The accepted theory is that the arrival of the first Polynesians on the tiny island in the 1200s led to rapid deforestation to build the moai stone statues. The famous carvings are massive, up to 40 feet (12 meters) tall and 75 tons in weight.
The rapid environmental change led to a population collapse before the arrival of Europeans in the 1700s. According to scientists, the Easter Island statues are a warning against overexploitation of the natural world.
But archaeologists
have recently challenged this theory of social collapse on Easter
Island. Instead, researchers have looked at factors such as drought that
could have led to catastrophic shifts in Rapa Nui culture....<<<Read More>>>...
