Archaeology & History

DNA analysis reveals what really happened on Easter Island

By T.K. Randall
September 11, 2024

Image: Ahu Tongariki - Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
Credit: Bradenfox / CC BY 3.0 (adapted) Best known for its enigmatic stone heads, Easter Island is often cited as an example of a place where its native population collapsed because of unsustainable environmental destruction.

But did the inhabitants of Easter Island really destroy the island's natural resources and wipe themselves out in the process, or could their fate have been something else altogether ?

Now a new study has called the population collapse theory into serious doubt by analyzing the DNA of more than a dozen 19th and 20th-Century inhabitants of the island and studying their genomes.

The findings indicated "no evidence of a genetic bottleneck" that would have been expected if a significant collapse had occurred on the island during the 17th-Century.Instead, the population had actually steadily increased until the 1860s.

"We don't think that we have any evidence at a genetic level of a collapse," study co-author Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas told Live Science.

"When there's a collapse, the population level will decrease, and we'll lose genetic diversity."

There is also evidence to suggest that the island's inhabitants mixed with Native Americans sometime between A.D. 1250 and 1430, meaning that they must have crossed the sea to mainland America (or vice versa) and were not completely cut off from the mainland during that time.

More research will be needed, however, to learn about this particular aspect of the islanders' lives.

Source: Live Science

Tags: Easter Island