- 5/16/2025
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00:00Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, this tiny little island in the South Pacific is
00:12world famous for one thing, the moai.
00:19Moais are incredible.
00:20The moai is the first spot that people see.
00:25These enigmatic stone giants stand like sentinels all around the island.
00:30But what was their purpose?
00:32And why have so many fallen?
00:36It is easy to imagine that this is the scene of some catastrophe where things fell apart.
00:43For centuries, Western researchers have studied the moai, trying to answer these questions.
00:49And they've come up with their own theories.
00:52But now, new research that looks beyond the moai is challenging those views.
00:59In all the evidence that we saw, we were seeing signs of sustainability.
01:04There was really no evidence of collapse.
01:11For you, this can be an ancient abandoned village.
01:14For me, it's the place where my family used to live.
01:17Genetics is revealing surprising clues about the origins of the island's earliest settlers.
01:22When we first saw this, we thought, maybe we did something wrong.
01:28From their incredible engineering to their beautiful and unique writing.
01:34Some people say that they contain legends.
01:38The real story of Rapa Nui is finally coming to light.
01:48Most visitors come all the way to Easter Island because of these stone statues.
01:54The moai.
01:55Moai.
01:56They are amazing, and they are outstanding, and they are unique.
02:04Constructed between 1300 and sometime after the 1700s, there are more than 1,000 of these
02:10giant carved figures scattered across the landscape.
02:16Cut from volcanic rock, some are more than 30 feet high.
02:23Over time, all of the moai have fallen down.
02:27The 50 or so that are upright today were put back up in recent decades.
02:33With their backs to the sea, they stare impassively into the island, arms held rigidly by their
02:39sides.
02:42Some stand on ceremonial platforms known as ahu.
02:46Others are sunk into the earth.
02:59Moais are incredible.
03:01But Rapa Nui is so much more than that, and its archaeology is so much richer than just
03:05moais.
03:07The moai is the first spot that people see, but behind the moais, there is a big history.
03:32One archaeologist who believes the story of Rapa Nui encompasses more than just the moai
03:49is Sonia Haua Cardinale.
03:51Born on Rapa Nui 70 years ago, she has dedicated her entire life to the history and anthropology
03:57of the island.
04:00I feel sorry when they're just talking about the moai.
04:0570% of the island is surveyed, more than 25,000 archaeological sites.
04:13So that means not only the sites, it means also how people live, what they do, the family
04:22and everything.
04:25Sonia wants to understand more about the moai, but she and other Rapa Nui islanders see them
04:30as only part of the puzzle.
04:33There are bigger questions to ask.
04:35Who are the ancestors of the Rapa Nui people?
04:39Where did they come from?
04:41And how did they survive and thrive in this remote and hostile land?
04:51The island of Rapa Nui stands alone.
04:57The easternmost inhabited rock of the Polynesian island chains, it lies approximately 2,000
05:03miles from the Tuamotu archipelago of French Polynesia in the west and Chile in the east.
05:10Four and a half thousand miles from Hawaii.
05:13Only 14 miles long by seven miles wide, today most of the roughly 8,000 inhabitants live
05:20beneath an extinct volcano on the western corner of the island.
05:26First encountered by the Dutch in 1722, it was claimed by the Spanish nearly 50 years
05:31later, then annexed by Chile in 1888.
05:37But when the original Rapa Nui people first came to this land, and where from, remains
05:42hotly debated.
05:45The general consensus is that the first people to settle here were sailors from other Polynesian
05:50islands, migrating east sometime around 1200 CE.
05:57We are Polynesians.
05:59Our life was the canoe and our territory was the ocean.
06:02Polynesians, we were populating and colonizing islands across the Pacific.
06:08That belief forms the heart of Rapa Nui identity, cherished by elders like Carlos Edmonds.
06:16It is the bedrock of Rapa Nui oral tradition.
06:41There's knowledge in the old people and in the oral history.
06:45Behind every legend, there's knowledge there.
06:49Legends handed down from generation to generation tell how and why their ancestors came to this
06:55land.
06:56They are retold even today by Rapa Nui performers dedicated to keeping the old traditions alive.
07:03He onga mai i te hitu nga io He ekea tatahi i runga i te miro
07:07Ketu te urunga a haumaka Tuu raua ki te motu
07:11He hakara rama i runga i kainga He moe a haumaka i tāna wārua
07:17Mo kimi i te māramu te ariki He oto ona kuhana i roto i tēra ā
07:22A roto i te māhina Mo ketu te urunga a haumaka
07:25He tuu raua ki te motu He hakara rama i runga i kainga
07:30Ko Hotumatu a raua ko tāna wīe Ko wākai a hiwa
07:34I runga i te miro ko Haua i ki nui Ko Tūko i hua raua ko Awareipua
07:39I runga i te miro ko Ōua ko Ōteka te ingoa
07:43Kainga kino kahukahu ōhera e te ariki e Mai te unu, mai te unu
07:48Mai te vere, mai te vere Mai te riku haka ōro mai
07:51Reohaka hoki era te Kainga kino mau a hiwa
07:55Tai pāpāku Puapua
07:57E taiua, taiokoko i te tangata
08:01That is the base of all our history
08:04Fortunately today, science and scientists are helping us
08:09to show how oral tradition was the first, the most, and the real history
08:21For settlers migrating from the warm tropical islands of Western Polynesia
08:26this windswept lump of inactive volcanoes in the southeastern Pacific
08:30was a bad land, where their crops could not grow
08:36Rapa Nui is a subtropical island
08:38so there's a big difference in climate to the tropical islands
08:44for example, of French Polynesia
08:47The problem was that some of those tropical species
08:51just didn't grow and didn't take
08:53Because it's colder here, the first settlers of Rapa Nui
08:57travelling from the Polynesian tropics
08:59would have struggled to grow any plants they'd brought with them
09:05One man who is fascinated by how those settlers survived on this bad land
09:10is Hete Rekehuki
09:11And you know what, there's not that much material
09:14An architect by trade, Hete started an office in 2014
09:19to record Rapa Nui's heritage through the archaeological record
09:23At that moment, there were not many young researchers in Rapa Nui
09:29So Hete turned to Terry Hunt and Carl Lippo from the USA
09:34We have been collaborating with Carl and Terry for a long time
09:38and we have done so many things together
09:40They were a great support during these field works
09:44And that was amazing, because with Carl and Terry
09:47we could map the rocks and at the same time
09:50we could have the legend behind them
09:52And that is just beautiful
09:55One of the sites they studied was Ahu Tepeu
09:59which lies on the northwestern coast of the island
10:02and was a typical ancient Rapa Nui settlement
10:07Central to its layout is the Ahu, a raised stone platform
10:12At Ahu Tepeu, there are five of these
10:15Some of them with moais and some others without
10:19Fanning out from the Ahu are the houses
10:21chicken coops, and walled gardens known as manawai
10:26And behind the houses lie the fields that fed the community
10:32For you, this can be an ancient abandoned village
10:36For me, it's the place where my family used to live
10:38and they still are here, this place
10:40It's quite alive for us
10:41So the approach of a Rapa Nui researcher
10:44or any Pacific researcher
10:46would be dramatically different from a Western researcher
10:52Rapa Nui and Western researchers agree
10:54that the ancient settlers were Polynesian
10:57But where did those Pacific islanders come from?
11:00Some previous research suggested that they came
11:03from the islands of East Asia
11:06But in 1947, a Norwegian explorer named Thor Heyerdahl
11:11launched an expedition called Kon-Tiki
11:13intended to prove a drastically different view
11:15of where the Polynesians originated
11:18Thor Heyerdahl had the idea
11:22that the Polynesians originated in South America
11:25He wanted to demonstrate this theory
11:28He managed to build a boat
11:31in balsa, which is wood from South America
11:34A raft, as they say
11:36And he arrived a few weeks later
11:38on the archipelago of Tuamotu
11:40in present-day French Polynesia
11:43His theory on South American origins
11:45flew in the face of known linguistic evidence
11:49So Heyerdahl followed this up
11:50with a series of archaeological expeditions to Rapa Nui
11:54We often talk about Heyerdahl
11:56who kind of forced the documentation
11:58But he didn't destroy anything
12:00Neither did he modify anything
12:02When he made excavations there
12:04he called real scientists
12:05who came from Sweden and the United States
12:08They are real archaeologists who worked for him
12:10And the reports that were published there
12:12are quite remarkable
12:13The only problem with Thor Heyerdahl
12:15is that he publishes all the reports
12:17of these archaeologists that he hired
12:20and he draws a conclusion
12:21that has nothing to do with what these archaeologists
12:23tell in their reports
12:26Despite years of investigating the island
12:28he could never prove a definite link to South America
12:32One Rapa Nui archaeologist who worked with him
12:34was Sonia Hawa Cardinale
12:37I worked with Thor Heyerdahl
12:40for almost 10 years
12:42And for me it's an honour to work with him
12:46No matter how we think about his theory
12:53never forget that he is the one of the person
12:58who put Rapa Nui in the map
13:01In Heyerdahl's day
13:02experimental archaeology seemed the only way
13:05to explore possible links
13:07between Polynesia and South America
13:09But today we can use DNA
13:12which is a powerful tool for tracing human ancestry
13:17So did the original settlers of Rapa Nui
13:19have links with South America?
13:22One geneticist who set out to answer that question
13:25was Andres Moreno Estrada
13:29Genetics can be a powerful tool
13:30to answer this big question
13:33about whether Rapa Nui people
13:35made contact or not with Native Americans in prehistory
13:39which has been a debate that has been on for decades
13:44Andres put together an international team
13:47including researchers from Hawaii and Rapa Nui
13:50to study the DNA of the people of Polynesia
13:54And they reached out to the community
13:57to gain the support of Rapa Nui's elders
14:01Community engagement is really the essence
14:03of all these approaches
14:05When we study human genetic diversity
14:07it's all about humans really
14:08It's a voluntary participation
14:10so it's really key to talk with the community beforehand
14:13and as we carry out the research as well
14:16keep them informed about the results of the study
14:19Collaborating with Andres is genetic data analyst Alex Ioannidis
14:25What I really love about genetics
14:27is it's essentially about participation
14:30with the people whose story you're telling
14:32It's their sample that's telling the story
14:36Stories like Bianca's
14:38the daughter of a Chilean father
14:40who moved back from mainland Chile
14:42and wanted to know if what her mother had told her was true
14:46When I arrived here on the island
14:48everyone told me I was Chilean
14:51that I was a Ma'uku
14:54and that's why I did this study
14:55because what my mother taught me the most
14:59was genealogy
15:01Andres was very happy when he saw the Rapa Nui genealogy
15:10because he knew that the Rapa Nui genealogy
15:14was the best genealogy in the world
15:18So Andres told us to do the study
15:23to see if we really had something of the Polynesian genealogy
15:28It's absolutely important
15:30because our ancestors know that they are Polynesian
15:35but if there's a study that confirms it
15:38it's basically even more important
15:46An individual's DNA is contained within 23 pairs of chromosomes
15:50known as a genome
15:51And that's your genetic fingerprint
15:54When they began their research
15:56Andres and his colleagues were expecting the Rapa Nui fingerprint
15:59to contain markers showing mostly Polynesian, Spanish and Chilean ancestry
16:04since these were the main colonists of the island in the last 250 years
16:10To extract the DNA
16:12they take swabs from their volunteers in the field
16:15then take it back to the lab in cold storage for analysis
16:20DNA samples are loaded into a sequencer
16:22so that we can get the pieces of DNA
16:25that make up the whole genome of that individual
16:29This allows the researchers to identify specific chains of DNA
16:33that can be attributed to certain groups
16:38Red denotes Spanish ancestry
16:41Blue, Polynesian
16:43Green, Chilean
16:46and yellow, other European
16:49The process is very rewarding
16:50because participants are very interested in knowing about their own genetic origins
16:54and when they see that actually they have retained
16:56a lot of the Polynesian roots in their DNA
16:59it's something that helps them to basically value and identify their own lineages
17:05Most of the results help confirm the islanders' beliefs
17:08about their Polynesian origins
17:10mixed with more recent colonists
17:13I just found out the results
17:15I'm so mixed
17:16My mom is from Chile and from England and Scotland
17:23and my father is an islander
17:26but he's also mixed with French and other people
17:30so it's very interesting to know where you come from
17:34I'm very happy
17:36because
17:38one, it's my mother's theory
17:41my mother's story
17:43and this is the study of Andrés Mostrado scientifically
17:48but my mother already said it a long, long, long time ago
17:53since I was born
17:56They did, however, find some pieces of DNA that they didn't expect
18:01When we first saw this, we were really surprised
18:04and so we thought, maybe we did something wrong
18:06We thought, well, let's double check this
18:09These pieces of DNA seemed to have their origins in South America
18:14but when they tried to pinpoint the source, they got a surprise
18:18They were quite different from the more modern Chilean ancestry found in some volunteers
18:23We compared it to a panel of indigenous groups from across the entire Pacific coast of South America
18:28and the closest match was the Zenu group
18:33The Zenu are Native American people who occupied the coast of Colombia
18:37long before Chile annexed Rapa Nui in 1888
18:42How could their genetic markers wind up in the DNA of modern Polynesians?
18:47And how many generations back did they go?
18:51Because each parent only hands down half of his DNA to the next
18:55Alex was able to figure out when that piece of pre-Columbian DNA
18:59had been incorporated into Polynesian chromosomes by measuring its length
19:03We can actually look at the length of those individual pieces
19:06and figure out how many generations ago this combination of Native Americans and Polynesians took place
19:12The date they came up with was much earlier than they expected
19:16We saw very small pieces indicating that this ancestry from the coast of Colombia
19:21entered Rapa Nui a long time ago
19:23actually in a period around what we would call the European Middle Ages, around 1200 AD
19:29What's more, the same identical DNA segments were often seen in volunteers from different islands
19:36which means that these segments came from the same ancestors
19:39and since they came from the same ancestors, we think that this means there was a single contact event
19:44between Indigenous Americans from the coast of Colombia and Polynesians
19:49This means that a group of Polynesians met somewhere with Native Americans, had descendants
19:54and more likely, this never happened again
19:58By looking at the DNA of people on other Polynesian islands
20:01the team traced the tell-tale genetic markers back to the Marquesas and Tuamotu Isles
20:07and were also able to plot a timeline of migration across eastern Polynesia to Rapa Nui from around 1100
20:14Polynesian migrations spread east into Tuamotu archipelago up to the Marquesas
20:20and all the way down to Mangareva
20:22and from there, all the way out to Rapa Nui around 1200
20:27Looking closely at these particular islands, there's something else they all have in common
20:34something much bigger than DNA
20:37Most of these islands, the Marquesas, Rapa Nui and Rewewe
20:43have these very large stone statues on them
20:46Where the idea of creating large stone statues comes from, we can't say
20:51And we can't say for sure if these islands developed the idea independently
20:56but the fact that they're all existing together in the same genetic cluster
20:59suggested to us that this culture was developed once and spread to all these islands
21:06Sonia believes that even if this culture developed within the Polynesian islands
21:10there was also some influence from South America
21:13and behind the spectacular ahu of Tongariki
21:17She believes she has the evidence to back up her hunch
21:21We see the very good evidence of influence of South America
21:27This single broken moai has its hands across its body
21:31in a style that can be found in ancient Colombia
21:37If you compare with South America, it's the same
21:42The hands and the description of the arm, the body
21:47it's completely the same
21:50There is no doubt the influence of South America
21:53and here we have the structural evidence
21:58I cannot lie to you that this looks like a moai normal
22:03No, maybe if I am blind, yes
22:09But this is the only moai on the island with arms across its body
22:15All others have their arms by their sides
22:20So it cannot prove that the template for carving statues in stone
22:24came from ancient Colombia
22:27though the DNA suggests some ancient, albeit isolated, link
22:32What is provable is where the moai were created
22:37Almost all of the statues scattered around the island
22:40were carved from the volcanic rock of Rano Raraku
22:43It is an island where there is a volcano made of tuff
22:47consolidated volcanic ash
22:50and this tuff is very easy to work
22:53and it was probably a raw material that was considered extremely interesting
22:57When they saw the Rano Raraku with the tuff that was present there
23:01they must have said to themselves
23:03This is a beautiful material, easy to work with, not very heavy
23:07Friends, we will benefit from it here
23:09We will be able to do something with this raw material
23:12And on the slopes of its massive crater
23:15about 400 statues can still be found in various states of completion
23:20High up on these slopes, Terry Hunt and Carl Lippo
23:23can see evidence of the skill and ingenuity of the Rapa Nui stone masons
23:28It's amazing being up this high in the quarry
23:31All the work in quarrying out of the bedrock
23:33and statues this big that way up here had to be taken down the slope
23:37You can see several moai being carved
23:40The large moai here
23:42and you can see the beginnings of moai up on the side as well
23:45high up here in the quarry
23:47Being this high up on the cliff, they can take advantage of the gravity
23:50You've got them up high and now you can use that to slide them down
23:53and get them in the upright position
23:55While it's a huge amount of investment and labor
23:57they actually take advantage of the positions
23:59in order to get them out down to the base
24:02The moai were slid down the slope and into purpose-built trenches
24:07Over time, weathering has filled the trenches
24:11burying the bodies of those moai
24:15You can see several moai being carved
24:18The large moai here
24:20and you can see the beginnings of moai up on the side as well
24:23They stopped, they abandoned this
24:25And it's a reminder that this isn't like Pompeii
24:27where something happened and everybody dropped their tools and ran on one day
24:30There's a lot of history in the quarry
24:32There are many older statues that were abandoned
24:35more recent statues that were also abandoned
24:37So you have to look at the chronology here
24:39What we're seeing is the aggregate of events
24:41that occurred over 500 years of activity here at the quarry
24:44Not a final product
24:46This is all the things that happened here
24:48It's interesting because the quarry is kind of a common area that's shared
24:51So there's an understanding that everyone on the island
24:54has access to the resource here
24:59But rock isn't just confined to the quarry
25:02All over Rapa Nui, rock is spread across the land
25:07To Western explorers like Captain James Cook
25:10who visited the island in 1774
25:13this looked like a wilderness
25:16The ground had but a barren appearance
25:19being a dry, hard clay
25:21and everywhere covered with stones
25:24The early European visitors saw crops being grown in stones
25:28and they thought this was somehow pathetic
25:31because they're expecting to see plowed fields
25:34and the agriculture of Europe
25:37How could the Rapa Nui survive
25:39on what appeared to be such a barren wilderness?
25:42But this wasn't what it seemed
25:45The soils on Rapa Nui are nutrient poor
25:49There is an ingenious solution to that
25:51and it's using rock mulch
25:54Volcanic rock is packed full of nutrients
25:57that bring new life into the world
25:59Somehow, the ancient Rapa Nui
26:02had learned how to make the best of this austere landscape
26:05by fertilizing their fields with stones
26:09And using rocks in cultivation
26:11will release nutrients into the soil
26:13and make them available to the plants
26:16Sonja also sees lots of evidence
26:18that the rock-strewn wilderness
26:20described by Captain Cook
26:22is actually fertile fields
26:24Here, you see a very nice complex
26:28and that means you have everything here
26:32In the center part, you can see they take all the rocks
26:37and what you see in the landscape around here
26:42is like a garden, yeah?
26:46This was not the first or last time
26:49Western misconceptions would color the history of Rapa Nui
26:53Right from their very first encounter
26:55on April 5, 1722
26:57the world view of its European visitors
27:00would have a profound effect on the island
27:03The name Easter Island comes from the first Europeans
27:05arriving here on Easter Sunday
27:08The modern traditional name is Rapa Nui
27:11and the older traditional name is Te Pito Tehenua
27:15which really means the navel of the world
27:17which probably reflects the island's isolation
27:20and or its centrality as the whole world
27:25The first encounter between the Dutch explorers
27:27and the local residents
27:29was marked by curiosity
27:31and a tragic misunderstanding
27:37What we know from the historic accounts
27:39from the logs of Captain Rocheveen himself
27:43and of other crew members
27:45is that there was big interest
27:47in the Netherlands ship arriving
27:50in the construction of the ships
27:52and so there was no hostility towards those newcomers
27:58also bearing in mind that Rapa Nui
28:01had been isolated for many generations at that point
28:06People swam out to the ships, they went aboard
28:09they measured every aspect of the ships
28:12and the landing party was quite substantial
28:17The Dutch landing party found themselves
28:19confronted by a vibrantly painted man
28:22He performs what they perceive as a very strange dance
28:25and this strange dance was probably really
28:28an important ritual that the Rapa Nui
28:30would have perceived as proper
28:32in these people coming ashore to their land
28:34He saw the possessions that the Dutch had
28:37the clothes, the hats, and the guns
28:41and he reached for the gun
28:45and several crewmen opened fire
28:50So the very first encounter on the shores of Rapa Nui
28:54was overshadowed by 12 islanders dead
28:58and many more injured
29:12The soldier was afraid that his gun would be stolen
29:15and so there was a confrontation
29:17an incomprehension between two completely different worlds
29:41There were no wooden carts or wheels
29:44and because they don't understand
29:46how it could have been done
29:48it leads to notions of the mystery of Easter Island
29:51and the mystery is really just
29:53what visitors didn't understand
29:56Just as with Captain Cook
29:58Western visitors saw a barren land
30:01covered in rocks
30:03and devoid of the trees
30:05needed to make wooden sleds or wheels
30:08But it wasn't always like this
30:10Researchers found pollen evidence in the fossil record
30:13suggesting that 1,000 years ago
30:15much of this land was covered in dense forest
30:41For many Western researchers
30:43the answer lays strewn across the island
30:45at sites like Ahu Tepehu
30:48These are pieces of moai, the large statues
30:50that once stood on top of the Ahu
30:52I don't know how many statues there were here
30:54maybe four or five
30:56It is easy to look at these landscapes
30:58when you see the Ahu
31:00when they're broken down
31:02and there's a lot of debris
31:04and there's a lot of debris
31:06and there's a lot of debris
31:08the Ahu when they're broken down
31:10and statues that are fallen and broken
31:12like this one here which has no head
31:14just the body, the head that's over here
31:16to imagine that this is the scene of some
31:18catastrophe where things fell apart
31:22To Western eyes
31:23this was evidence of a collapse of society
31:26So successive generations of Western scholars
31:29constructed a narrative
31:32It explained the barren rock-strewn land
31:35the collapse of the moai
31:37and the disappearance of the trees
31:41The collapse story basically goes that
31:43people got to an island that was
31:45filled with trees, palm trees
31:47other kinds of trees as well
31:49sort of an earthly paradise
31:50filled with food and opportunities
31:52for the people that were here
31:53The moai building has often been portrayed
31:57as some kind of frenzy
31:59as some kind of competition
32:02between different clan groups
32:05where lots of trees were cut down
32:08in order to construct and to transport
32:11the moai
32:12Archaeologists had long investigated
32:14stone monument building
32:16in places like ancient Egypt
32:18Westerners thought the moai
32:20were probably moved on wooden sleds
32:22or rollers pulled by hundreds of men
32:25which required people and trees
32:28Lots of people and trees
32:30and these Westerners assumed
32:32that moai building had spiraled out of control
32:35People here kind of got into a moai mania
32:38They started to make bigger and bigger statues
32:41and at some point that over-exuberance
32:43of statue construction
32:45ultimately depleted the island
32:47of the resources needed
32:48to make up Mahu in the first place
32:51According to this view
32:52moai building deforested the island
32:55The soil was starved of nutrients
32:58leaving a barren rock-strewn land
33:01Then, this theory goes
33:04things got worse
33:06The scarcity of resources
33:08resulted in a societal collapse
33:12The island erupted into inter-tribal warfare
33:16and led to a very impoverished population
33:20living on a barren island
33:23And the best proof of all this
33:25is that, for example, all monuments
33:27have statues thrown to the ground
33:30So we can feel that there was something violent
33:32We even threw all the statues to the ground
33:34during these wars
33:35This is the visible result of all these wars
33:40This so-called collapse theory
33:42posited that the island once had
33:44more than 10,000 inhabitants
33:46whose own folly triggered a collapse
33:48of the forest ecosystem
33:50and reduced them to a mere 3,000
33:52living on the scraps
33:55For many Western scholars
33:56it was a compelling narrative
33:58a morality tale for our times
34:01But for some researchers
34:03this idea had one big problem
34:07When we looked at the evidence on the ground
34:09we simply didn't see evidence of warfare
34:11In 1722, at the very first contact
34:14the descriptions of the island
34:16are very positive still
34:18to the point that the island is described
34:20as an earthen paradise
34:22that the inhabitants, the Rapa Nui people
34:25are described as very healthy
34:28of very good stature
34:30There's no indications of warfare
34:33no weapons carried
34:35There has never been a collapse
34:37in the culture of the Isle of Pâques
34:39There has never been a destruction of monuments
34:41There has been a completely different story
34:43on the Isle of Pâques
34:44It looks like this one is being dismantled
34:47because we find some of these construction elements
34:49in the other features over there
34:51For Hete, what were once considered ruins
34:54at Ahu Tepeu
34:56turn out to be evidence of continuous use
34:59This is the head of a Moai
35:01that was part of the second Ahu
35:04in this ceremonial complex
35:06In the second Ahu
35:07all of the Moais lay down
35:09in the back of the platform
35:11That is because that second Ahu
35:12was being dismantled
35:14to enlarge the first one
35:17Pieces of earlier Moai
35:19were being reused
35:20to create an even more spectacular Ahu
35:23From this particular Ahu
35:25we couldn't say that
35:26there's evidence of collapse
35:27there's evidence of transformation
35:29and human society is changing
35:31and that's beautiful
35:32Destruction is recycling and creation
35:35It's part of a larger process
35:37and in a certain way
35:38this Moai reflects that
35:42Across the island
35:43what some Western researchers
35:44had seen as evidence of collapse
35:46didn't stand up to scrutiny
35:49Even the island's caves
35:51long seen as refuges
35:52against an enemy tribe
35:54appear to be something very different
35:57This is a great example of a cave
35:58that has that construction
35:59where they've taken a cave
36:00and added these features to it
36:02Yeah, it's not a refuge cave
36:04it's not a hiding place
36:06it's a habitation
36:07So they made this nice entrance
36:09with paving stones and everything
36:10And they've used lots of different materials
36:12like this paenga stone
36:14Paenga are a kind of foundation stone
36:16found in elite houses
36:18The holes bored into them
36:20acted as bases for the wooden struts
36:24The use of these paenga in cave walls
36:26was argued to be evidence
36:28of some last-ditch defense against attack
36:31Some people think that
36:32this is evidence of tearing down
36:34elaborate or elite houses
36:36and reusing the stone out of desperation
36:39but these stones are reused everywhere
36:41We see the reuse of these paenga stones
36:42not only in things like ahu
36:44but also in the chicken houses
36:45the haremoa
36:46as well as earth ovens
36:47So they're really used
36:48in all kinds of contexts
36:49People used the stone
36:50that was available to them
36:51and some of that stone were paenga
36:53Reusing and recycling stone materials here
36:55is really the norm
36:58At another set of caves nearby
37:00Hete, Carl, and Terry
37:02find yet more evidence
37:03of a thriving community
37:05Here, the Rapa Nui
37:07even used the collapsed lava tubes
37:09as hothouses
37:11Fed by something rare
37:12on an island of permeable volcanic rock
37:15an abundant supply of water
37:18in caverns deep within the caves
37:20In those caves
37:21we can find fresh water
37:23It was one of the largest
37:24water reservoirs
37:26So it's a very rich part of the island
37:29So Rapa Nui's caves
37:31weren't just simple refuges
37:33They were complex,
37:34sun-dappled ecosystems
37:36that had been used for centuries
37:38long before the collapse
37:39that was supposed to have
37:40driven people into them
37:43Nothing here in Te Pahu
37:44or in the area that we worked
37:46shows that people were struggling
37:49On the contrary,
37:50they were thriving
37:51We were seeing signs
37:52of sustainability
37:54There was really no evidence
37:55of collapse
38:01Even though Carl and Terry
38:02found no direct evidence
38:03for collapse
38:05they would not dismiss the idea
38:06without more research
38:10Especially when it came
38:11to the population
38:12of the island over time
38:15They started by mapping
38:16all the moai
38:17on one side of the island
38:21Then moved on
38:22to the settlement
38:23and resource sites
38:25Our goal is really
38:26to sort of characterize
38:27the settlement systems
38:28and how people
38:29are distributed
38:30across the landscape
38:31and use resources there
38:35We've got a good sample
38:36of the communities
38:37but we're continuing to do that
38:38as an ongoing basis
38:40They matched these
38:41with carbon dates
38:42from the sites
38:43to build up a pattern
38:44showing when each settlement
38:45was in use
38:48Then they ran them
38:49through a computer model
38:50which converted the carbon data
38:51into population numbers
38:53by calculating the highs
38:54and lows of human activity
38:56on the island
38:59The results confirmed
39:00their hunch
39:02It showed the population rise
39:04from a small number
39:05of first settlers
39:07continuing to grow steadily
39:09with no sign of collapse
39:10at any point
39:14The population
39:15could fluctuate slightly
39:16but its average maximum
39:18is probably around 3,000
39:20Probably what
39:21Europeans encountered
39:22when they first arrived
39:23on the island
39:24A maximum population of 3,000
39:27was much smaller
39:28than the numbers cited
39:29in the western collapse story
39:31The collapse theory
39:32proposed all kinds of numbers
39:347,000, 10,000, 15,000
39:36even up to 30,000
39:38population for this small island
39:40But Carl, Terry
39:41and their colleagues
39:42found no evidence
39:43that there were ever
39:44that many people
39:45living on Rapa Nui
39:47The lack of huge populations
39:48being on the island
39:49sort of takes the wind
39:50out of the collapse theory
39:51because in fact
39:52there's nothing from which
39:53to collapse
39:54There isn't a large population
39:57But if you don't have
39:58tens of thousands of people
39:59living on the island
40:01how could the Rapa Nui
40:02build and transport the moai?
40:05For some western researchers
40:07Rapa Nui oral history
40:08suggested an answer
40:10There were many people
40:11living on Rapa Nui
40:12living on Rapa Nui
40:13living on Rapa Nui
40:14living on Rapa Nui
40:15living on Rapa Nui
40:16living on Rapa Nui
40:17living on Rapa Nui
40:18living on Rapa Nui
40:19living on Rapa Nui
40:20living on Rapa Nui
40:21living on Rapa Nui
40:22living on Rapa Nui
40:23living on Rapa Nui
40:24living on Rapa Nui
40:25living on Rapa Nui
40:26living on Rapa Nui
40:27living on Rapa Nui
40:28living on Rapa Nui
40:29living on Rapa Nui
40:30living on Rapa Nui
40:31living on Rapa Nui
40:32living on Rapa Nui
40:33living on Rapa Nui
40:34living on Rapa Nui
40:35living on Rapa Nui
40:36living on Rapa Nui
40:37living on Rapa Nui
40:40This actually referred to
40:41small wooden statues
40:43but some Westerners
40:44thought it also described
40:45the stone moai.
40:48Tor Hayadal and his colleagues
40:49attempted to move
40:50the statues upright
40:52to effectively make them walk
40:54but the experiment
40:55hadn't worked.
40:57So most experts
40:58still believed
40:59that they were dragged
41:00on their backs.
41:03But when Carl and Terry
41:04analyzed the moai
41:05lying by the roads
41:06that led from the quarry
41:08they noticed
41:09something significant.
41:11These are impressive things
41:12aren't they?
41:13We're looking right here
41:15at the reason why
41:16they were not transported
41:18on logs on their backs.
41:20That's true.
41:21How would they be
41:22in this position
41:23face down
41:24and the neck broken?
41:25It makes no sense.
41:26That just simply
41:27doesn't happen
41:28if they're on their backs
41:29on rollers.
41:30They also noticed
41:31a structural difference
41:32between moai
41:33lying on the road
41:34and those standing
41:35on the ahu.
41:37A moai on the ahu
41:38has a flat base
41:40so the statue
41:41stands straight up.
41:43But most of the moai
41:44lying on the road
41:45have angled bases
41:46and Carl and Terry
41:47believe that angle
41:49had a very specific purpose.
41:52Road moai
41:53has to be shaped
41:54in a way
41:55that can be transported.
41:56They did it
41:57by shaping their base
41:58so they leaned forward
41:59to enable them to walk.
42:00This is a great example
42:01of the forward lean
42:02of these transport moai.
42:03So if you took this statue
42:04and we could put it back up
42:05it would be leaning
42:06really far forward.
42:07It means that
42:08as you rock it
42:09side to side
42:10it falls forward
42:11across that front edge
42:12and takes a step.
42:13Without that
42:14it would just rock
42:15back and forth
42:16and not really go anywhere.
42:17And walking really describes
42:18what these moai did.
42:20To test their theory
42:22in 2012
42:23Carl and Terry
42:24built a model
42:25of a moai
42:26out of concrete
42:27carefully mixed
42:28to match the fragile density
42:29of the ancient statue's
42:30volcanic rock
42:31and made it walk.
42:34In our experiments
42:35we found it took
42:36remarkably few people
42:37to move the statue
42:38and we were terrible at it.
42:39We were the least expert
42:40of any people
42:41who have ever moved
42:42a moai in the world
42:43but we were able to do
42:44a 5 ton statue
42:45with 18 people.
42:52Whether they walked or not
42:54most experts now agree
42:56that building moai
42:57could not have caused
42:58the loss of the forest.
43:01I like to use
43:02basically just a math example.
43:04There's about a thousand
43:05moai on the island.
43:07About 400 of them
43:09are still at the quarry site
43:11so only 600
43:13have been transported.
43:15And the amount of trees
43:17that you need to fell
43:19to move 600 statues
43:21cannot even closely account
43:23for that degree of
43:25deforestation that happened.
43:33There are vegetation
43:35reconstructions for Rapa Nui
43:39talking of 18 million,
43:4219 million palm trees
43:43on the island.
43:44So the amount that were
43:46cut down for transporting
43:47or building moai
43:48would only have been
43:49a very, very small percentage.
43:54So if trees across the island
43:55weren't felled
43:56to transport moai
43:58what happened to them?
44:00An area of forest
44:01is cleared,
44:02it is used for gardening,
44:04for horticulture.
44:07This process is known
44:08as slash and burn
44:09and is a millennial
44:10old practice
44:11used all over the world.
44:14In slash and burn cultivation
44:15you can clear an area,
44:17burn the wood
44:18that you've cleared.
44:19This releases nutrients
44:20into the soil,
44:21plant the crops.
44:22As that soil becomes
44:24exhausted from cultivation
44:27you repeat the sequence.
44:29As the vegetation grows back,
44:31especially trees,
44:32this can be a rotating system
44:34where you're continually
44:35adding nutrients to the soil.
44:38But on Rapa Nui
44:39the burned woodland
44:40didn't grow back
44:41as it did elsewhere
44:42in Polynesia.
44:43Why not?
44:45The fossilized DNA
44:46of ancient animals
44:47may hold some answers.
44:49Analysis suggests
44:50that the early settlers
44:51of Rapa Nui
44:52had a passenger.
44:55The pacific rats
44:57are a species
44:58that originates
44:59from Southeast Asia
45:00but were transported
45:01with the Polynesian population
45:03during their migration
45:04all around the Pacific,
45:07including the island of Rapa Nui.
45:10Once the rats
45:11arrived on the island,
45:13there were no natural predators
45:15for them
45:16except for humans.
45:17And they reach an environment
45:18with unlimited food.
45:20The nuts of the palm trees,
45:22the nuts and seeds
45:23of other native plants
45:24on the island.
45:25And you get a vicious cycle here
45:26where people are practicing
45:28slash-and-burners
45:29they have throughout the Pacific,
45:31and the rats are busy
45:33eating the next generation
45:34of plants
45:35as they eat the seeds.
45:52We don't know
45:53if this is what happened
45:54because there are no
45:55historical records
45:56to chart the island's
45:57early history.
45:59But it is clear
46:00that trees were not needed
46:01to move the moai
46:03as the Rapa Nui
46:04continued to erect moai
46:05long after the trees
46:06had died out.
46:09So why did the Rapa Nui
46:11go to such lengths
46:12to build them
46:13in the first place?
46:14What were the moai for?
46:16One tradition
46:17that might one day
46:18tell us the answer
46:19is being lovingly preserved
46:20by Luis Juki,
46:21a park ranger
46:22on Rapa Nui.
46:51Rongo rongo
46:52is the traditional
46:53writing system
46:54of the Rapa Nui.
46:55It is inscribed
46:56onto wooden tablets.
47:21Luis is one of just
47:22a handful of people
47:23still carving rongo rongo.
47:33No one knows
47:34how old rongo rongo is
47:36or what it actually says,
47:38but in a secluded
47:39monastery in Rome,
47:41Silvio Rongo
47:42was the first
47:43to carve rongo rongo.
47:46This is the
47:47enshankre tablet.
47:48It's made of wood,
47:50and it's one of the
47:5127 tablets
47:52written in this script,
47:54which is still undeciphered.
47:56The enshankre tablet
47:57was gifted to the
47:58Bishop of Tahiti in 1869
48:01by Catholic converts
48:02from Rapa Nui.
48:04It is one of only
48:0526 tablets in the world.
48:08It is the oldest
48:09in the world
48:10and the oldest
48:11in the world.
48:13It is one of only 27
48:15scattered across museums
48:17around the world,
48:18and the way
48:19its figures are oriented
48:20suggests a very
48:21unusual reading method.
48:23What you need to do
48:24is turn the tablet
48:26from one line to the next
48:28in order to read it,
48:30and this is a unique feature
48:32of this writing system.
48:33No other script
48:35works in the same way
48:37all over the world,
48:38so it's really quite special.
48:41Despite this unique system,
48:42it has been said
48:43that Rongorongo
48:44was inspired
48:45by European writing.
48:47That's kind of a degrading view
48:48of Rapa Nui ingenuity.
48:50It's not only simplistic,
48:52but it's patronizing.
48:53It's one of the most
48:55unique and beautiful
48:57forms of knowledge of art
48:59in the world.
49:00Nevertheless,
49:01we have to face critics
49:03or thoughts
49:04that we were copying.
49:06The glyphs in Rongorongo
49:07are clearly connected
49:09to the art on the island.
49:11You see the glyph forms
49:12in petroglyphs.
49:14They don't imitate
49:15European writing in any sense.
49:17To put the debate to bed
49:18once and for all,
49:19Silvia gained permission
49:21to radiocarbon date
49:22this tablet.
49:23The radiocarbon date
49:24points in the direction
49:26of a 15th century date,
49:29which antecedes
49:30the arrival of the Europeans
49:32by more than 200 years.
49:35Silvia believes
49:36this might make
49:37Rongorongo
49:38one of the few instances
49:40of independently
49:41invented writing
49:42in the world.
49:43But what was
49:44Rongorongo for?
49:45Many believe
49:46that it contains
49:47the secrets
49:48of Rapa Nui culture.
49:49Some people say
49:50that they contain
49:51legends or rhythms
49:53or encrypted instructions
49:55of how to move moai
49:57or develop
49:58some technologies.
49:59There are many,
50:00many different
50:01theories about it.
50:02But what we do know
50:03is that they
50:04contain knowledge.
50:06Until Rongorongo
50:08surrenders its secrets,
50:09researchers are using
50:10tried and tested
50:11scientific methods
50:12to understand
50:13why the moai
50:14and the ahu platforms
50:16are located
50:17where they are.
50:18When we look at the question
50:20of where ahu are located,
50:23why are they located there,
50:25why are some of them
50:26very large
50:27and some of them smaller,
50:29why are there
50:30some ahu in the interior
50:32while most of them
50:33are on the shoreline?
50:34It's easy to describe
50:35them as being religious.
50:36Certainly that's
50:37part of the story.
50:38But the question is,
50:39why would you invest
50:40so much energy
50:41in doing these
50:42over and over again?
50:44They started with a map.
50:46They marked out
50:47the locations
50:48of all the ahu
50:49on the east side
50:50of the island.
50:51Then they began
50:52to compare them
50:53with the locations
50:54of vital resources.
50:57They chose three
50:58as the key sources
50:59of sustenance,
51:00rock mulch,
51:01seafood,
51:02and fresh water.
51:04But when they tried
51:05to map the ahu
51:06over the rock mulches,
51:08a simple mismatch
51:09became glaringly obvious.
51:12There's rock mulch
51:13everywhere across Laos,
51:14but we don't see
51:15ahu and moai everywhere.
51:16But we find, in fact,
51:17that ahu and moai
51:18are in particular locations
51:20independent of the mulch itself.
51:23Next, they looked
51:24at resources from the sea.
51:27When you drive around
51:28the island,
51:29you see one after the other
51:30an ahu with moai
51:31all the way
51:32along the coast.
51:33And of course,
51:34the coast has
51:35resources,
51:36fish, shellfish,
51:37other kinds of things
51:38that would support populations.
51:40But while the ahu
51:41on the coast
51:42match sea resources
51:43very well,
51:44this cannot explain
51:45the ahu erected
51:46in the interior
51:47of the island.
51:49That left one final resource,
51:52fresh water.
51:54Most of the moai
51:55are along the coastline
51:57with their backs
51:58to the sea.
51:59At first glance,
52:01that doesn't seem
52:02like a good place
52:03to find fresh water.
52:04But look a little closer.
52:06The water is fresh.
52:07You think this water
52:08is salty,
52:09that it's seawater,
52:10but in fact,
52:11this is a freshwater seat,
52:12a source of water
52:13that comes from
52:14the interior of the island,
52:15moves to the underground,
52:16and then comes out
52:17at the coast.
52:18It's a place where
52:19Rapa Nui people
52:20access water
52:21for their daily lives.
52:22On a young volcanic island
52:23like Rapa Nui,
52:24the rocks are very porous.
52:25The rainwater
52:26will enter the island
52:27and flow through
52:28the porous island
52:29and into lava tubes,
52:30et cetera,
52:31and will come down
52:32to the level
52:33and float on top
52:34of saltwater
52:35and then enter the ocean
52:36at low tide.
52:37When Captain Cook
52:38arrived on the island,
52:39what he saw
52:40was people drinking
52:41straight from the ocean.
52:42And he thought,
52:43this is crazy.
52:44Why would people do that?
52:45What he is actually seeing
52:46is people drinking water
52:47that comes from
52:48these freshwater seeps
52:49that emerge
52:50right at the coast
52:51of the island.
52:52And when Carl and Terry
52:53compared their map
52:54of Ahumoai
52:55with a map
52:56of freshwater sources,
52:57they got a roughly
52:5890 percent match.
52:59In fact,
53:00the locations of freshwater
53:01are the best predictor
53:02of the locations
53:03of Ahu
53:04throughout the island.
53:05For many,
53:06this near-perfect match
53:07is not surprising,
53:09because Ahu
53:10are usually linked
53:11with settlements.
53:13Those hamlets
53:14or villages
53:15are located
53:16in many cases
53:18close to water sources,
53:20which makes perfect sense
53:22that the essentials
53:24for survival,
53:25like your crops
53:27and your drinking water,
53:28is close to where
53:30the people actually settle.
53:31Yet for Carl and Terry,
53:33it's the precise location
53:34of the Moai
53:35that is the key
53:36to this theory.
53:37One of the interesting aspects
53:38about Rapa Nui people
53:39is they lived
53:40in a dispersed
53:41settlement pattern
53:42in which people
53:43used the landscape
53:44around the Ahu
53:45in sort of a wide area,
53:46but they're brought together
53:47at the Ahu and the Moai.
53:49Again and again,
53:51the Ahu,
53:52not the settlements,
53:53are closest to the water.
53:55So we find, in fact,
53:56the Ahu and the Moai
53:57right next to
53:58the critical resource,
53:59because in fact,
54:00that is the heart
54:01of the community.
54:06It seems the Moai
54:07acted as a statement,
54:09erected close to
54:10a community's
54:11most vital resource.
54:13But Rapa Nui tradition
54:15would see this differently.
54:18They represent
54:19the soul of a dead king.
54:21So Moai's location
54:23and eventual collapse
54:25is also related
54:26with an evolution
54:27of a political
54:29and social structure.
54:55The statement is
54:56we're honoring our ancestors.
54:58And they might even say to us
55:00if we could time travel,
55:01don't you honor
55:02your ancestors in this way?
55:07Looking at all
55:08the archaeological evidence,
55:09it seems more likely
55:10that rather than
55:11a self-inflicted ecocide,
55:13the true collapse
55:14of Rapa Nui society
55:16was caused
55:17by outside influences.
55:19As time went on
55:20and the evidence accumulated,
55:21we realized that
55:22a lot of what people thought
55:24was collapse
55:25was something
55:26that actually happened
55:27after Europeans arrived.
55:29And it had
55:30an entirely different cause,
55:32and that was
55:33the introduction
55:34of Old World disease.
55:36There was the smallpox.
55:37There was the Spanish flu,
55:39leprosy,
55:40slave trading.
55:42It was difficult
55:43to live here.
55:44And it was more difficult
55:46to keep the social structures
55:47and the life
55:48as the way
55:49that we knew it.
55:51Over time,
55:52we see people
55:53sort of abandoning
55:54Ahu and Moai.
55:55It's a loss of population.
55:56There's fewer people
55:57because of the effects
55:58of diseases.
55:59So people are not
56:00attending to the Ahu
56:01and rebuilding them
56:02in the way that they did
56:03in the past.
56:04Things got even worse
56:05in the 1860s.
56:07Peruvian slave traders
56:09captured about a third
56:11of the population
56:13on the island
56:14and forced them
56:15onto their ships
56:16to work in Peru.
56:18There were protests,
56:20even from the Vatican,
56:22which got involved.
56:24These societies
56:25had to bring back
56:26the inhabitants
56:27of the Easter Island
56:28onto the Easter Island.
56:29But these people
56:30had caught the smallpox,
56:32smallpox,
56:33on the American continent.
56:35Only 15 people
56:36arrived on the Easter Island,
56:38and that was enough
56:39to cause
56:40a big epidemic
56:41of smallpox
56:42on the Easter Island.
56:44By the time it was over,
56:45there were less than
56:46200 Rapa Nui left alive.
56:50The true story of Rapa Nui
56:53is one of survival
56:54against the odds
56:55by an ingenious
56:56and resilient people
56:57who came to a bad land
56:59and made it good.
57:01But that story
57:02has been overshadowed
57:03by a Western fascination
57:05with the Moai.
57:07And for Sonia Enhete,
57:09that is the true tragedy
57:10and triumph of Rapa Nui.
57:13If we look only at the Moai,
57:15we are not making
57:16this place bigger.
57:19We are making it small.
57:21That means you don't believe
57:23in my capacity
57:25as a human being.
57:27If there's one thing
57:28that I would like people
57:29to take from Rapa Nui,
57:30it's that the history
57:31has been narrated
57:33by a very selected
57:34group of people.
57:35There are different realities.
57:37The world is full of
57:38beautiful, amazing stories
57:41that deserve to be told
57:43and people deserve to hear.
57:45Our history is not unique.
57:47We share with many islands
57:49and we share a beautiful past,
57:52a complex present
57:54and many, many tragedies
57:57in the Midway.
58:03Sir David Attenborough
58:04has shown us natural wonders
58:05from across the globe
58:07and has now turned his gaze
58:08homeward to these wild isles.
58:10Watch this breathtaking
58:11new series so far
58:12now on BBC iPlayer.
58:17♪
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