to learn more about his remarkable findings.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Have you ever wondered why one of Ruan Cathedral's towers is called the Tower of Butter, or what
0:06.2	animals have faced trials in courts for, or even how the black country got its name?
0:12.4	Well, you can find the answers to questions like these and hundreds more in our new book,
0:18.4	The History Hit Misscellanie. It's the perfect present for any history fan.
0:23.3	It's available to buy now from your favourite bookshop or by visiting historyhit.com forward slash
0:29.9	book.
0:34.7	Hello and welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit. I'm Dr. Kat Jarman.
0:40.1	On Easter Sunday, 1722, 300 years ago this year, a ship of Dutch explorers came across a very
0:47.2	small island in the Pacific Ocean thousands of miles from the nearest landmass.
0:51.8	In honour of the day of their discovery, they called the island Easter Island. However,
0:56.8	they were not the first to discover that island. It was already inhabited and already had a name
1:02.6	Rapanui. Although this was the first time any Europeans and encountered it, the island itself
1:07.9	had a rich and long history and cultural development, not leads in terms of the magnificent stone
1:13.2	statues that the island is best known for. But within a short space of time of that first visit
1:19.0	by the Dutch disaster would strike the island as it became almost completely depopulated.
1:24.5	The reasons why this happened have been widely discussed and debated with one of the most
1:28.9	common reasons suggested is that their population was responsible for its own demise through an
1:34.8	eco site, an ecological suicide. Few places on earth are described as such a great mystery
1:41.6	as this island, but in actual fact, what happened was not really a mystery at all.
1:47.0	We know quite well what fate befell the Rapanui people. New archaeological research over the past
1:52.8	decade or so has significantly helped us understand its past. Today, I'm really excited to talk
2:00.9	to an archaeologist who has been a key part of much of this very recent research into Rapanui. That's
	...

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