For centuries, Easter Island‘s story hhas been framed as a tragic tale of environmental collapse. The islanders were often ...

In his “Island at the Edge of the World,” the British archaeologist Mike Pitts delves into the misconceptions and legends ...

Around 1550, life on Rapa Nui began changing in ways long misunderstood. New research reveals that a severe drought, lasting more than a century, dramatically reduced rainfall on the already ...

Easter Island — a Chilean territory at the eastern edge of Polynesia, known as Rapa Nui to residents — is known for its iconic volcanic rock statues, or moʻai. In 2023, a previously unknown statue was ...

Easter Island, famous for its imposing moai statues, is often presented as a case of sudden societal collapse. However, a ...

Archaeologists say a 3D model of a centuries-old quarry of unfinished stone head statues on Easter Island offers new clues about how these monuments were made and the Polynesian society that brought ...

A newly reconstructed rainfall record shows that prolonged drought, not societal collapse, reshaped Rapa Nui’s history.

“Sea level rise is real,” said Noah Paoa, lead author of the study and a doctoral student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. “It’s not a distant ...

“Sea level rise is real,” said Noah Paoa, lead author of the study and a doctoral student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. “It’s not a distant ...

There are more than 1,000 moai statues on Easter Island, representing a key part of the region’s cultural and archeological past. A new moai, smaller than most, was found in a dried-up lakebed. The ...