Archaeology News Online

It had been proposed that vast forests of giant palm trees were cut down by the people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) leaving them among other things without canoes. With no canoes, they could no longer fish so they ate chickens, rats and agricultural crops. New isotopic analyses of bones, soils and plant remains from Rapa Nui, Chile (Easter Island) provide evidence contrary  to the widely-held belief that the ancient civilization recklessly destroyed its environment [Credit: Terry Hunt] However, Rapa Nui is not a tropical paradise with fertile soils so crop productivity decreased. This 'ecocide' hypothesis attributes societal collapse on Rapa Nui to human overexploitation of natural resources. This new study published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology challenges that interpretation and instead shows that the ancient population ate roughly equal amounts of seafood and terrestrial resources. Catrine Jarman, lead author of the study and PhD student at the University

Analysis of remains found on Rapa Nui, Chile (Easter Island) provides evidence contrary to the widely-held belief that the ancient civilization recklessly destroyed its environment, according to new research co-conducted by faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York. Analysis of remains found on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) provides evidence contrary to the widely-held belief  that the ancient civilization recklessly destroyed its environment [Credit: Karen Schwartz/TT] "The traditional story is that over time the people of Rapa Nui used up their resources and started to run out of food," said Binghamton University Professor of Anthropology Carl Lipo. "One of the resources that they supposedly used up was trees that were growing on the island. Those trees provided canoes and, as a result of the lack of canoes, they could no longer fish. So they started to rely more and more on land food. As they relied on land food, productivity went down because of soil

It had been proposed that vast forests of giant palm trees were cut down by the people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) leaving them among other things without canoes. With no canoes, they could no longer fish so they ate chickens, rats and agricultural crops. New isotopic analyses of bones, soils and plant remains from Rapa Nui, Chile (Easter Island) provide evidence contrary  to the widely-held belief that the ancient civilization recklessly destroyed its environment [Credit: Terry Hunt] However, Rapa Nui is not a tropical paradise with fertile soils so crop productivity decreased. This 'ecocide' hypothesis attributes societal collapse on Rapa Nui to human overexploitation of natural resources. This new study published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology challenges that interpretation and instead shows that the ancient population ate roughly equal amounts of seafood and terrestrial resources. Catrine Jarman, lead author of the study and PhD student at the University

Analysis of remains found on Rapa Nui, Chile (Easter Island) provides evidence contrary to the widely-held belief that the ancient civilization recklessly destroyed its environment, according to new research co-conducted by faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York. Analysis of remains found on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) provides evidence contrary to the widely-held belief  that the ancient civilization recklessly destroyed its environment [Credit: Karen Schwartz/TT] "The traditional story is that over time the people of Rapa Nui used up their resources and started to run out of food," said Binghamton University Professor of Anthropology Carl Lipo. "One of the resources that they supposedly used up was trees that were growing on the island. Those trees provided canoes and, as a result of the lack of canoes, they could no longer fish. So they started to rely more and more on land food. As they relied on land food, productivity went down because of soil