Journal
JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Volume 34, Issue 3, Pages 485-502Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2006.10.003
Keywords
Easter Island; Rapa Nui; deforestation; ecocide; collapse; rats; Rattus exulans; invasive species
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Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has become a paragon for prehistoric human induced ecological catastrophe and cultural collapse. A popular narrative recounts an obsession for monumental statuary that led to the island's ecological devastation and the collapse of the ancient civilization. Scholars offer this story as a parable of today's global environmental problems. In this paper, I review new and emerging Rapa Nui evidence, compare ecological and recently acquired palaeo-environmental data from the Hawaiian and other Pacific Islands, and offer some perspectives for the island's prehistoric ecological transformation and its consequences. The evidence points to a complex historical ecology for the island; one best explained by a synergy of impacts, particularly the devastating effects of introduced rats (Rattus exulans). This perspective questions the simplistic notion of reckless over-exploitation by prehistoric Polynesians and points to the need for additional research. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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