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Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Deforestation, Settlement, and Land Use on Easter Island Prior to European Arrivals

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The Prehistory of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Part of the book series: Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research ((DPER,volume 22))

Abstract

The ecological and socio-economic history of Easter Island prior to European contact exerts a great fascination on both scholars and general public. The reconstruction of this history is primarily based on palaeoecological and archaeological data. Changes in forest patterns and land use, for example, are typically inferred from palynological indicators, radiocarbon-based dates of charcoal remains, archaeological artefacts, and relicts of formerly cultivated gardens. Uncertainties affecting proxy data, however, can lead to difficult interpretations and conflicting views. While the existence of widespread deforestation is uncontested, there is less consensus in relation to timing, spatial extent, and causes of deforestation. Early results based on coarsely resolved pollen analysis, for example, suggested a somewhat abrupt decline of the forest. A more comprehensive and recent dataset of pollen records suggested, instead, gradual and patchy patterns of deforestation. Remains of tree stumps and charcoal led scholars to attribute the disappearance of the forest to anthropogenic activities such as the use of trees for tools and construction, for extracting sugary sap, or for clearing land for agriculture through slash-and-burn. The role played by rats in the deforestation—they were probably brought in intentionally as a food item by the first Polynesian settlers—is also subject to different interpretations. More recently, deforestation has been attributed to more complex climate–human–landscape feedbacks. While the replacement of cleared land by agriculture (often in the form of lithic mulched gardens) appears well documented and undisputed, soil characteristics such as fertility, important for determining the relevance of agricultural practices, are less understood, leading to large variations in the estimates related to the maximum number of individuals that could have been sustained by the environment.

Electronic Supplementary Material The online version contains supplementary material available at (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91127_16).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We thank the anonymous reviewer for this suggestion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Theoretical Ecology and Modelling, Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bremen, Germany

    Peter Steiglechner & Agostino Merico

  2. Faculty of Physics and Earth Science, Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany

    Peter Steiglechner & Agostino Merico

Authors
  1. Peter Steiglechner
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  2. Agostino Merico
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Correspondence to Peter Steiglechner .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Botanic Institute of Barcelona (IBB), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain

    Valentí Rull

  2. Anthropology Faculty, School of World Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA

    Christopher Stevenson

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Steiglechner, P., Merico, A. (2022). Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Deforestation, Settlement, and Land Use on Easter Island Prior to European Arrivals. In: Rull, V., Stevenson, C. (eds) The Prehistory of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research, vol 22. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91127-0_16

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