Easter Island gained its English name from the first recorded European visitor to the Island – Dutch sailor Jacob Roggeven, who arrived on Easter Sunday in 1722 and referred to it as “Paasch-Eyland”, which was 18th century Dutch that translated into Easter Island in English. Humans were traveling in these areas at that time and so might have settled at various places, including what is now the island of Easter Island. (Oficina Regional de Educación / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) The Birdman Cult of Easter Island . If you had wondered about the explorers who discovered Easter Island, Ahu Akivi is their monument. Easter Island is less than 15 miles long and is sited in one of the most isolated parts of the Pacific, lying 1300 miles east of the nearest inhabited island, Pitcairn, and 2300 miles west of the coast of South America. Approximately 750,000 years ago three volcanoes converged to form Easter Island, also called Rapa Nui.
It is located about 2,300 miles off the Chilean coast. Besides its more well known name of Rapa Nui, Easter Island is also known as Te-Pito-O-Te-Henua , meaning ‘The Navel of the World’, and as Mata-Ki-Te-Rani , meaning ‘Eyes Looking at Heaven’.
To its original inhabitants the island is known as Rapa Nui (“Great Rapa”) or Te Pito te Henua (“Navel of the World”). In these traditions, Easter Islanders claimed that a chief Hotu Matu'a arrived on the island in one or two large canoes with his wife and extended family. Part of the difficultly in living on Easter Island was the initial scarcity of resources before humans began inhabiting the island. New evidence: Easter Island civilization was not destroyed by war Researchers debunk a longstanding myth using elliptical Fourier analysis on ancient tools. But it was the trees that were perhaps the most valuable resource for their society. Whatever happened on Easter Island, it wasn't good. Last Updated on November 10, 2019. Sometime between 300-700 C.E. But his first example, Easter Island (aka Rapanui), was his ace. The first European visitors, the Dutch, named it Paaseiland (“Easter Island”) in memory of their own day of arrival. The culture and the mythology of the indigenous Easter Island people - the Rapa Nui - were very unique and diverse, and stood out from other Polynesian cultures. It's like the story people used to tell about Tang, a sad, flat synthetic orange juice popularized by NASA. Easter Island, Chilean dependency in the eastern Pacific Ocean. How Was Easter Island Settled? It was my fifth day on Easter Island. The soil, although low in nutrients, was good for growing the yams, sweet potatoes and other crops the people had brought with them. In the decades before the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen "discovered" the island around Easter, 1722—hence the island's name—the Rapanui began to go hungry. When I was researching how long to book the trip for, I came across several different answers. Annalee Newitz - Feb 17, 2016 7:36 pm UTC The first setters on Easter Island found an island full of nesting seabirds and land birds. Easter Island natives (the Rapa Nui) with a Moai monolith. Polynesians took to the sea and made the long journey in their large, sturdy canoes.
Early European visitors to Easter Island recorded the local oral traditions about the original settlers. F ew places on Earth are as well-known for their so-called mysteries as Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui. Tourism is the island’s largest source of income, and it largely sustains the livelihoods of those people living on Easter Island permanently—indigenous locals are called Rapa Nui. High temperatures and humidity coupled with bad drainage and no permanent streams made the island not well suited for farming. The isolated nature of the island did not encourage plant and animal species to exist there. In the decades before the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen "discovered" the island around Easter, 1722—hence the island's name—the Rapanui began … For a tiny island of 64 square miles, with its nearest neighbors some 1,300 miles away, it has seen more than its fair share of controversy. To its original inhabitants the island is known as Rapa Nui, and its population is predominantly of Polynesian descent. And from Tongariki, it was not difficult to pick up Anakena on the way back.. I had the opportunity to visit Easter Island around this time last year for a quick honeymoon trip after getting married in Santiago.
The new Easter Island story suggests that humans may never hit the alarm. Polynesians landed there, farmed, thrived, built their famous statues, and then things went … A Chilean territory with volcanoes, subtropical vegetation, and a surprising history, Easter Island is a fascinating place to explore. The collapse of Easter Island.