Early settlers of the island of Rapa Nui are famous for having created massive stone statues. They have also gotten a bad rap as instigators of a population boom that led to ecological and social disaster.
A new analysis of the island’s landscape suggests Polynesian seafarers who reached Rapa Nui around 800 years ago maintained a modest farming system and a small but stable population of no more than around 3,900 individuals until Europeans showed up in 1722 and renamed the early settlers’ homeland Easter Island, the scientists report June 21 in Science Advances.
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