When Polynesian explorers landed on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, around 1200 C.E., they found nearly 20 million palm trees; by the time Dutch explorers arrived in 1722, they found only ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Carl Lipo, Binghamton University, State University of New York (THE CONVERSATION) Rapa ...

Scattered across one of the most isolated islands on Earth stand hundreds of gigantic stone statues known as the Moai — some ...

Rapa Nui Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, is among the most contested case studies of environmental archaeology, with the role of the Polynesian rat in its deforestation being central to this ...

Illustration of Polynesian Rat, Rattus exulans from an article entitled 'On the New Zealand Rat. (With Illustrations.)', by Walter Buller, Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New ...

For generations, the massive moai of Easter Island, called Rapa Nui by the locals, have stood in quiet testimony to one of archaeology’s longest-standing mysteries. How did an island society, remote ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: Among the palm fronds and hibiscus flowers of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, the moai—massive statues of volcanic rock usually carved in the images of ...

A research team including Binghamton University archaeologist Carl Lipo has confirmed via 3D modeling and field experiments that the ancient people of Rapa Nui "walked" the iconic moai statues. For ...