The main myth about the decline of civilization on Easter Island is refuted

Statues on Easter Island

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The Rapa Nui population was resilient to climate and environmental changes. Its collapse is not associated with demographic collapse.

Scientists from Binghamton State University of New York, along with British colleagues from Cambridge, came to the conclusion that Easter Island (Rapa Nui) did not experience the demographic collapse that was previously thought to have led to the decline of civilization. An article about this was published in the journal Nature Communications, writes ScienceDaily.

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It is noted that the hypothesis of demographic collapse was still considered the main version of the disappearance of the island civilization. She suggests that the population has been cutting down trees for centuries to clear land for agriculture and to erect giant statues.

Also around 1500 there was a sharp climate change – it became arid. All this led to the fact that when the first Europeans landed on the island in 1722, no more than three thousand people lived there.-

To find out if there was a demographic crisis, the researchers reconstructed the population levels of Rapa Nui at different stages in its history.

Using radiocarbon and paleoecological data, they were able to determine that the island had experienced steady population growth from its initial settlement to European contact. After that, the population was stable or slightly declining.

As for deforestation, it was long and gradual, not predatory and did not lead to catastrophic erosion, as supporters of the collapse hypothesis suggest.

It is emphasized that before contact with Europeans, more than a few thousand people never lived on the island, and their number was increasing rather than decreasing.

The authors believe that it was the sustainability of the economy that helped the islanders survive climatic changes and maintain a stable population.

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