What actually happened to the civilization on Easter Island?

All of us are captivated by unsolved ancient secrets, are not they? What caused the disappearance of the Ninth Legion of the Roman Empire? What was the use of hidden tunnels under the pyramid of the Moon in Mexico? What happened to the civilization on Easter Island?

Civilization of Rapa Nui

The last question is one of the most painful. This island became famous thanks to moai - sinister stone statues that remind people's faces. Easter Island for millennia was home to the flourishing civilization of Rapa Nui, which suddenly disappeared back in the 1860s. Since this is one of the most isolated islands in the world, little is known about the culture of the disappeared civilization.

Many hypotheses have been put forward, explaining the disappearance of the population, from disease and deforestation to internal conflict. The most popular idea is that there was an ecocide on the island, that is, people ruined the natural environment so much that it became uninhabitable. Now a new study shows that this assumption is most likely also erroneous.

What is in question in the theory of ecocide

The theory of ecocide is as follows. The people who inhabited the island of Easter moved to it from the territory that is now Polynesia. It happened allegedly in 1200 AD. E. Approximately at the time when Europeans first met the people of Rapa Nui in the early 18th century, deforestation reached its peak.

The trees growing on the island were mainly used for canoeing, with the help of which people fished. The constant felling of trees led to their almost complete disappearance on the island, as a result of which people could no longer build a canoe and produce food at sea. To survive, they began using terrestrial food sources, but uncontrolled farming resulted in considerable erosion of the soil. This caused agricultural collapse, and, not having enough food, people of Rapa Nui were doomed to extinction.

Research of scientists

Nevertheless, a research group from the University of Bristol, which includes scientists from the University of Hawaii and Binghamton, believes that the evidence of this environmental disaster does not look very reliable.

Using an analysis of the chemistry of botanical, human and faunal remains found during various archaeological excavations on the island, scientists were able to draw a detailed picture of what the ancient islanders ate, as well as learn about their methods of farming. This in an interview for the resource IFLScience told Catherine Jarman, the lead author of the study and a graduate student from the University of Bristol.

Scientists have found that at least half the protein in the diet of Rapa Nui people has always come from marine sources. As explained in the "American Journal of Physical Anthropology," this suggests that the islanders never stopped fishing.

"We also learned that the food they received from land-based sources came from very changed soil. This means that the islanders have enriched the soil to grow crops, "said Carl Lipo, a professor of anthropology at the University of Binghamton, in a statement.

This means that the Rapa Nui civilization was in fact well-informed about the ways of farming. Thus, the hypothesis of agricultural collapse does not stand up to criticism.

The mystery of extinction is yet to be revealed

"These new results are an exciting demonstration of valuable information hidden in our bones," added Jarman. "They also have broader implications, because without relying on modern historical sources, they allow us to understand how prehistoric populations interacted with the environment."

So what happened on Easter Island, if the disappearance of this civilization was not associated with ecology? At the moment, we still have to guess.

It is worth noting that the destruction of the environment is still one of the main causes of the collapse of civilizations. Now, when it comes to climate change, the whole world is committed to ecocide.