AI Article Synopsis

  • Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, is a remote location famous for its giant statues known as moai and has sparked debates about its ecological history and ancient connections to the Americas.
  • Research involving the genomic analysis of 15 ancient Rapanui individuals shows that they are Polynesian and closely related to modern Rapanui, which supports efforts to repatriate cultural heritage.
  • The study challenges the idea of a drastic population decline in the 1600s linked to resource overexploitation and suggests that about 10% Native American ancestry in both ancient and modern Rapanui dates back to an admixture event around 1250-1430 CE.

Article Abstract

Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island) is one of the most isolated inhabited places in the world. It has captured the imagination of many owing to its archaeological record, which includes iconic megalithic statues called moai. Two prominent contentions have arisen from the extensive study of Rapa Nui. First, the history of the Rapanui has been presented as a warning tale of resource overexploitation that would have culminated in a major population collapse-the 'ecocide' theory. Second, the possibility of trans-Pacific voyages to the Americas pre-dating European contact is still debated. Here, to address these questions, we reconstructed the genomic history of the Rapanui on the basis of 15 ancient Rapanui individuals that we radiocarbon dated (1670-1950 CE) and whole-genome sequenced (0.4-25.6×). We find that these individuals are Polynesian in origin and most closely related to present-day Rapanui, a finding that will contribute to repatriation efforts. Through effective population size reconstructions and extensive population genetics simulations, we reject a scenario involving a severe population bottleneck during the 1600s, as proposed by the ecocide theory. Furthermore, the ancient and present-day Rapanui carry similar proportions of Native American admixture (about 10%). Using a Bayesian approach integrating genetic and radiocarbon dates, we estimate that this admixture event occurred about 1250-1430 CE.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11390480PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07881-4DOI Listing

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Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island) is one of the most isolated inhabited places in the world. It has captured the imagination of many owing to its archaeological record, which includes iconic megalithic statues called moai. Two prominent contentions have arisen from the extensive study of Rapa Nui.

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Genetic Ancestry of Rapanui before and after European Contact.

Curr Biol

October 2017

Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, London NW1 1AT, UK.

The origins and lifeways of the inhabitants of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), a remote island in the southeast Pacific Ocean, have been debated for generations. Archaeological evidence substantiates the widely accepted view that the island was first settled by people of Polynesian origin, as late as 1200 CE [1-4]. What remains controversial, however, is the nature of events in the island's population history prior to the first historic contact with Europeans in 1722 CE.

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