Archaeology
at the Center of the World: Advances in Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
Research Symposium to be presented at the 67th
Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Denver,
Colorado, March 20-24, 2002. (organized by J. Dudgeon, J.
Mikulanec & T. Hunt)
Session
Abstract
The
Island of Rapa Nui (Easter) is among the most isolated places
on Earth.Yet, it has seen a long and intensive history of
archaeological research. Thus, we know a great deal about
the islandís archaeology and prehistory, but in some aspects
the past remains poorly known. In this symposium we convene
an international group of scholars engaged in multiple dimensions
of research on Rapa Nui. The contributions focus on paleoenvironment,
monumental statuary and architecture, community patterns,
evolutionary change, and historical archaeology. We also address
the goals of the field program initiated by the University
of Hawaii. These papers reflect the recent advances and changing
directions in research on this remote, yet important island.
Title,
Author and Abstract, in order of presentation:
A
Review of the Palynological and Macroscopic Evidence about
the Ecological History of Easter Island (Rapa Nui)
John
R. Flenley
The
paper will review the palynological evidence from three volcanic
craters, and the macrobotanical evidence from several archaeological
and other sites. Particular attention will be paid to alternative
explanations of the evidence, involving human impact and climatic
change.
Towards
a New Perspective on Rapa Nui: A Data-Rich Model for Archaeological
Explanation and Reconstruction.
Claudio
Cristino, Patricia Vargas and Jo Anne Van Tilburg
No
coherent statement of Rapa Nui as a distinctive unit of Polynesian
culture can be made without first establishing its defining
characteristics. This, in turn, can only be accomplished by
archaeological investigations carried out within the larger
framework of systematic, theoretically sophisticated and multi-disciplinary
methods. This paper critically reviews the record to date
and then joins three discrete strands of inquiry and evidence:
the ìdirectî historical evidence of oral history and the data-rich
archaeological record with the ìinferentialî evidence of ethnology
to propose an integrated model of Rapa Nui cultural history
reconstruction.
Archaeological
Data Interpretation, the Polynesian Cosmogonic Tradition and
Moai Style.
Jo
Anne Van Tilburg, Patricia Vargas and Claudio Cristino
The
moai is a universal feature of Rapa Nui aesthetic expression,
the development of which is a partial consequence of ancestry,
innovation and isolation. This paper explores the modifications,
elaborations and transformations of domestic and ceremonial
built environment.
Easter
Island Archaeology, the Land and the People: Three Islands
in conflict.
Patricia
Vargas and Claudio Cristino
An
island-wide archaeological survey carried out by the authors
in the past two decades has provided a unique and valuable
corpus of data collected in a broad descriptive framework
based upon spatial, temporal and typological relationships.
This paper succinctly reviews different levels of integration,
analysis and archaeological interpretation of this database.
Aware of the extreme vulnerability of Easter Island's archaeological
landscape it also explores and indicates multiple possibilities
of integration of the survey data for analytical and conservation
purposes as well as for territorial and cultural resource
management, in the context of the controversial issue of current
modernization processes and alleged
claims for a sustainable development.
Territoriality
and the Power of the Dead: Interpreting Changes in Rapa Nui
Burial Practices
Leslie
C. Shaw
The
information currently available on human burials on Rapa Nui
has shown that there were numerous changes in burial location
and practice from the time of initial settlement through to
the early historic period. While there may be functional reasons
for some of these changes, such as the shift away from cremation
following the decimation of tree species on the island, I
propose that the Islanders also manipulated burial practices
to mitigate the effects of rapid social change. I will argue
that the symbolism and visual dominance of burial features
was used, consciously and subconsciously, to tie together
ancestral power and the maintenance of territorial boundaries.
Investigation
of Stone Tools from Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
Jacce
Mikulanec
In
this paper I focus on three inter-related issues for stone
adzes from Rapa Nui (Easter Island). First, analysis of use-wear
for more than 200 adzes reveals co-occurring patterns of breakage
with morphological attributes. Second, I consider potential
stylistic and functional dimensions for the assemblages. And
third, I critically examine previous adze classifications
for stone tools from the island and suggest a revised scheme
to better reflect their form and variability. Prehistoric
stone tool variability on Rapa Nui may reflect changing resource
use, among other trends, in a context of human-induced deforestation.
The
Easter Island Moai Road and Transport Systems
Charles
Love
Nearly
40km of roadways were constructed and used by the prehistoric
Easter Islanders. Three or four major roadways were constructed
specifically so that transportation of 50 to 80 ton ancestral
statues could take place. Clearing and excavation of eleven
segments of two different roadways reveal a total of 300 meters
of road surface characteristics. Sixteen trenches cut across
the roadway show various aspects of road construction. Survey
of these roadways has shown a number of structures to be associated
with road activity. The characteristics of the roadbeds strongly
suggest that the previous moai moving experiments by Heyerdahl,
Pavel, Love, and Van Tilburg are incorrect. Several new experimental
moving methods are proposed.
Temporal-Spatial
Patterns of Investment in the Moai (statue) Industry of Rapa
Nui (Easter Island)
B.
Leif Shepardson
The
people of prehistoric Rapa Nui invested enormous energy into
the production, movement, and erection of monumental statues
(moai). To explain this remarkable cultural investment we
must analyze its temporal and spatial dimensions in evolutionary
context. Drawing on existing chronological analyses, this
paper examines the spatial-temporal distribution of moai across
the island. These patterns allow us to outline changing energy
investment in consideration of a bet-hedging model for cultural
elaboration in Rapa Nui prehistory.
Environmental
Uncertainty and Cultural Elaboration on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
John
V. Dudgeon & Terry L. Hunt
Rapa
Nui prehistory saw an unprecedented degree of cultural investment
in monumental statuary and architecture. The moai (statues),
ahu (ceremonial structures), and other forms of elaboration
appear early in the islandís sequence and reached colossal
proportions before European contact. Yet Rapa Nui is among
the most marginal and uncertain island environments of the
Pacific. In this paper we examine this environmental uncertainty
and the investments in cultural elaboration in light of an
evolutionary model for bet hedging. The model offers compelling
insights for Rapa Nui prehistory, but points to multiple lines
of additional research critical to its evaluation.
Agricultural
Production in an Uncertain Environment
Christopher
M. Stevenson, Thegn Ladefoged, Sonia Haoa
Landscape
survey and geomorphological investigations on the northern
coast and central region of Easter Island has documented extensive
prehistoric agricultural field systems. Rainfall variation
as a result of elevational differences restricts access to
wetter agricultural fields in upland areas to some chiefdom
districts on the island. This context of varying uncertainty
resulted in the development of a range of farming techniques
to maintain high levels of production. The agricultural production
strategies and settlement patterns in lowland dry areas and
the moister upland are compared and a developmental model
of landscape use is proposed for the AD 800-AD1850 period.
The
Historic Stone Walls of Easter Island 1888-1940
A.
Dudley Gardner, Will Gardner, and Barbara Clarke
The
nature of stone construction on Easter Island has drawn the
attention of many scholars. Upon the arrival of Europeans
stone construction on the Island continued, but it took
on vestiges of European ideals of how space should be ordered
and controlled. In this paper we will look at the pircas and
other stone structures built on Easter Island between 1888
and 1940. We will look at the stone walls as an example of
how some prehistoric stone work technology continued into
the Chilean Era. And we will focus on continuity and change and
look at how Rapa Nui stone workers blended together two distinct
cultural concepts of construction to build the historic walls
on Easter Island.
