Easter Island, Rapa Nui

Known the world around for its amazing stone monuments and mysterious history, Easter Island offers some of the most visible and studied archaeology. What is also clearly visible is the destruction of sites through impacts of humans and animals. In an investigation of sites, and examination of stone deterioration, architecture destruction and artefact disappearances, a correlation was made to these impacts and human and animal activity. In comparison to the effects of the environment, human and animal destruction proved to be much more devastating. When examined, the current methods of site protection prove insufficient to defer site degradation and thus other protection and preservation methods must be implemented.

In the 1860’s a series of disastrous events occurred, which wiped out almost the entire population. In December 1862 Peruvian slave raiders struck Rapa Nui, and abductions continued for the next few months, which lead to the island losing 1500 islanders (about half the island’s population). A group of islander managed to escape, however, with them they brought smallpox, which broke out and started an epidemic. The first Christian missionary brought tuberculosis with him and reduced the islands population to about 900 people.

Legends recorded by the missionaries in the 1860s told that the island originally had a very clear class system, with an ariki, (king), wielding absolute god-like power ever since Hotu Matu’a had arrived on the island.