Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast,
Where I help you drift off one fact at a time.
I'm your host Benjamin Boster,
And today's episode is Easter Island.
Easter Island is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean,
At the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania.
The island is renowned for its nearly 1,
000 extant monumental statues,
Called moai,
Which were created by the early Rapa Nui people.
In 1995,
UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site,
With much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park.
Easter Island is also the only territory in Polynesia where Spanish is an official language.
Experts differ on when the island's Polynesian inhabitants first reached the island.
While many researchers cited evidence that they arrived around the year 800,
A 2007 study provided compelling evidence suggesting their arrival was closer to 1200.
The inhabitants created a thriving and industrious culture as evidenced by the island's numerous enormous stone moai and other artifacts.
Chile annexed Easter Island in 1888.
In 1962,
The Rapa Nui were granted Chilean citizenship.
In 2007,
The island gained the constitutional status of Special Territory.
Administratively,
It belongs to the Valparaíso region,
Constituting a single commune of the province of Isla de Pascua.
The 2017 Chilean census registered 7,
750 people on the island,
Of which 3,
512 identified as Rapa Nui.
Easter Island is one of the world's most remote inhabited islands.
The nearest inhabited land is Pitcairn Island,
2,
075 kilometers away.
The nearest town with a population over 500 is Rikitea on the island of Mangareva,
2,
606 kilometers away.
The nearest continental point lies in central Chile,
3,
512 km away.
The name Easter Island was given by the island's first recorded European visitor,
The Dutch explorer Jacob Rageven,
Who encountered it on Easter Sunday,
April 5th in 1722,
While searching for Davisland.
Roggeveen named it Paschke Island.
18th century Dutch for Easter Island.
The island's official Spanish name,
Isla de Pascua,
Also means Easter Island.
According to Bartle,
1974,
Oral tradition has it that the island was first named Te Pito o Te Kainga Haumaka.
Meaning the little piece of land of Hau Maka.
However,
There are two words pronounced pito in Rapanui,
One meaning end and one navel,
And the phrase can thus also mean the navel of the world.
Another name,
Mata Ki Te Rangi,
Means eyes looking to the sky.
Easter Island is one of the world's most isolated inhabited islands.
Its closest inhabited neighbor is Pitcairn Island,
1,
931 km to the west.
With approximately 50 inhabitants.
The nearest continental point lies in central Chile near Concepción,
At 3,
512 km.
Easter Island's latitude is similar to that of Caldera,
Chile,
And it lies 3,
510 km west of continental Chile at its nearest point.
Isla Salas y Gomez,
415 kilometers to the east,
Is closer but is uninhabited.
The Tristan da Cunha Archipelago in the Southern Atlantic competes for the title of the most remote island,
Lying 2,
430 km from St.
Helena Island and 2,
816 km from the South African coast.
The island is about 24.
6 km long by 12.
3 km at its widest point.
Its overall shape is triangular.
It has an area of 163.
6 square kilometers and a maximum elevation of 507 meters above mean sea level.
There are three Rano freshwater crater lakes at Rano Kao,
Rano Raraku,
And Rano Auroi.
Near the summit of Theravaka.
But no permanent streams or rivers.
Easter Island is a volcanic island consisting mainly of three extinct coalesced volcanoes.
Terevaka,
Altitude 507 meters,
Forms the bulk of the island,
While two other volcanoes,
Poike and Ranokau,
Form the eastern and southern headlands and give the island its roughly triangular shape.
Lesser cones and other volcanic features include the crater Rano Karaku,
The cinder cone Punapau,
And many volcanic caves including lava tubes.
Poike used to be a separate island until volcanic material from Terevaka united it to the larger whole.
The island is dominated by Hawaiiite and basalt flows,
Which are rich in iron and show affinity with igneous rocks found in the Galapagos Islands.
Easter Island and surrounding islets,
Such as Motunui and Motuiti,
Form the summit of a large volcanic mountain rising over 2,
000 meters from the seabed.
The mountain is part of the Salas y Gómez ridge,
A mostly submarine mountain range with dozens of seamounts formed by the Easter hotspot.
The range begins with Puka'o and next Moai,
Two seamounts to the west of Easter Island,
And extends 2,
700 kilometers east to the Nazca Ridge.
The ridge was formed by the Nazca Plate moving over the Easter Hotspot.
The ancient Easter Island residents captured fresh groundwater where it seeped into the sea.
Under the Köppen climate classification,
The climate of Easter Island is classified as a tropical rainforest climate that borders on a humid subtropical climate.
The lowest temperatures are recorded in July and August,
Minimum 15°C or 59°F,
And the highest in February,
Maximum temperatures 28°C or 82.
4°F.
The summer season in the Southern Hemisphere.
Winters are relatively mild.
The rainiest month is May,
Though the island experiences year-round rainfall.
Easter Island's isolated location exposes it to winds which help to keep the temperature fairly cool.
Precipitation averages 1118 mm or 44 inches per year.
Occasionally heavy rainfall and rainstorms strike the island.
These occur mostly in the winter months,
June through August.
Since it is close to the South Pacific High and outside the range of the Intertropical Convergence Zone,
Cyclones and hurricanes do not occur around Easter Island.
There is significant temperature moderation due to its isolated position in the middle of the ocean.
Easter Island,
Together with its closest neighbor,
The tiny island of Isla Salas y Gómez,
415 kilometers farther east.
Is recognized by ecologists as a distinct ecoregion,
The Rapa Nui Tropical Broadleaf Forest.
The original tropical moist broadleaf forests are now gone.
But paleobotanical studies of fossil pollen,
Tree molds left by lava flows,
And root casts found in local soils indicate that the island was formerly forested,
With a range of trees,
Shrubs,
Ferns,
And grasses.
Trees are sparse,
Rarely forming natural groves,
And it has been argued whether native Easter Islanders deforested the island in the process of erecting their statues,
And in providing sustenance for an overconsumption of natural resources from an overcrowded island.
Experimental archaeology demonstrated that some statues certainly could have been placed on Y-shaped wooden frames,
Called Miromanga Erua.
And then pulled to their final destinations on ceremonial sites.
Other theories involve the use of ladders,
Parallel wooden rails,
Over which the statues could have been dragged.
Rapa Nui traditions metaphorically refer to spiritual power,
Mana,
As the means by which the Moai were walked from the quarry.
Recent experimental recreations have proven that it is fully possible that the Moai were literally walked from their quarries to their final positions by use of ropes,
Casting doubt on the roles that their existence plays in the environmental collapse of the island.
The large stone statues,
Or moai,
For which Easter Island is famous,
Were carved in the period 1100-1680 CE,
Rectified radiocarbon dates.
A total of 887 monolithic stone statues has been inventoried on the island and in museum collections.
Although often identified as Easter Island heads,
The statues have torsos,
Most of them ending at the top of the thighs.
A small number are complete figures that kneel on bent knees with their hands over their stomachs.
Some upright Moai have become buried up to their necks by shifting soils.
Almost all,
95%,
Moai were carved from compressed,
Easily worked solidified volcanic ash or tuff,
Found at a single site on the side of the extinct volcano Rano Rauraku.
The native islanders who carved them used only stone hand chisels,
Mainly basalt toki,
Which lie in place all over the quarry.
The stone chisels were sharpened by chipping off a new edge when dulled.
While sculpting was going on,
The volcanic stone was splashed with water to soften it.
While many teams worked on different statues at the same time,
A single Moai took a team of five or six men approximately a year to complete.
Each statue represented the deceased head of a lineage.
Only a quarter of the statues were installed.
Nearly half remain in the quarry of Ranuraraku,
And the rest sat elsewhere,
Presumably on their way to intended locations.
The largest Moai raised on a platform is known as Paro.
It weighs 82 tons and is 9.
89 meters long.
Several other statues of similar weight were transported to Ahu on the north and south coasts.
Possible means by which the statues were moved include employment of a miromanga erua,
A Y-shaped sledge with cross pieces,
Pulled with ropes made from the tough bark of the Hau tree,
And tied around the statue's neck.
Anywhere from 180 to 250 men were required for pulling,
Depending on the size of the Moai.
Another method that might have been used to transport the Moi would be to attach ropes to the statue and rock it,
Tugging it forward as it rocks.
This would fit the legend of the Moai walking to their final locations.
This might have been managed by as few as 15 people.
The heads of the Moai in the quarry are sloped forward,
Whereas the ones moved to final locations are not.
This would serve to provide a better center of gravity for transport.
In 2011,
A large Moai statue was excavated from the ground.
During the same excavation program,
Some larger Moai were found to have complex dorsal petroglyphs,
Revealed by deep excavation of the torso.
When a ceremony took place,
Eyes were placed on the statues.
The whites of the eyes were made of coral.
The iris was made of obsidian,
Or red scoria.
Ahu evolved from the traditional Polynesian marae.
In this context,
Ahu referred to a small structure sometimes covered with a thatched roof,
Where sacred objects including statues were stored.
The ahu were usually adjacent to the marae or main central court where the ceremonies took place,
Though on Easter Island ahu and moai evolved to much greater size.
There the Marae is the unpaved plaza before the Ahu.
The biggest Ahu is 220 meters and holds 15 statues,
Some of which are 9 meters high.
The filling of an Ahu was sourced locally,
Apart from broken Old Moai fragments,
Of which have been used in the fill.
Individual stones are mostly far smaller than the moai,
So less work was needed to transport the raw material,
But artificially leveling the terrain for the plaza and filling the ahu was laborious.
Ahu are found mostly on the coast,
Where they are distributed densely and fairly evenly.
The exceptions are the western slopes of Mount Taravaka and the Ranokau and Poike headlands,
Where they are much sparser.
These are the three areas with the least lowest coastal land,
And apart from Poike,
The furthest areas from Rano Raraku.
One ahu with several moai was recorded on the cliffs at Rano Kau in the 1880s,
But had fallen to the beach before as a Rutledge expedition.
At least three recorded on Poiquet in the 1930s have also since disappeared.
One of the highest quality examples of Easter Island stone masonry is the rear wall of the Ahu at Vinapu.
Made without mortar by shaping hard basalt rocks of up to 7,
000 kilograms to match each other exactly.
It has a superficial similarity to some Inca stone walls in South America.
Among the various structures,
The Hare Paenga,
Hare Oka,
Tupa,
Hare Moa,
And the distinctive stone houses of Oranga Village stand out for their unique designs and functions.
The hare paenga,
Commonly referred to as boat houses,
Were the predominant residential structures in ancient Rapa Nui.
Their design featured an elliptical foundation structured from meticulously dressed basalt slabs,
Known as baenga stones,
Which supported a thatched roof resembling an inverted boat hull.
The aerodynamic shape was particularly suited to withstand the island's strong winds.
These dwellings varied in size,
With some measuring up to 45 meters in length,
Indicating their communal use by extended families or for significant gatherings.
The ceremonial village of Orongo presents a unique architectural adaptation.
Here the traditional hare paenga design was transformed.
Instead of thatched roofs,
The houses were constructed entirely from flat basalt slabs,
Sourced from the Rano Kao crater.
These stone houses,
Built around 1400,
Reflect a response to the village's exposure to harsh coastal weather conditions and the availability of basalt as a building material.
The entrances to these dwellings were notably low,
Requiring individuals to crawl for entry,
A feature that may have offered protection against the elements and added structural stability.
Easter Island has one of the richest collections of petroglyphs in all Polynesia.
Around 1,
000 sites with more than 4,
000 petroglyphs are catalogued.
Designs and images were carved out of rock for a variety of reasons.
To create totems,
To mark territory,
Or to memorialize a person or event.
There are distinct variations around the island in the frequency of the themes among petroglyphs.
With a concentration of birdmen at Orongo.
Other objects include sea turtles,
Komari,
And makemake,
The chief god of the Taungata Manu,
Or birdman cult.
The island and neighboring Motunui are riddled with caves,
Many of which show signs of past human use for planting and as fortifications,
Including narrowed entrances and crawlspaces with ambush points.
Many caves feature in the myths and legends of the Rapa Nui.
The Puʻuhiro,
Trumpet of Hiro,
Is a 1.
25 meters high ancient stone aerophone on the north coast of Easter Island.
It was once used by the Rapa Nui as a musical instrument in fertility rituals.
The stone is covered in petroglyphs called Komari,
Which represent fertility.
By skillfully blowing wind in the top hole,
It makes a deep trumpeting sound to invoke the god of rain,
Hiro,
In Polynesian mythology.
Easter Island once had an apparent script called Rongo Rongo.
Glyphs include pictographic and geometric shapes.
The texts were incised in wood in reverse Bustrophedan direction.
It was first reported by French missionary Eugène Ayrault in 1864.
At that time,
Several islanders said they could understand the writing.
But according to tradition,
Only ruling families and priests were ever literate.
Despite numerous attempts,
The surviving texts have not been deciphered.
And without decipherment,
It is not certain that they are actually writing.
Part of the problem is the small amount that has survived.
Only two dozen texts,
None of which remain on the island.
There are also only a couple of similarities with the petroglyphs on the island.
Wood was scarce on Easter Island during the 18th and 19th centuries,
But a number of highly detailed and distinctive carvings have found their way to the world's museums.
Moai Kavakava are male carvings,
And the Moai Paipai are female carvings.
These grotesque and highly detailed human figures,
Carved from Toramiro pine,
Are presented ancestors.
Sometimes these statues were used for fertility rites.
Usually they are used for harvest celebrations.
The first picking of fruits was heaped around them as offerings.
When the statues were not used,
They would be wrapped in bark cloth and kept at home.
There were a few times that are reported when the islanders would pick up the figures like dolls and dance with them.
The earlier figures are rare and generally depict a male figure with an emaciated body and a goatee.
The figure's ribs and vertebrae are exposed,
And many examples show carved glyphs on various parts of the body,
But more specifically on the top of the head.
The female figures,
Rarer than the males,
Depict the body as flat and often with the female's hand lying across the body.
The figures,
Although some were quite large,
Were worn as ornamental pieces around the tribesman's neck.
The more figures worn,
The more important a man.
The figures have a shiny patina developed from constant handling and contact with human skin.
The Rapa Nui sponsor an annual festival,
The Tapati,
Held since 1975 around the beginning of February,
To celebrate Rapa Nui culture.
In 2016,
Local band Topatangi played the Tapati festival.
The Islanders also maintain a national football team and three discos in the town of Hungaroa.
Other cultural activities include a musical tradition that combines South American and Polynesian influences and woodcarving.
Te Pati Rapa Nui Festival,
Week Festival in the local language,
Is an annual two-week-long festival celebrating Easter Island culture.
The Thapathi is centered around a competition between two families,
Clans,
Competing in various competitions to earn points.
The winning team has their candidate crowned Queen of the Island for the next year.
The competitions are a way to maintain and celebrate traditional cultural activities such as cooking,
Jewelry making,
Wood carving,
And canoeing.
Population at the 2012 census was 5,
761.
In 2002,
60% were persons of indigenous Rapa Nui origin.
39% were mainland Chileans,
Or their Easter Island-born descendants,
Of European,
Mostly Spanish,
Or Mestizo,
Mixed European and indigenous Chilean Amerindian origin,
And Easter Island-born Mestizos of European and Rapa Nui,
And or native Chilean descendants.
And the remaining 1% were indigenous mainland Chilean Amerindians or their Easter Island-born descendants.
As of 2012,
The population density on Easter Island was 35 per square kilometre.
The 1982 population was 1,
936.
The increase in population in the last census was partly caused by the arrival of people of European or mixed European and Native American descent from the Chilean mainland.
However,
Most married a Rapa Nui spouse.
Around 70% of the population were natives.
Estimates of the pre-European population range from 7 to 17,
000.
Easter Island's all-time low of 111 inhabitants was reported in 1877.
Out of these 111 Rapanui,
Only 36 had descendants,
And all of today's Rapanui claim descent from those 36.
Easter Island's traditional language is Rapa Nui,
An Eastern Polynesian language,
Sharing some similarities with Hawaiian and Tahitian.
However,
As in the rest of Chile,
The official language used is Spanish.
Easter Island is the only territory in Polynesia where Spanish is an official language.
