Easter Island, located in the southeast Pacific Ocean, is famous for its giant stone statues, moai. The island experienced a collapse of civilization in the 17th-18th centuries due to deforestation, civil wars, and depletion of resources. Before the collapse, the islanders built the moai using only basalt stone tools. The island also has its own undeciphered writing system called Rongorongo.
Easter Island is a famous and very isolated island in the southeast Pacific Ocean. It is known for its giant stone statues, moai, created between the 1000s and 1700s, probably towards the earlier part of that range. These statues number 887, and at one point there were about 10 islanders for each statue, for an island population of about 10,000 people. The total area of the island is 63 square miles (163.6 km2). It is located 2,075 km (1,290 mi) east of Pitcairn, the closest inhabited island, and 3,600 km (2,237 mi) west of mainland Chile. Easter Island is also among the youngest inhabited territories on Earth.
Easter Island is often considered a case study of the collapse of civilization. In the 17th-18th centuries there was a drastic decline of civilization, during which the island’s forests were completely depleted, boats could no longer be built, destroying the fishing industry. Because trees are often the foundation of stable, food-producing ecosystems, these foundations have been destroyed and many of the island’s inhabitants have died of starvation. There were also numerous civil wars which would have been extremely bloody. Archaeological evidence indicates that chickens and rats became the main diet of the islanders, and there were even indications of cannibalism. When Europeans arrived in the 17th, there were barely 18 inhabitants on the island.
Before the collapse of the Easter Island civilization in the 17th century, there was a golden age, during which the two-ton moai statues were built. These iconic statues had eyes painted white and facing inland. The islanders lacked metal tools and fashioned the statues using only basalt stone tools. The quarry for the statue material originated from one point on the island and the statues were hauled into their positions by the use of large wooden looms. Given the small number of people on the island and the sheer volume of the statues, conspiracy theorists have long speculated that Easter Islanders received special assistance from extraterrestrials, though no anthropologists take this very seriously. .
Easter Island is also known to have its own natively invented writing system, currently undeciphered, called Rongorongo. This is one of the few examples of a writing system created ex nihilo, that is, without outside influence. The script is so enigmatic that decades of efforts to decode it have been fruitless, and scientists don’t even agree on whether he’s really writing. Although there were once hundreds of wooden tablets and sticks inscribed Rongorongo, currently only 26 remain.
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