DNA Evidence Shows Ecocide Theory of Easter Island Is False

Analysis of ancient DNA has provided more evidence to upend the long-standing theory that Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, experienced a "self-inflicted population collapse." For years, scholars believed the island’s population crashed in the 1600s due to deforestation, overexploitation of resources, and internal conflict, all before Europeans made contact in the 1700s. The new study posits that this collapse may never have happened, but rather was halted by Peruvian slave raids and subsequent epidemics brought about by European colonial activity in the 1860s. This adds to a study earlier this year which came to similar conclusions based on different evidence.

• The Return of the Moai: Rapa Nui and the Fight for its Ancestors
• Study Challenges Popular Idea That Easter Islanders Committed ‘Ecocide’

Genetic Evidence: Painting a Very Different Picture

"In just a few centuries, the people of Easter Island wiped out their forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and saw their complex society spiral into chaos and cannibalism." This historical misnomer was published by Jared Diamond in his 2005 bestseller, ‘Collapse’, but it turns out that this cautionary tale was very much fictional.

Researchers analyzed the genomes of 15 ancient Rapa Nui inhabitants, and their findings paint a very different picture. With the approval of Rapa Nui community leaders, the team studied human remains housed in a museum in France. These remains had been taken from the island — located 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) west of mainland Chile — during colonization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, explains the study published in Nature.

The DNA from these individuals showed no evidence of a "genetic bottleneck," a marker of a dramatic population decline. Instead, the data suggests that the island’s population steadily increased up until the 1860s, after which it reduced by nearly one-third.

"Our genetic analysis shows a stably growing population from the 13th century through to European contact in the 18th century. This stability is critical because it directly contradicts the idea of a dramatic pre-contact population collapse," says Bárbara Sousa da Mota, a researcher at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine at University of Lausanne and first author of the study, in a press release.

The study challenges previous estimates of Rapa Nui's population, which once suggested as many as 15,000 inhabitants lived there at its peak. Instead, it concludes that the island likely never supported more than 3,000 people — a number close to early European reports and far from the hypothesized collapse narrative that has long been accepted but is now clearly fantasy.

• Rapa Nui Obsidian Discovery: Did the Islanders Sail to America?
• Undeciphered Rongorongo Script Found on Easter Island Predates European Contact

Maoi on Easter Island. (TravelingOtter/ CC BY 2.0)

Rapa Nui: Carrying Native American DNA

Rapa Nui, also known as Te Pito o Te Henua (the "navel of the world") or Easter Island, is one of the most remote inhabited locations on Earth. This Pacific island lies over 1180 miles (1,900 km) east of its nearest inhabited Polynesian neighbor and 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) west of the South American continent. Despite extensive research by archaeologists, anthropologists, and geneticists into the island's people and their rich cultural legacy, two major aspects of Rapanui history remain deeply contested.

One of the most debated theories is the idea of a population collapse caused by "ecocide" or "ecological suicide" in the 1600s, supposedly brought on by overpopulation and unsustainable use of natural resources. According to this theory, the island’s inhabitants drove themselves to near extinction by depleting their environment.

Equally contentious is the question of whether the Polynesian ancestors of the Rapanui had contact with Indigenous Americans before Europeans arrived on the island in 1722. This issue has sparked long-standing debate about the extent of early trans-Pacific navigation and cultural exchange between Polynesian explorers and the peoples of the Americas.

This isn’t the first recent study to question the idea of a population crash on Rapa Nui. In June, another group of researchers used satellite images and machine learning to assess the island’s ancient rock gardens, which were cultivated to enhance soil fertility. Their findings indicated that these gardens could have only supported small, stable populations, not the large numbers previously thought.

Adding to the intrigue, the new study also found that ancient Rapa Nui inhabitants, like those today, carried Native American DNA. The researchers believe that this genetic mixing likely occurred between AD 1250 and 1430, suggesting contact between Polynesians and Indigenous peoples from the Americas long before Europeans arrived in the region. This theory aligns with a 2020 genetic study that found evidence of interaction between Polynesians and Colombians around 800 years ago, reports Live Science.

"We looked into how the Indigenous American DNA was distributed across the Polynesian genetic background of the Rapanui. This distribution is consistent with a contact occurring between the 13th and the 15th centuries," says first author Víctor Moreno-Mayar, Asst. Professor at the Globe Institute's Section for Geogenetics, University of Copenhagen.

The discovery raises fascinating possibilities about ancient Pacific exploration. It suggests that the Rapa Nui people may have been sailing vast distances across the Pacific, possibly reaching the Americas themselves. However, it’s also possible that Native Americans made the journey to Rapa Nui. Given the well-documented voyages of Polynesians to other remote islands in the southeastern Pacific, the idea that they could have reached the Americas seems plausible.

Top image: Moai Statues on Rapa Nui, Easter Island.    Source: Susan/Adobe Stock

By Sahir Pandey