Who created the Easter Island civilization?

Hundreds of years ago, an advanced, seafaring civilization called Rapa Nui built more than 800 monuments that were so massive and ambiguous that they remain a mystery to this day. The Easter Island statues, or moai, are enormous stone figures placed along the coastline as if surveying the island’s interior lands.

Where did the original inhabitants of Easter Island come from?

Linguists estimate Easter Island’s first inhabitants arrived around AD 400, and most agree that they came from East Polynesia. The archaeological record suggests a somewhat later date of settlement, between AD 700 and 800. As early as BC 5500 people in Melanesia were voyaging in boats and trading in obsidian.

How did natives get to Easter Island?

Some scientists say that Easter Island was not inhabited until 700–800 CE. The Austronesian Polynesians, who first settled the island, are likely to have arrived from the Marquesas Islands from the west. These settlers brought bananas, taro, sugarcane, and paper mulberry, as well as chickens and Polynesian rats.

Who built the moai?

The Moai are a collection of large monolithic statues built by the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island.

Do the Rapa Nui people still exist?

The Rapa Nui are the indigenous Polynesian people of Easter Island. At the 2017 census there were 7,750 island inhabitants— almost all living in the village of Hanga Roa on the sheltered west coast.

Why are there no trees on Easter Island?

Easter Island was covered with palm trees for over 30,000 years, but is treeless today. There is good evidence that the trees largely disappeared between 1200 and 1650. However there is evidence the Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans) was present from 900 and it seems clear that these rats caused widespread deforestation.

Do humans live on Easter Island?

Despite its extreme seclusion, most people know of Easter Island for one reason: the moai sculptures. And they are enough to attract nearly 100,000 travelers every year to this island of just 5,700 inhabitants.

Does Easter Island have an airport?

Easter Island is served by Easter Island Mataveri Intl Airport, also commonly referred to as Easter Island, Isla de Pascua, Mataveri Intl, or simply Easter Island Airport. The airport code is IPC.

What language do they speak on Easter Island?

Rapa Nui or Rapanui (/ˌræpəˈnuːi/), also known as Pascuan (/ˈpæskjuən/) or Pascuense, is an Eastern Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family. It is spoken on the island of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island. The island is home to a population of just under 6,000 and is a special territory of Chile.

Are Polynesians white?

Polynesians are known to have definitely originated from a branch of the Austronesian migrations in Island Melanesia, despite the popularity of rejected hypotheses like Thor Heyerdahl’s belief that Polynesians are descendants of “bearded white men” who sailed on primitive rafts from South America.

Are Native Hawaiians considered Native American?

Natives of the Hawaiian Islands are not Indigenous People, They’re Aboriginal. There are, however, instances of when Native Americans were called indigenous as early as 1838, but this also needs to be understood within the context of race relations at the time.

Does Easter Island have a flag?

The flag of Easter Island (Rapa Nui: Te Reva Reimiro) is the flag of Easter Island, a special territory of Chile. It was first flown in public alongside the national flag on 9 May 2006.

Why did they build the moai?

Moai statues were built to honor chieftain or other important people who had passed away. They were placed on rectangular stone platforms called ahu, which are tombs for the people that the statues represented.

What does moai stand for?

listen), or moai (Spanish: moái, Rapa Nui: moʻai, meaning “statue” in Rapa Nui), are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500.

What is the tallest moai in the world?

The tallest moai erected, called Paro, was almost 10 metres (33 ft) high and weighed 82 tons; the heaviest erected was a shorter but squatter moai at Ahu Tongariki, weighing 86 tons; and one unfinished sculpture, if completed, would have been approximately 21 metres (69 ft) tall with a weight of about 270 tons.