Study Shines A Light On What Happened On Easter Island

A new study has been published by scientists from Binghampton University and State University of New York focusing on Easter Island. According to the new study, the demographic collapse of the core of the myth surrounding Easter Island didn't happen. Easter Island is famed for its massive statues and for a common notion that civilization on the island collapsed after the people cut down every tree to make way for farming or other needs.

However, the new study claims that the demographic collapse at the core of the myth surrounding the island never really happened. Easter Island is also known as Rapa Nui, has been a focus of investigation into questions surrounding environmental collapse. To resolve those questions, the researchers needed to reconstruct the island's population levels to determine if the collapse happened and if it did what the scale of the collapse was.

Sometime after the island was settled between the 12th and 13th centuries A.D., the once forested island was deforested. Scholars typically point to humans clearing the trees for agriculture and the introduction of invasive species like rats. According to the myth, the environmental changes reduced the island's carrying capacity and led to demographic decline. Around the year 1500, a climatic shift in the Southern Oscillation index led to a drier climate on the island.

One argument suggests those changes in the environment had a negative impact pointing to a drought that could cause the climatic changes. For the first time, researchers on the project used a method able to resolve uncertainties in radiocarbon dating and show how changes in population size relate to environmental variables over time. The team used Bayesian Computation and determined that the island experienced steady population growth from its initial settlement until European contact in 1722.

After European contact, two models show a possible population plateau while two other models show a possible decline. Researchers say that there is no evidence the Islanders used the disappeared palm trees for food, which is another key point of many collapse myths. Current research shows that deforestation was prolonged and didn't result in catastrophic erosion. The trees were replaced by gardens mulched with stone to increase agricultural productivity. In short, the researchers found that the island never had more than a few thousand people before European contact and their numbers were increasing rather than dwindling.