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New study challenges theories on Easter Island collapse
KITV ^ | 10 Dec 2013 | KITV

Posted on 12/12/2013 11:08:52 AM PST by Theoria

Bishop Museum's Dr. Mulrooney conducted 6-year study on Rapa Nui

Bishop Museum's assistant anthropologist, Dr. Mara Mulrooney, conducted a six-year study on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, about the island's theoretical civilization collapse.

Results from her groundbreaking doctoral dissertation entitled "Continuity or Collapse? Diachronic Settlement and Land Use in Hanga Ho'onu, Rapa Nui (Easter Island)" are outlined in an article published in the December issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. This new evidence debunks previous theories that the islanders "self-destructed" before Europeans first visited in 1722.

As popularized in Jared Diamond's 2005 book Collapse, Rapa Nui is often viewed as a prime example of what happens when people lose sight of what they are doing to their environment. According to the popular narrative, the Rapa Nui people committed "environmental suicide" by deforesting their island home. But, new evidence collected by Dr. Mulrooney and colleagues is challenging that story.

"The new picture that emerges from these results is really one of sustainability and continuity rather than collapse, which sheds new light on what we can really learn from Rapa Nui," said Mulrooney. "Based on these new findings, perhaps Rapa Nui should be the poster-child of how human ingenuity can result in success, rather than failure."

Dr. Mulrooney analyzed over 300 radiocarbon dates from across the island, including 15 dates from new excavations in the northern area of the island. These new findings, along with the re-analysis of previously collected dates, showed that large tracts of Rapa Nui's interior continued to be used for agricultural production of foods like sweet potatoes and taro, even after European contact with the island. This directly challenges the previous belief that these areas were abandoned as the island chiefdom supposedly collapsed.

These results, together with recent results from Dr. Mulrooney’s colleagues Thegn Ladefoged, Ph.D. (University of Auckland), Christopher Stevenson, Ph.D. (Virginia Commonwealth University), and Sonia Haoa (an archaeologist from Rapa Nui), who have been analyzing the ancient gardens of the island, suggest that the Rapa Nui people managed to transform their island home into a more productive and sustainable environment. These new findings suggest that it was not until the fatal impacts of European contact in the 18th century that Rapa Nui society experienced a real societal collapse due to introduced diseases.


TOPICS: History; Society
KEYWORDS: easterisland; godsgravesglyphs; jareddiamond; maramulrooney; moai; polynesia; rapanui; thorheyerdahl
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Proposed timelines through the years:


1 posted on 12/12/2013 11:08:53 AM PST by Theoria
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To: SunkenCiv

disease..whitey fault..ping


2 posted on 12/12/2013 11:09:25 AM PST by Theoria (Obama lied. My health care died.)
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To: Theoria

Lemme guess....the decline began when they decided that Income Inequality was a serous problem and they took steps to address it?


3 posted on 12/12/2013 11:12:23 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Nah...it was the complete lack of a gluten free diet that did them all in..


4 posted on 12/12/2013 11:13:11 AM PST by ken5050 (I still miss Howlin)
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To: Toddsterpatriot; Mase; expat_panama; 1010RD; SAJ

My guess would be easy monetary policy leading into Y2K, leading to an asset bubble, leading to a mortgage/financial crisis, leading to TARP1, TARP2, and TARP3, leading to quantitative easing . . . .


5 posted on 12/12/2013 11:14:33 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Hah..kinda...some studies suggest that the ruling elite ate fish and more seafood..


6 posted on 12/12/2013 11:15:14 AM PST by Theoria (Obama lied. My health care died.)
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To: Theoria

7 posted on 12/12/2013 11:25:34 AM PST by Obadiah (I Like Ted.)
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To: Theoria

The Easter Island Spring did it.
After that no more tourists came
but the Russians gave them aid, weapons
and got rid of the pirates
in exchange for toppling over a couple of giant heads
just for fun.


8 posted on 12/12/2013 11:37:36 AM PST by bunkerhill7 ("The Second Amendment has no limits on firepower"-NY State Senator Kathleen A. Marchione.")
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To: Theoria
This is a good example of how self-appointed experts seldom get it right. Jared Diamond is a specialist in, the tissues of the gall bladder. Like many home-made environmentalists, he offered a tendentious and largely unvalidated theory capitalizing on pop pseudo-intellectual trends like "sustainability."

The hard grunt work of real investigators offers a scenario that makes so much more sense.

9 posted on 12/12/2013 11:40:37 AM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: Theoria
No more then the black death was Asian fault.

People carry disease. When they come in contact with new groups of people there is a disease exchange. Sometimes the exchange is more or less equal. Sometimes not.

10 posted on 12/12/2013 11:42:18 AM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Proud Infidel, Gun Nut, Religious Fanatic and Freedom Fiend)
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To: Obadiah

Agree the mothership with all its rock moving drones took them away after pulling off one of the biggest practical jokes of all time. May we be half as lucky.


11 posted on 12/12/2013 11:44:38 AM PST by mcshot ("What's right is right" and we're being sunk by wrong .)
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To: Theoria
large tracts of Rapa Nui's interior continued to be used for agricultural production of foods like sweet potatoes and taro, even after European contact with the island.

Does the carbon dating also tell them the ethnicity of the people who planted these gardens? How do they know it wasn't the evil white people who planted crops after landing on an uninhabited island?

12 posted on 12/12/2013 11:47:57 AM PST by PistolPaknMama
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To: Theoria

Why this useless research? Everyone knows, it was the White man’s fault. No need to pay universities for the obvious conclusions they always reach in their findings.


13 posted on 12/12/2013 11:50:42 AM PST by txrefugee
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To: Theoria

You just knew that somehow it would be the White Man’s fault.


14 posted on 12/12/2013 11:54:38 AM PST by IronJack
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To: Theoria

How did they walk around with those giant heads?


15 posted on 12/12/2013 11:59:41 AM PST by fungoking (Tis a pleasure to live in the Ozarks)
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To: Theoria

theories on Easter Island collapse

Word has it they just launched their healthcare exchange.


16 posted on 12/12/2013 12:00:48 PM PST by Red in Blue PA (When Injustice becomes Law, Resistance Becomes Duty.-Thomas Jefferson)
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To: Obadiah
Ancient Aliens is one of my 11YO son's favorite shows.

He also digs Beyond Scared Straight.

17 posted on 12/12/2013 12:01:27 PM PST by Night Hides Not (The Tea Party was the earthquake, and Chick Fil A the tsunami...100's of aftershocks to come.)
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To: Theoria

“progressives” took over the island.


18 posted on 12/12/2013 12:19:56 PM PST by minnesota_bound
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To: hinckley buzzard
The hard grunt work of real investigators offers a scenario that makes so much more sense.

Absolutely. But our self-appointed "saviors" like Diamond seem to get most of the media attention. Perceptions, not facts, seem to dominate political discussions, especially environmental ones.

19 posted on 12/12/2013 12:22:38 PM PST by Bernard Marx
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To: Theoria
Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

20 posted on 12/12/2013 12:30:58 PM PST by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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