Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, is one of the most isolated inhabited places in the world. Its archaeological record, including megalithic statues, has captured the imagination of many. Two major controversies have emerged from extensive study of the island. First, its history is presented as a cautionary tale of overexploitation of resources leading to a large-scale population decline – the “ecocide” theory. Second, the possibility of a voyage across the Pacific Ocean to the Americas before European contact is still debated. To answer these questions, a team of scientists from the Globe Institute and elsewhere sequenced and analyzed the genomes of 15 Rapa Nui people who lived between 1670 and 1950.
Rapa Nui people. Image courtesy of © Santiago Caruso.
Rapa Nui is one of the most isolated inhabited islands in the world.
It lies at the easternmost tip of the Polynesian Triangle in the Pacific Ocean, 3,700 km west of South America and over 1,900 km east of the nearest inhabited island.
Despite Rapa Nui's remote location, archaeological and genetic evidence indicates that Polynesians from the west had already arrived on the island around 1250 AD.
Over the next five centuries, Rapa Nui's inhabitants, the Rapanui, developed a culture characterized by iconic colossal stone statues (moai) and monumental stone platforms (ahu).
Due to Rapa Nui's isolation, Europeans did not reach the island until 1722 AD.
Over the years, European visitors have had a devastating impact on Rapa Nui, killing locals and introducing deadly pathogens the islanders had never encountered before.
Moreover, a third of the population was kidnapped by Peruvian slave raiders in the 1860s, and only a small proportion were repatriated following international condemnation of slavery.
A smallpox epidemic subsequently decimated Rapanui's population, down to an estimated 110 people.
“It is well known that Rapa Nui's environment was affected by human activities such as deforestation, but it was unknown whether and how these changes led to a dramatic population decline,” said Dr Anna Saffo Malaspinas, a researcher at the University of Lausanne and the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics.
The Tahitian warrior's shelter from Giulio Ferrario's Le Costume Ancien et Moderne, Milan, 1816-1827.
The authors studied the genomes of 15 ancient inhabitants who lived on the island over the past 500 years.
They found no evidence of a genetic bottleneck corresponding to the 17th century collapse.
The analysis suggests that the island was originally inhabited by a small number of people, but its population grew steadily until Peruvian slave raids in the 1860s forced a third of the island's population to relocate.
Furthermore, the analysis showed that, like modern-day Rapa Nui people, the ancient islanders also carried Native American DNA.
This mixing probably occurred sometime between 1250 and 1430 AD.
Taken together with archaeological evidence and oral history, the find suggests that Polynesians may have been crossing the Pacific long before Europeans arrived on Rapa Nui and long before Columbus reached the Americas.
“Our genetic analysis shows that there was a steady population growth from the 13th century until contact with Europeans in the 18th century,” said Dr Barbara Souza da Mota, a researcher at the University of Lausanne.
“This stability is extremely important because it directly contradicts the idea of a dramatic pre-contact population decline.”
“We investigated how Native American DNA is distributed in the genetic background of Rapa Nui Polynesians,” said Dr Victor Moreno Mayar, a researcher at the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen.
“This distribution is consistent with contact occurring between the 13th and 15th centuries.”
“Our study doesn't tell us where this contact occurred, but it may mean that the ancestors of the Rapanui reached the Americas before Christopher Columbus,” Dr Malaspinas said.
of Survey results Published in a journal Nature.
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JV Moreno Mayal others2024. Ancient Rapanui genome reveals resilience and pre-European contact with the Americas. Nature 633, 389-397;doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07881-4
Source: www.sci.news
