Mar 29, 2022 · Today, in a gallery on the ground floor of the British Museum, a large, solitary figure serves as a bittersweet reminder of Rapa Nui’s fate. Hoa Hakananai’a, one of the finest and rarest basalt moai, was given to the museum by Queen Victoria in 1869.

Jan 19, 2024 · Remarkably, the moai that stand on Rapa Nui today were all toppled during interclan warfare by the end of the 19th century, which, along with disease and slave raids, decimated the population ...

Today, the people living on Easter Island are largely descendants of the ancient Rapa Nui (about 60%) and run the bulk of the tourism and conservation efforts on the island. Many locals living on Easter Island have livelihoods that involve the water—which makes sense!

Jun 25, 2024 · Researchers have long thought that hundreds of years ago, the population of the Pacific island Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, experienced a steep crash. Its residents were said to have used up all...

Dec 16, 2022 · RAPA NUI, Chile (AP) — The hillside of Rano Raraku volcano on Rapa Nui feels like a place that froze in time. Embedded in grass and volcanic rock, almost 400 moai – the monolithic human figures carved centuries ago by this remote Pacific island’s Rapanui people -- remained untouched until recently.

Sep 16, 2024 · Located more than 2,000 miles from the South American continent, Rapa Nui is known for its large stone statues called moai. According to the ‘ecocide’ theory, the Rapanui people used up all...

A millennium ago, a brave group of Polynesians sailed thousands of miles across the Pacific to settle one of the world’s most isolated places — a small, previously uninhabited island they named Rapa Nui. There they erected hundreds of “moai,” or gigantic stone statues of ancestral spirits, to protect them.

Jun 21, 2024 · The Indigenous people of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, didn't have a catastrophic population fall, a new study finds. (Image credit: James L. Amos)

Feb 11, 2020 · Data amassed from 11 Easter Island sites shows that the Rapa Nui people began assembling the moai sometime between the early 14th and mid-15th centuries, continuing construction until at least...

Jun 21, 2024 · Rapa Nui, today part of Chile, is more than 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) from the nearest inhabited island of Pitcairn and about 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles) from the South American...