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Easter Islanders were not wiped out in a war


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Makes sense given their shape and the fact that they were found scattered all over the island, rather than in a specific area where a fight might have actually taken place. So what wiped them out? The arrival of the Europeans and all the nasty stuff that came with their arrival?

 

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From the article:

"People have long believed that the island civilization ran out of resources and, as a result, engaged in massive in-fighting, which led to its collapse."

Let me correct that statement:

"People Archaeologists have long believed that the island civilization ran out of resources and, as a result, engaged in massive in-fighting, which led to its collapse."

What a silly statement in an otherwise good piece which I agree with wholeheartedly.

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I would imagine smallmpox with the arrival of Europeans. Same as the Haida nation from Haida Gwaii...sad

Edited by khol
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Their population was probably decimated by introduced diseases, the same way all pristine non African-Eurasian populations were. This would have resulted in the collapse of their social order with resultant chaos.

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The article didn't have photos of the obsidian spear points found on Easter Island, so I googled it . what makes an obsidian spear point and what makes an all purpose obsidian tool ? they all look like spear heads to me 

 

021816_bb_easterisland_free.jpg

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It's more likely than not that contact with Europeans and the pathogens and vermin that traveled with them were the direct cause of the decline, fall, and ultimate destruction of Easter Island's culture.

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It's more likely than not that contact with Europeans and the pathogens and vermin that traveled with them were the direct cause of the decline, fall, and ultimate destruction of Easter Island's culture.

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I don't know what stories they tell up north, but in Chile, it has always been kind of a combination, that towards the end of the pre-discovery period, the tribes were indeed warring against each other, and eventually both were weakened to the point that they were ready to collapse.  That the tribes were fighting is a matter of tribal legend directly from them, so that did indeed happen, and the final blow was the arrival of the explorers.

Not sure why some are so insistent that only one factor was the cause of the collapse of a civilization, and not a combination, as is more common in reality.

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That's the Thor Heyerdahl version I read in high school in the '60s in his book Aku, Aku. The long ears vs the short ears all dovetailing nicely with his since discredited and disproven theory of Native American ocean voyaging and expansion into the South Pacific. The social disorder and starvation caused by the population collapse precipitated by introduced disease may have resulted in some such scenario.   The trials and tribulations of the islanders, post contact, extended over several centuries. It's really quite miraculous any survived to tell their tale. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Easter_Island

Edited by Hammerclaw
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OK - So there must have been people on Easter Island when the explorers arrived, correct?  If not, how would their germs and vermin wipe out a civilization? Were any European weapons found on the island?  You'd think that if the Europeans visited the island, there would be more than a here today gone tomorrow theory.  Almost sounds like Roanoke Island.

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Europeans?  Well, the Dutch discovered it in the early 1700's.  Spain was there in 1770, and Captain Cook was there in 1774, if memory serves.  Cook was the first one to report toppled statues.  Over the next 80-90, there was only one or two ships, and they all reported things were going downhill fast.  By the 1860's, it was being raided by slavers and colonized by the French.

Also, the civilization wasn't wiped out in the sense that everyone died.  The Rapa Nui are still there.  It's just that their entire culture was completely destroyed, all the culture, memories, skills, pretty much everything that defined them.  The current residents actually learned more from the  anthropologists than they knew from their history, which at this point is almost entirely stories, some more, some less, true.

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