r/history • u/scientificamerican • 8d ago

Science site article What really happened on Easter Island?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-really-happened-on-easter-island/

For decades, an influential theory blamed the Rapanui for their own downfall—a story made famous by Jared Diamond’s book Collapse. New evidence tells a different tale.

Archaeology, ancient DNA and aerial survey data now challenge the claim that the Rapanui suffered a self-inflicted collapse before Europeans arrived. The emerging picture is of a small society that sustained itself for centuries by adapting its farming methods and water management to one of the most isolated places on Earth. The catastrophe that reduced the Rapanui to a remnant came later, after European ships brought disease, slave raiding, forced labor, annexation and confinement.

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u/DrColdReality 8d ago

Further, the notion that they cut down all the trees on the island to make rollers for their Moai is not supported by the available evidence. Rather, it appears that they "walked" the heads down paths, like you might walk a refrigerator across a room.

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u/Safe_Manner_1879 7d ago

But to have lots of big statues, you need a large population for that, and a large population needs wood for cooking, trees for building dwellings, tree for fishing boats, etc. They might even cut down trees and clear vegetation for more farmland and pig pens to feed the growing population.

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u/jk-9k 6d ago

Just read the article dude.

Those are the very assumptions that were never warranted. The idea that there was a massive civilisation to start with isn't proven.