0:00:16 > 0:00:18This is Easter Island,
0:00:18 > 0:00:22known to its own people as Rapa Nui.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25From the vast empty expanse of the Pacific Ocean,
0:00:25 > 0:00:29a relentless wind blows across ancient volcanic rock,
0:00:29 > 0:00:32sucking moisture and topsoil from the land.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38The only fresh water collects in the craters of its extinct volcanoes.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44To live in the haunting beauty of this bleak
0:00:44 > 0:00:48and lonely landscape presents a challenge.
0:00:48 > 0:00:53And yet, the people who settled this island established one of the most
0:00:53 > 0:00:57remarkable societies on our planet, developing a richly expressive
0:00:57 > 0:01:01visual culture and dramatically changing their environment.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07These iconic monuments are the Moai, now as familiar to us as
0:01:07 > 0:01:11the Pyramids or Stonehenge, but they are just one part of a sophisticated
0:01:11 > 0:01:15landscape created to serve Rapa Nui beliefs and way of life.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20The tiny size of the island,
0:01:20 > 0:01:24and its limited natural resources were such a contrast to the
0:01:24 > 0:01:29majesty of the stone gods that from the moment Dutch explorers
0:01:29 > 0:01:33made the first European contact, people questioned how
0:01:33 > 0:01:37its inhabitants could have achieved this level of sophistication.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43In the 20th century, when archaeologists began to seek
0:01:43 > 0:01:46answers to some of these questions, it became clear
0:01:46 > 0:01:50that the island had once supported a diverse and rich tree cover.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54This barren landscape now suggested a new scenario -
0:01:54 > 0:01:56a tragic story of collapse.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01What could account for the toppled monuments
0:02:01 > 0:02:03and the treeless landscape?
0:02:03 > 0:02:05There was no one left to explain.
0:02:05 > 0:02:10The Rapa Nui people had almost been annihilated
0:02:10 > 0:02:12and their history forgotten.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16Gradually, though, one theory became dominant -
0:02:16 > 0:02:17ecocide...
0:02:17 > 0:02:19ecological suicide.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22In this reading of the evidence,
0:02:22 > 0:02:26the Rapa Nui people caused their own downfall, over-exploiting
0:02:26 > 0:02:30their natural resources to build the Moai, bringing
0:02:30 > 0:02:34about an environmental catastrophe that destroyed their society.
0:02:34 > 0:02:39Civil strife, starvation and even cannibalism followed -
0:02:39 > 0:02:43spelling the end of one of the world's most amazing civilisations.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47For centuries Rapa Nui has stood as the closest
0:02:47 > 0:02:50example of the human experience in miniature.
0:02:50 > 0:02:56Its isolation on our planet mirrors the isolation of Earth in space.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59This has profound implications,
0:02:59 > 0:03:03not just for the development of this culture, but for our
0:03:03 > 0:03:08understanding of how all societies live with their environment.
0:03:08 > 0:03:10If the Rapa Nui self-destructed,
0:03:10 > 0:03:14then what hope is there for our planet?
0:03:14 > 0:03:17This pessimistic view of human nature plays very well
0:03:17 > 0:03:20with our current concerns about climate change
0:03:20 > 0:03:23and our voracious appetite for limited resources.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26Rapa Nui seems like a potent warning from history.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29But what if there's another explanation?
0:03:56 > 0:04:01You really feel the isolation of Easter Island on the journey in.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04The coast of Chile is 2,300 miles behind me,
0:04:04 > 0:04:08and it's another 2,600 miles before you arrive in Tahiti.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12This is the largest expanse of open ocean in the world
0:04:12 > 0:04:15and in the middle of this vast expanse of nothing is
0:04:15 > 0:04:18the volcanic outcrop of Easter Island.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23The Polynesians called this place "Te pito o te henua",
0:04:23 > 0:04:25which means, "the navel of the world."
0:04:26 > 0:04:28Flying to Rapa Nui today,
0:04:28 > 0:04:32crossing thousands of square miles of featureless ocean,
0:04:32 > 0:04:37you can't help but marvel at how anyone ever found this tiny island
0:04:37 > 0:04:38in the first place.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46This small cluster of houses makes up the only town, Hanga Roa,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49and the daily flight from the mainland keeps the population
0:04:49 > 0:04:52connected to the global economy.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56Everything they need, down to the milk they drink, arrives by air.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04Rapa Nui folklore not only tells us the name of the leader
0:05:04 > 0:05:08of the first group of colonists, it tells us where he landed.
0:05:08 > 0:05:13This is Anakena beach, and the Rapa Nui legends say it's where
0:05:13 > 0:05:18a Polynesian King came ashore from an ocean going canoe.
0:05:18 > 0:05:20His name was Hotu Matua.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23His arrival on this beach had another
0:05:23 > 0:05:25significance in the story of our planet,
0:05:25 > 0:05:29because it was the final link in the chain of human migration.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36Somewhere around 70,000 years ago our modern human
0:05:36 > 0:05:41ancestors left Africa and began spreading across the globe.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45In the following 60,000 years
0:05:45 > 0:05:48they gradually colonised the whole planet,
0:05:48 > 0:05:52completing their easterly migration by crossing from Asia
0:05:52 > 0:05:53into the Americas.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01The last part of this process was the spread of Polynesian people
0:06:01 > 0:06:02across the Pacific,
0:06:02 > 0:06:06moving on from island to island over the last 2,000 years.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10And so when Hoto Matua set foot on this sand,
0:06:10 > 0:06:14he was completing the final step of an incredible journey.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17To the east is empty ocean until you arrive in South America,
0:06:17 > 0:06:19which was already colonised.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23So in many ways, this is the final step in the colonisation
0:06:23 > 0:06:24of our world.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29Whether Hoto Matua was really the name of the first human
0:06:29 > 0:06:32settler to arrive here, what is certain is that he
0:06:32 > 0:06:36came from the west, and his journey was an extraordinary
0:06:36 > 0:06:40feat of navigation, sailing against the prevailing winds.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45Taywongaroua, one of the most famous Polynesian anthropologists,
0:06:45 > 0:06:47called them, "The Vikings of the sunrise"
0:06:47 > 0:06:50and I think that's a great name because they were
0:06:50 > 0:06:54surely among the greatest navigators and voyagers in world history.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59Technologically, it was the double hulled canoe, the idea of replacing
0:06:59 > 0:07:02the outrigger with another hull so you get this big craft,
0:07:02 > 0:07:06capable of carrying substantial numbers of people, cargo, pigs,
0:07:06 > 0:07:10dogs, chickens, planting stocks for voyages up to a month or so at sea.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13Along with that went navigational techniques,
0:07:13 > 0:07:17knowing the stars well enough that you could determine your latitude
0:07:17 > 0:07:20by stars, so when you go out on exploratory runs and wind
0:07:20 > 0:07:24reversals against the normal trades, discover islands, you could get
0:07:24 > 0:07:29back on a return voyage by knowing the latitude of your home island.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31If you knew latitude, you could run back to your home island,
0:07:31 > 0:07:32you were OK.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35HE BLOWS THE CONCH SHELL
0:07:37 > 0:07:41Hokule'a is a modern replica of a Polynesian voyaging canoe.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45And today I'm joining one of its regular training runs
0:07:45 > 0:07:47along the coast of Hawaii.
0:07:48 > 0:07:54Since its launch in 1975 Hokule'a has completed many open ocean
0:07:54 > 0:07:58voyages, sailing across the Pacific using only ancient wayfaring
0:07:58 > 0:08:01techniques of celestial navigation.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05What we call it is a performance accurate replica of a voyaging
0:08:05 > 0:08:07canoe you would have seen a thousand years ago.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09Some of the materials are modern.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12It was built around the idea that you have the same
0:08:12 > 0:08:15kind of carrying capacity as well as speed capacity as well as sailing
0:08:15 > 0:08:20characteristics you would have found in a vessel a thousand years ago.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23There's a tradition about a canoe load of just young men going out
0:08:23 > 0:08:26from the home island, finding Easter island,
0:08:26 > 0:08:29planting yams on it, preparing for the colonisation voyage,
0:08:29 > 0:08:32then coming back and telling the chief, "Yes, we found this island",
0:08:32 > 0:08:35and then they prepared two double hulled canoes
0:08:35 > 0:08:36and go and settle Rapa Nui,
0:08:36 > 0:08:40and I think that oral tradition encapsulates a lot of the strategy
0:08:40 > 0:08:44that was used to settle many of the different islands of Polynesia.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49Once you start to get out of sight of land
0:08:49 > 0:08:53and you start to use only the clues that you would have many hundreds of
0:08:53 > 0:08:59years ago, it really starts to show the brilliance of our ancestors.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03That these individuals figured out that these points of light rose
0:09:03 > 0:09:06and set with some kind of cyclical manner and allowed us
0:09:06 > 0:09:10to navigate many hundred of miles out of sight of land
0:09:10 > 0:09:13for sometimes ten or 20 or 30 days
0:09:13 > 0:09:16and still find that destination and to see it today is awe inspiring.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18There is no feeling like it
0:09:18 > 0:09:20when you see land come out of the sea after many days.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32When they first arrived on Anakena beach, Hotu Matu'a and his fellow
0:09:32 > 0:09:35settlers only had what they had brought with them,
0:09:35 > 0:09:38and the resources the island could supply.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42The die was cast,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46but even on this opening page of the island's history
0:09:46 > 0:09:48we come upon a controversy -
0:09:48 > 0:09:50when did they arrive?
0:09:50 > 0:09:54Certainly in the early centuries AD. Possibly even at 100 AD.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57Rapa Nui cause have been settled as early as 800 AD.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01We have, I think, very good radio carbon dates to support
0:10:01 > 0:10:03Rapa Nui colonisation at about 1000 AD.
0:10:03 > 0:10:08I think now the evidence really points to some time in the 1200s.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10Do we really need to be any more accurate?
0:10:10 > 0:10:12On any other Pacific island perhaps not,
0:10:12 > 0:10:14but here we do because of the Moai.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20In order to fully understand the achievement of the people who
0:10:20 > 0:10:24made these figures, we need some sense of how long it
0:10:24 > 0:10:25took their culture to develop.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31I think the statue building started small, the shrines were small,
0:10:31 > 0:10:34they were individualised family by family.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37Over time the sites themselves became more extensive,
0:10:37 > 0:10:41the statues became bigger, grander and more standardised.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44That doesn't happen in a very short time.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46That takes several generations.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53The evidence for how this society grew and flourished during this
0:10:53 > 0:10:58period has to be pieced together from the fragments that remain.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02There is no written record and the oral history is connected to
0:11:02 > 0:11:06that distant past by the most fragile of threads.
0:11:06 > 0:11:11Scientists are continually uncovering more of this history
0:11:11 > 0:11:14but it is already clear that this was a remarkably complex
0:11:14 > 0:11:18society, of which the Moai were only one part.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23These are the most iconic symbols of Rapa Nui culture,
0:11:23 > 0:11:26and a great deal of time has been spent
0:11:26 > 0:11:28studying how the Moai were made and moved.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32The numbers of people involved in the task of creating them,
0:11:32 > 0:11:35the resources used, the time taken.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39And they are important.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42Because if we could work out the role of the Moai in the Rapa Nui
0:11:42 > 0:11:46belief system and how they were made and transported,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49we'd be in a much better position to judge whether the conventional
0:11:49 > 0:11:54story of a "collapse" holds up against the evidence.
0:11:54 > 0:11:59Almost all the statues are carved from a volcanic stone called "tuff",
0:11:59 > 0:12:02a compounded volcanic ash,
0:12:02 > 0:12:06cut from quarries on the slopes of this volcano, Rano Raraku.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10During the main period of quarrying,
0:12:10 > 0:12:16probably from around 1,200 to 1,600 AD, a steady flow of statues
0:12:16 > 0:12:21left Rano Raraku and moved around the island, some along the roads,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25some positioned around the quarry itself but many located
0:12:25 > 0:12:30on ceremonial platforms, called "ahu", located around the coast.
0:12:33 > 0:12:38The sheer effort involved in making the statues is impressive enough,
0:12:38 > 0:12:42but the platforms they stand on are equally challenging to construct.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46Consisting of massive cut stones, they are beautifully formed
0:12:46 > 0:12:49to knit together without mortar.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53They all follow a similar design, with an elaborate plaza of
0:12:53 > 0:12:57pebbles from the beach spreading out in front of the ahu, with extended
0:12:57 > 0:13:03wings to each side, completing an integrated ritual landscape.
0:13:05 > 0:13:11Several of the statues also sported large red "pukau", their topknot
0:13:11 > 0:13:15hairstyles or round hats made from scoria, a different stone from
0:13:15 > 0:13:19another quarry, and each of these weigh several tons by themselves.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25These monumental figures were fascinating and perplexing to
0:13:25 > 0:13:29outsiders, including the Norwegian archaeologist Thor Heyerdahl.
0:13:29 > 0:13:34In 1955, accompanied by a film crew, Heyerdahl arrived on the island.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39He examined the statues and the volcanic rock to
0:13:39 > 0:13:42try to understand the process by which the Moai had been created.
0:13:43 > 0:13:48It seemed clear how the original sculptors had gone about their task.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52An outline was cut into the "tuff", the features carved into the face
0:13:52 > 0:13:56and these deep incisions at the sides curved under to form
0:13:56 > 0:14:01the body, leaving a keel of rock along the underside of the statue.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04The whole Moai would then have been supported,
0:14:04 > 0:14:08while the keel was cut away and the statue moved out of its rock cradle.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13In an early example of experimental archaeology,
0:14:13 > 0:14:15Heyerdahl worked with the Rapa Nui people.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21They demonstrated how a group of men could work together on the statues.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26In nine days of chipping away at the rock,
0:14:26 > 0:14:29a recognisable Moai began to emerge.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33What became clear from this decidedly unscientific
0:14:33 > 0:14:37experiment was that, despite their size, a relatively small group
0:14:37 > 0:14:42of people could manufacture one of the figures in quite a short time.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46There are nearly 400 statues standing on the hillside
0:14:46 > 0:14:51of the volcano, almost half of the total number on the island, and
0:14:51 > 0:14:55in most cases only about a third of the figure is visible above ground.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01While Heyerdahl felt confident he understood how the statues were
0:15:01 > 0:15:06made, it was, and remains, not so clear what their function was.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42The main platforms do have a very big plaza in front of them,
0:15:42 > 0:15:44certainly ceremonies would have been carried out there.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47We really don't know what kind of ceremonies.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49All we have is a little bit of testimony from the very first
0:15:49 > 0:15:53European accounts. The islanders did show respect to these things.
0:15:53 > 0:15:54Sometimes they knelt before them.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58Sometimes they lit fires in front of them but that was about it.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02I think what we're looking at is this marvellous, sort of, creativity
0:16:02 > 0:16:06that somehow we're unwilling to say or to accept could have
0:16:06 > 0:16:11sprung from that community but in fact that probably is what happened.
0:16:12 > 0:16:17One or more small groups of individuals who over time
0:16:17 > 0:16:21tested and developed this symbol and realised that what
0:16:21 > 0:16:26they had created expressed perfectly what people believed
0:16:26 > 0:16:31and once you do that, my goodness, you have a really successful object.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41All of this signifies a very successful society.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45In their first few centuries on the island the Rapa Nui thrived
0:16:45 > 0:16:47and the population grew.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52The statues and their platforms began to be
0:16:52 > 0:16:55built across the whole island. Sometimes in ones or twos,
0:16:55 > 0:17:00but sometimes in vastly more complex formations.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03The people lived in small settlements based around family
0:17:03 > 0:17:07or clan groupings but the communal effort required to construct
0:17:07 > 0:17:12and build the statues shows that this was a very cooperative society.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24Every year more Moai were erected in honour of the ancestors who
0:17:24 > 0:17:28formed such an important part of Rapa Nui cosmology,
0:17:28 > 0:17:31reinforcing their shared belief systems.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34But these figures don't look out to sea as we might expect.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38The Rapa Nui weren't waiting for people to come from overseas.
0:17:38 > 0:17:43Instead, they gaze inland watching over the lives of their creators.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50We can't be 100% certain
0:17:50 > 0:17:54but there's a distinct possibility that once the island was settled
0:17:54 > 0:17:57there was no continued contact with other Polynesian groups.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01Clearly they turned in on themselves in many ways.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03They thought they were the whole world.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06Everything else had drowned and there was nothing out there.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09This is probably why the statues of the ancestors are placed
0:18:09 > 0:18:12around the edge of the island facing inwards.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15They're like a protection from whatever unknown is out there
0:18:15 > 0:18:18because there is nothing out there that they know of.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20This island was the whole world to them.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27This extraordinary degree of isolation just adds to the
0:18:27 > 0:18:30mystery of this place.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34Thor Heyerdahl later published a book with the optimistic title
0:18:34 > 0:18:37"Easter Island: The Mystery Solved",
0:18:37 > 0:18:41but it didn't satisfactorily answer the first question everyone
0:18:41 > 0:18:46asks when confronted by a stone figure weighing many tons.
0:18:46 > 0:18:47How was it moved?
0:18:52 > 0:18:55Perhaps, the most unlikely suggestion
0:18:55 > 0:18:58was put forward by a Swiss hotel manager and convicted fraudster,
0:18:58 > 0:19:00called Eric von Daniken,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03who wrote a bestseller called "Chariots of the Gods"
0:19:03 > 0:19:07that suggested the statues were brought here by extra-terrestrials.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12I think the Rapa Nui people moved those statues in the ways
0:19:12 > 0:19:14that worked best for the individual statue and the terrain.
0:19:14 > 0:19:16I don't think there is one answer,
0:19:16 > 0:19:19and I don't think there is one motivation.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22I think that each statue had its own individual biography
0:19:22 > 0:19:26but logic dictates that they were moved horizontally.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30Some of the Moai from the quarry at the Rano Raraku volcano
0:19:30 > 0:19:33travelled as much as nine miles to their final
0:19:33 > 0:19:36locations on the coastal ahu platforms.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40The island is crossed by a network of ancient track ways,
0:19:40 > 0:19:42spreading out from the quarry,
0:19:42 > 0:19:47and it is thought these "Moai roads" were used to transport the statues.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51The islanders who had so confidently set about carving a Moai were
0:19:51 > 0:19:56less successful in demonstrating to Heyerdahl how to move one.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59They tied ropes to a statue and 180 of them
0:19:59 > 0:20:02dragged it a few hundred yards, lying on its back.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06But it was immediately clear that this would have significantly
0:20:06 > 0:20:07damaged the figure,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10some more sophisticated system must have been used.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22This puzzle goes right to the heart of our understanding
0:20:22 > 0:20:26of the Rapa Nui and what caused the decline of their culture.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31Could the statues have dominated the life of the island to such
0:20:31 > 0:20:35an extent that the people cut down their trees to provide timber
0:20:35 > 0:20:38rollers and levers to move these leviathans?
0:20:40 > 0:20:44Was the island cleared to grow food to support a huge workforce,
0:20:44 > 0:20:48labouring to keep manufacturing the Moai?
0:20:48 > 0:20:51And was there some kind of calamitous collapse,
0:20:51 > 0:20:54brought about by the pressures of an expanding population
0:20:54 > 0:20:56and diminishing resources?
0:20:58 > 0:21:01That is the traditional ecocide narrative.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06So the popular story of Rapa Nui that was told really throughout
0:21:06 > 0:21:12the 20th century, is that the islanders, quote, self-destructed.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15That really began with the work of Thor Heyerdahl,
0:21:15 > 0:21:20when he and other researchers had been told this story of collapse
0:21:20 > 0:21:25and of wide spread warfare and anarchy, people came very obsessed
0:21:25 > 0:21:29with building larger and larger statues, they were very competitive
0:21:29 > 0:21:35and that led to them cutting down all their trees and losing sight
0:21:35 > 0:21:39of what they were doing in terms of their resource base on the island.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43At the core of this narrative of "collapse" is the implicit
0:21:43 > 0:21:47suggestion that the Rapa Nui themselves were to blame for the
0:21:47 > 0:21:51destruction of the island paradise that they discovered and settled.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54I think many things probably went wrong, clearly whatever
0:21:54 > 0:21:57happened on the island was very largely bought about by themselves,
0:21:57 > 0:22:01it was essentially the destruction of the forest which led to their
0:22:01 > 0:22:04decline because once they'd got rid of the forest,
0:22:04 > 0:22:06pretty much completely,
0:22:06 > 0:22:09by about 500 years ago, there's no timber any more.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13They'd lost the ability to make lots of rope, which they'd have needed.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15This is why the statue building and moving stopped,
0:22:15 > 0:22:17they simply didn't have the means to do it any more.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20They had done something quite radical to this environment,
0:22:20 > 0:22:22which was irreversible.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27It's not difficult to find a Pacific island that
0:22:27 > 0:22:32looks like Rapa Nui would have done before it was lost its tree cover.
0:22:32 > 0:22:37This is O'ahu, part of the Hawaiian archipelago, and this is just
0:22:37 > 0:22:41the kind of dense palm forest that once covered Rapa Nui.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45When the first settlers came to the island
0:22:45 > 0:22:47they really found a paradise,
0:22:47 > 0:22:50they found an island which was covered
0:22:50 > 0:22:53by a thick sub-tropical forest,
0:22:53 > 0:22:56which consisted of at least 20 species
0:22:56 > 0:23:02of trees and shrubs, dominated by a huge palm species,
0:23:02 > 0:23:06the palm which provided very nice nuts
0:23:06 > 0:23:09which could be eaten.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12The palms stems provided a sweet sup like
0:23:12 > 0:23:17palm honey and the palms provided, of course, leaves and wood which
0:23:17 > 0:23:22could be used for building houses, for building canoes and so on.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26The crowns of the palms provided shadow.
0:23:26 > 0:23:31They were protected against harsh weather conditions, against storms,
0:23:31 > 0:23:33against heavy rainfalls.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38We are very sure that far more than half of the forest
0:23:38 > 0:23:39consisted of the palms.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45It may have been paradise for a few but as the island population
0:23:45 > 0:23:49expanded it's evident that more and more forest was cleared.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52The Rapa Nui oral traditions,
0:23:52 > 0:23:56mostly recorded by Europeans in the late 19th century, tell of a period
0:23:56 > 0:24:01of conflict and warfare, which occurred at around the same time.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04Once the trees were gone, they recount that the island
0:24:04 > 0:24:07became less fertile, leading to a crisis
0:24:07 > 0:24:11when they couldn't grow enough food to support themselves.
0:24:11 > 0:24:13Ultimately, these legends say,
0:24:13 > 0:24:17the islanders began to regard each other as a source of protein
0:24:17 > 0:24:22and cannibal feasts became a feature of the conflicts.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25Polynesia is well known for constant strife between families
0:24:25 > 0:24:27and clans and tribes and islands.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30And so it's actually quite miraculous as far as we can tell
0:24:30 > 0:24:32Easter Island was a model of peace for its first
0:24:32 > 0:24:35maybe 1,500 years, and it looks as if the different
0:24:35 > 0:24:38communities of the island must have helped each other
0:24:38 > 0:24:41in the building and moving of statues and platforms and so on.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45But then when crisis hits it's a very, very different picture
0:24:45 > 0:24:50and we have all kinds of different evidence for a flare up of violence.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52Quite vicious violence in some cases.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54We have the toppling of the statues,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57it's very clear to anyone who goes to the island and sees these things.
0:24:57 > 0:24:59They were toppled quite dramatically,
0:24:59 > 0:25:01tit for tat raids probably.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05Then you have the mass production suddenly of these, what are called
0:25:05 > 0:25:09"mata'a", these obsidian points which were probably used for all
0:25:09 > 0:25:12kinds of different things, for domestic use
0:25:12 > 0:25:14but certainly some were spearheads and dagger heads,
0:25:14 > 0:25:16and the oral traditions support this.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21There was warfare, there was strife that came about presumably through
0:25:21 > 0:25:23the deforestation, the loss of resources,
0:25:23 > 0:25:28possibly over-population, that we don't know.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31But it's just too much of a coincidence that all of these
0:25:31 > 0:25:34things suddenly appear in the record.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39These circumstantial coincidences may paint a gripping picture of
0:25:39 > 0:25:45civil war but in archaeology such bold claims require hard evidence.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48The Bishop Museum in Honolulu is the most important
0:25:48 > 0:25:52centre for the study of the history of Polynesia in the Pacific.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55It has a large collection of items from Rapa Nui,
0:25:55 > 0:25:58including several hundred of the mata'a,
0:25:58 > 0:26:01the obsidian artefacts found in abundance on the island.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06But although the archaeological record clearly contains
0:26:06 > 0:26:08potentially dangerous objects,
0:26:08 > 0:26:12new evidence suggests that they were not used for violent purposes.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16They've commonly been interpreted as spear points
0:26:16 > 0:26:19but as you can see, they don't, most of them don't really have a
0:26:19 > 0:26:23defined point like we think about in other areas of the world.
0:26:23 > 0:26:28And so what evidence has suggested is that these cutting edges
0:26:28 > 0:26:31were used to cut plant matter and wood.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34What archaeologists have found on the surface of them
0:26:34 > 0:26:36is sweet potato and taro.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39Which of course were the main stays of the agricultural economy
0:26:39 > 0:26:43and that is the economy that really supported the statue building
0:26:43 > 0:26:46industry and craft specialists in society.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48So, projectile points were seen as one strand of evidence
0:26:48 > 0:26:51leading to this idea of intercommunity warfare on Rapa Nui.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53Is there evidence for warfare on the island?
0:26:53 > 0:26:56Well, in terms of the skeletal evidence,
0:26:56 > 0:26:59erm, it's not unsurprising,
0:26:59 > 0:27:04we have about 2% of fatalities that bio-anthologists attributed
0:27:04 > 0:27:08to violence, in terms of the skeletal population, and so...
0:27:08 > 0:27:12so if you look at line of evidence that's not unnaturally high.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15Most Polynesian societies are competitive, of course,
0:27:15 > 0:27:18and Rapa Nui was probably no exception to that.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22Another common group of Rapa Nui artefacts,
0:27:22 > 0:27:26often misused to support the idea of a period of general starvation and
0:27:26 > 0:27:31environmental collapse, are these wooden figures known as "kavakava".
0:28:38 > 0:28:42But perhaps the most persuasive signs of a violent conflict
0:28:42 > 0:28:46are the shattered remains of many of the statues themselves.
0:28:47 > 0:28:52These Moai, lying toppled from their ceremonial platforms,
0:28:52 > 0:28:55are like the fallen monuments of any vanquished civilisation.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59In fact, until the 1960s, there were no Moai left standing on their
0:28:59 > 0:29:02Ahu platforms. They had all been toppled at some point.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05And it's easy to imagine that this is the result of some sort of
0:29:05 > 0:29:08intra-island warfare.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11But closer examination throws this into doubt.
0:29:11 > 0:29:15There's something revealing about the way these statues fell.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18They are lying face down in positions that suggest
0:29:18 > 0:29:20they were lowered with some care.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04Could the anger of whoever toppled these statues have been
0:30:04 > 0:30:07directed not at each other, but at the ancestors they represent?
0:30:07 > 0:30:10And, if that's the case, what could the ancestors have done
0:30:10 > 0:30:13to fail them so spectacularly?
0:30:13 > 0:30:16What happened to lead to this sudden loss of faith?
0:30:16 > 0:30:19Could it have be that after hundreds of years
0:30:19 > 0:30:22of splendid isolation, someone else showed up
0:30:22 > 0:30:24that changed their view of the cosmos?
0:30:38 > 0:30:41The Dutch explorer Admiral Jacob Roggeveen,
0:30:41 > 0:30:44sailing with a small flotilla of three ships
0:30:44 > 0:30:48in search of the riches of the fabled great southern continent,
0:30:48 > 0:30:54sighted land on the morning of Easter Day 1722.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57The following day, as they approached
0:30:57 > 0:31:00their newly-named discovery, Easter Island,
0:31:00 > 0:31:03they were disappointed by what they saw.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06This was plainly not Terra Australis Incognita,
0:31:06 > 0:31:10the "unknown land of the South" that Europeans fully expected to
0:31:10 > 0:31:12exist in the southern hemisphere.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17His commercial backers in Holland would not
0:31:17 > 0:31:19be making their fortunes with this discovery.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25They circumnavigated the shoreline, but the rough seas kept them
0:31:25 > 0:31:27at anchor for several days.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30Then, on Friday 10th April,
0:31:30 > 0:31:34Roggeveen ordered a party of 134 men
0:31:34 > 0:31:37to brave the surf and make a landing.
0:31:37 > 0:31:39As Friday mornings go,
0:31:39 > 0:31:42it was quite a significant one for the Rapa Nui.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45The Dutch spent several hours ashore,
0:31:45 > 0:31:49only marred when the islanders seemed to have enthusiastically
0:31:49 > 0:31:52mobbed the new arrivals, leading to muskets being fired
0:31:52 > 0:31:54and several Rapa Nui getting killed.
0:31:54 > 0:31:58Fortunately, peace was very quickly restored,
0:31:58 > 0:32:02and the Europeans began to inspect the village and its inhabitants.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06They were duly astonished by the statues,
0:32:06 > 0:32:10but otherwise only completed a cursory reconnoitre of the island,
0:32:10 > 0:32:13recording it in the Admiral's log, before leaving the next day.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17But the consequences of this brief visit were far-reaching.
0:32:18 > 0:32:22The island now had a name, a latitude and longitude.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25It would soon appear on maps in Europe,
0:32:25 > 0:32:29ultimately enabling others to follow in Roggeveen's wake,
0:32:29 > 0:32:34not least because of the tales of a coast lined with giant idols.
0:32:34 > 0:32:39But as the first European visitor to Rapa Nui, Roggeveen was also
0:32:39 > 0:32:42the first person to start asking questions.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45"At first, these stone figures
0:32:45 > 0:32:47"caused us to be filled with wonder,
0:32:47 > 0:32:50"for we could not understand how it was possible
0:32:50 > 0:32:53"that people who are destitute of heavy or thick timber,
0:32:53 > 0:32:57"and also of stout cordage, had been able to erect them."
0:32:57 > 0:33:01This visit gives us our first fixed historical pin
0:33:01 > 0:33:04on the timeline of the island's story.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07So what did Roggeveen tell us?
0:33:07 > 0:33:10For such a brief visit, quite a lot, actually.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12The Moai were still standing on their ahu,
0:33:12 > 0:33:15with no evidence of fallen figures.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18Deforestation had occurred, but it was by no means complete.
0:33:18 > 0:33:20But, perhaps most significantly,
0:33:20 > 0:33:23the people were happy and well nourished.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27There were abundant crops of yams, sweet potato, sugar cane.
0:33:27 > 0:33:29This doesn't seem like a society who's
0:33:29 > 0:33:33just undergone civil war, starvation and cannibalism.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39Roggeveen's visit to Rapa Nui coincided with
0:33:39 > 0:33:43the first publication of Robinson Crusoe
0:33:43 > 0:33:45and tales of cannibalism were
0:33:45 > 0:33:49part of the thrill of these voyages of exploration.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53But in the unlikely event that cannibalism ever happened here,
0:33:53 > 0:33:57I don't believe it was because, as the ecocide narrative argues,
0:33:57 > 0:34:00the people had run out of food.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03These legends persist, though, and tourists are still taken to
0:34:03 > 0:34:06supposed cannibal picnic spots today.
0:34:06 > 0:34:08What better place for your cannibal feast
0:34:08 > 0:34:11than inside this picturesque cave?
0:34:11 > 0:34:15It's one of the many underground caverns and ancient lava tubes
0:34:15 > 0:34:17that form in this volcanic rock.
0:34:17 > 0:34:19This one is called Ana Kai Tangata,
0:34:19 > 0:34:21which means "eat man cave",
0:34:21 > 0:34:23but I'm pretty sure that no-one's ever been eaten here.
0:34:25 > 0:34:27Well, there's really no evidence
0:34:27 > 0:34:29for cannibalism whatsoever.
0:34:29 > 0:34:31When we do see it in the archaeological record,
0:34:31 > 0:34:33it's fairly clear.
0:34:33 > 0:34:34You see butchered bones
0:34:34 > 0:34:36and you see people in soup pots and stuff.
0:34:36 > 0:34:38We don't find that on Easter Island.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42All of the evidence is basically tradition and lore about cannibalism
0:34:42 > 0:34:46and all of that lore seems to have come from the 19th century,
0:34:46 > 0:34:47when Europeans arrive.
0:34:47 > 0:34:49If we look into other cultures,
0:34:49 > 0:34:53cannibalism is very seldom
0:34:53 > 0:34:56based on the need of food.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59It has more a spiritual meaning.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02But the reason was, for sure, not lack of food.
0:35:04 > 0:35:06So it doesn't seem to have been
0:35:06 > 0:35:09the gruesome venue its name suggests,
0:35:09 > 0:35:11but there is evidence of human activity here.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15The roof of the cave is decorated with colourful rock art.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18Far from being the site of barbarous cannibalism,
0:35:18 > 0:35:20the walls of this cave once again show
0:35:20 > 0:35:23the sophistication of the Rapa Nui.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25Roggeveen tells us that the
0:35:25 > 0:35:28people showed every sign of friendship.
0:35:28 > 0:35:30He saw no weapons.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33Not only were the statues still standing,
0:35:33 > 0:35:37they were clearly still venerated, as the people were observed
0:35:37 > 0:35:40lighting fires in front of them and kneeling before them.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43There is nothing in his report that remotely suggests
0:35:43 > 0:35:47the culture of the Rapa Nui was in decline.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50Far from it - his observations suggest it was flourishing,
0:35:50 > 0:35:53with new cultural traditions emerging.
0:35:54 > 0:35:55These drawings depict
0:35:55 > 0:36:00the Birdman, a human figure with the head and beak of a bird.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05Similar images can be found all over the island.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09The Birdman ceremonies took place in the most dramatic spot
0:36:09 > 0:36:13on Rapa Nui, a dizzying 1,000 feet above the waves
0:36:13 > 0:36:15on the southern tip of the island.
0:36:16 > 0:36:21This is Orongo, precariously perched on the Rano Kau volcano.
0:36:21 > 0:36:26It's a whole ceremonial landscape centred around the Birdman.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31They had a competition, the Birdman competition,
0:36:31 > 0:36:35which was essentially a stuntman race which involved going out
0:36:35 > 0:36:38to the furthest islet, Motu Nui, and waiting there
0:36:38 > 0:36:42for the Sooty Terns to arrive and to lay their eggs.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44And then the one who could bring an intact egg back
0:36:44 > 0:36:48all the way to his sponsor at the top of the cliff would then
0:36:48 > 0:36:50turn his sponsor into the Birdman for the year.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54Birds were important in their eyes,
0:36:54 > 0:36:56because birds could come and go at will,
0:36:56 > 0:36:57unlike the islanders.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03These low stone buildings are claimed to have been
0:37:03 > 0:37:07the site of elaborate ceremonies that took place each spring.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10In the 1860s, Catholic missionaries witnessed
0:37:10 > 0:37:13the enactment of the final Birdman rituals,
0:37:13 > 0:37:18a practice they were largely instrumental in wiping out.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22The island is still a largely Catholic community today and
0:37:22 > 0:37:26at the harbour in Hanga Roa, Saint Peter stands triumphant
0:37:26 > 0:37:31on a pedestal decorated with the motif of the Birdman he superseded.
0:37:32 > 0:37:36We still don't know how the Rapa Nui developed these different
0:37:36 > 0:37:37strands of their culture.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41It has been suggested that the Birdman rituals grew in importance
0:37:41 > 0:37:44as the Moai were being abandoned, but whatever the connection,
0:37:44 > 0:37:50they both reinforce the sense of a people at one with their landscape.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53LIPO: Orango's fascinating because it is very different culturally.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57It's very possible that this idea of someone going and getting something
0:37:57 > 0:38:01that's rare shows up as a sort of response to European interaction.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04When Europeans arrive, they bring private goods with them,
0:38:04 > 0:38:09sort of foreign goods, and those goods become very sought after
0:38:09 > 0:38:13and you see this over and over and over again,
0:38:13 > 0:38:16that people for the first time in their lives could have something that
0:38:16 > 0:38:20no-one else could have and it was as simple as a hat or a piece of cloth.
0:38:21 > 0:38:25The art inspired by the Birdman rituals is everywhere up here.
0:38:25 > 0:38:29Over 1,300 separate low relief rock carvings,
0:38:29 > 0:38:31or petroglyphs, cover this site.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37This decorative rock art is a way of marking the skin of the earth,
0:38:37 > 0:38:41and the Rapa Nui marked their own bodies with tattoos in much
0:38:41 > 0:38:44the same way, bringing together the people, the ceremonial sites
0:38:44 > 0:38:47and the landscape within which they lived.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49TATTOO GUN WHIRRS
0:38:54 > 0:38:57That the Rapa Nui tattooed and painted their bodies was
0:38:57 > 0:39:01recorded by the earliest European visitors,
0:39:01 > 0:39:04and today you'd be hard-pressed to find a Rapa Nui person
0:39:04 > 0:39:06who doesn't have some form of tattoo.
0:39:06 > 0:39:08- Iorana.- Iorana.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12The most popular images are taken from the visual culture
0:39:12 > 0:39:14of the island's history.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18IN TRANSLATION FROM HIS OWN LANGUAGE:
0:40:12 > 0:40:15A real-life walking moai might sound absurd,
0:40:15 > 0:40:18but they do feature in Rapa Nui legend.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22And legends can sometimes point us towards facts,
0:40:22 > 0:40:25in this case, a plausible explanation
0:40:25 > 0:40:27of how the moai were moved.
0:40:27 > 0:40:31Two American archaeologists began to look again at the thorny issue
0:40:31 > 0:40:33of how the statues were moved
0:40:33 > 0:40:36when they noticed significant differences between the moai
0:40:36 > 0:40:39on the ahu, and the so-called "road moai" -
0:40:39 > 0:40:42the statues that appeared to have been abandoned
0:40:42 > 0:40:44whilst being moved across the island.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47Were these figures made in such a way that they could
0:40:47 > 0:40:49be moved standing upright?
0:40:50 > 0:40:53LIPO: The difference between the road statues
0:40:53 > 0:40:54and the island statues is night and day.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57When you look at just the road statues, you see that they're
0:40:57 > 0:41:01shaped in a way that doesn't allow them to stand up.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04They carefully constructed these statues and you have to
0:41:04 > 0:41:05get all the details right -
0:41:05 > 0:41:08the centre of gravity, the basal part,
0:41:08 > 0:41:12the angle of its form were all vital in terms of allowing it to move.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15It's that falling point that actually makes it
0:41:15 > 0:41:16possible for the statue to move.
0:41:16 > 0:41:20It puts it in a dynamic position, so that all you need to do is
0:41:20 > 0:41:23add the rocking part and it starts to walk.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26Heave-ho! Heave-ho!
0:41:26 > 0:41:28Using a scaled down statue
0:41:28 > 0:41:30based on the dimensions of a road moai,
0:41:30 > 0:41:35a small team of students were able to move it, standing upright,
0:41:35 > 0:41:37using only its own momentum and equilibrium.
0:41:39 > 0:41:41I love it! It really brings them alive.
0:41:41 > 0:41:42Yeah, I know, it does!
0:41:42 > 0:41:45I must have been an amazing sight to see these things.
0:41:45 > 0:41:46Especially the taller ones moving.
0:41:46 > 0:41:49Cos they become alive, they really are walking.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52And it makes sense - if you're going to move a gigantic thing,
0:41:52 > 0:41:55especially ones that are three times this height,
0:41:55 > 0:41:57you're going to be really good at it.
0:41:57 > 0:41:58Heave-ho!
0:41:58 > 0:42:03One intriguing idea is that the process may have changed over time.
0:42:03 > 0:42:05As trees became more scarce, the Rapa Nui
0:42:05 > 0:42:08may have adapted their techniques...
0:42:10 > 0:42:13..maybe even affecting the shape of the moai themselves.
0:42:16 > 0:42:20The Museums of Art and History in Brussels have one of the
0:42:20 > 0:42:24earliest statues, removed in 1934 by a Franco-Belgian expedition.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28LIPO: If you look at the earlier statues,
0:42:28 > 0:42:29you find a lot of variability.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32You find statues that have big wide heads,
0:42:32 > 0:42:35statues with round heads, kind of triangular shaped things,
0:42:35 > 0:42:37all kind of weird shapes.
0:42:37 > 0:42:39Many of those aren't suited for walking.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42The walking shape, this particular sort of bowling pin type shape,
0:42:42 > 0:42:45this wide base and narrowing at the top,
0:42:45 > 0:42:47you find the larger statues and the later statues
0:42:47 > 0:42:50all looking more and more like that shape, which probably
0:42:50 > 0:42:53relates to as they get bigger, that's the only way to move them.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56There's certain other resources they probably used
0:42:56 > 0:42:58when those were more abundant.
0:42:58 > 0:42:59You could imagine rails
0:42:59 > 0:43:01and something to help slide things along.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04But they came upon this walking idea
0:43:04 > 0:43:06along the way of moving them.
0:43:06 > 0:43:08They are amazing engineers,
0:43:08 > 0:43:11amazing talent for taking rock and doing things with it.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15So, the Rapa Nui may not have used many trees
0:43:15 > 0:43:17to move their moai at all.
0:43:17 > 0:43:20But even if they did, it is far from certain
0:43:20 > 0:43:23that this alone could have caused their downfall.
0:43:23 > 0:43:27- MIETH:- We have about 1,000 moai on the island.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30Maybe half of them were transported,
0:43:30 > 0:43:34perhaps with support of palm trunks.
0:43:34 > 0:43:36We can figure out
0:43:36 > 0:43:40maybe 1,000 trunks per moai,
0:43:40 > 0:43:44then we have in total about half a million of trunks
0:43:44 > 0:43:47used for transporting moai.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51But, on the other hand, we have 16 million palm trees
0:43:51 > 0:43:55calculated on the island when the first settlers came.
0:43:55 > 0:44:01Where have the other 15 half million palm trees gone?
0:44:01 > 0:44:03We don't know yet. We have ideas,
0:44:03 > 0:44:06but surely not only for transporting
0:44:06 > 0:44:09and constructing of ahu and moai.
0:44:09 > 0:44:12If the Rapa Nui were worried about running out of trees,
0:44:12 > 0:44:15they certainly didn't behave like it.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18Knowing what I do about the ingenuity of these people
0:44:18 > 0:44:20in other aspects of their lives,
0:44:20 > 0:44:22I find it so hard to believe
0:44:22 > 0:44:24that they couldn't see such an obvious problem,
0:44:24 > 0:44:29figuratively cutting off the branch that they were sitting on.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31The more we uncover about the island's past,
0:44:31 > 0:44:34the clearer it seems to me that it wasn't
0:44:34 > 0:44:38the moai that led the Rapa Nui to cut down their trees.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41And there's even less evidence that there was a civil war
0:44:41 > 0:44:43and a collapse of Rapa Nui society.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45In fact, the Birdman rituals
0:44:45 > 0:44:48suggest their cultural traditions were still evolving.
0:44:48 > 0:44:52But regardless, some deforestation did occur.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55So why did they do it, and did it lead to their downfall?
0:44:55 > 0:44:58What was it about their island
0:44:58 > 0:45:01that precipitated such a radical transformation?
0:45:01 > 0:45:03What makes Polynesia so fascinating
0:45:03 > 0:45:06is this tremendous environmental variation
0:45:06 > 0:45:08in the kinds of islands that we have.
0:45:08 > 0:45:09Big islands, small islands,
0:45:09 > 0:45:12islands that are in the temperate zone, islands in the tropics,
0:45:12 > 0:45:14coral, volcanic, and so on.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17So we have a kind of set of natural experiments,
0:45:17 > 0:45:21if you will, of the way in which the same culture the Polynesians adapted
0:45:21 > 0:45:25to and used resources on these very different kinds of islands.
0:45:27 > 0:45:32Rapa Nui is a volcanic island of a moderate size,
0:45:32 > 0:45:34but it's way down in the southeast of Polynesia,
0:45:34 > 0:45:37so it's really getting almost into the temperate.
0:45:37 > 0:45:39It's sub-tropical to temperate,
0:45:39 > 0:45:41so the climate had a lot of influence,
0:45:41 > 0:45:44and the geology is fairly old, so the soils
0:45:44 > 0:45:48have less nutrients than they would on very young volcanic islands.
0:45:48 > 0:45:52So you have to have other sources of nutrient input in order to
0:45:52 > 0:45:54sustain intensive agriculture.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58When the first king, Hotu Matu'a,
0:45:58 > 0:46:02arrived on his double-hulled canoe with his new island starter pack
0:46:02 > 0:46:05of crops and animals, he would have found an island
0:46:05 > 0:46:09largely covered by this kind of dense undergrowth.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12So you can easily see that his first task
0:46:12 > 0:46:15would have been to start clearing the forest.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18In this respect, the Rapa Nui would have been no different to
0:46:18 > 0:46:21most other new colonists the world over.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24Slash and burn clearance for agriculture
0:46:24 > 0:46:27is the most common cause of deforestation
0:46:27 > 0:46:32and it's still happening today in the world's rainforests.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35By felling and burning the trees,
0:46:35 > 0:46:38the Rapa Nui not only cleared more land to grow food,
0:46:38 > 0:46:42but enriched the soil with nutrients from the wood.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44Far from reducing the food supply,
0:46:44 > 0:46:47cutting down the trees would have greatly increased
0:46:47 > 0:46:50the island's productivity.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53The palm itself is extinct.
0:46:53 > 0:46:55It does not exist any more.
0:46:55 > 0:46:58But we found these carbonised traces here,
0:46:58 > 0:47:02coming from when the entire forest was slashed
0:47:02 > 0:47:05and remains had been burned.
0:47:05 > 0:47:10Charcoal was used for improving fertility of soils.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13We can date the charred wood
0:47:13 > 0:47:17to find out the chronology of deforestation.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20We took samples from all over the island
0:47:20 > 0:47:26and we found that deforestation started on the island about 1250
0:47:26 > 0:47:31and ended roughly about 1650.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35Deforestation involved high labour efforts.
0:47:35 > 0:47:40We calculated from the number of about 16 million palm trees
0:47:40 > 0:47:44that at least 400 people daily
0:47:44 > 0:47:50were involved in the slash and burn activities on the island.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04Cutting down and burning the trees may not have been unusual,
0:48:04 > 0:48:06however it seems to have gone
0:48:06 > 0:48:10far beyond what was necessary for agriculture.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14The various theories proposing statues, civil war or
0:48:14 > 0:48:17just mismanagement to account for this are still hotly disputed.
0:48:19 > 0:48:23Relative to its tiny size, Rapa Nui has probably been
0:48:23 > 0:48:25the subject of more conjecture
0:48:25 > 0:48:28and speculation than any other place on Earth
0:48:28 > 0:48:31and still manages to draw together regular conferences
0:48:31 > 0:48:36at which some of the world's leading scientists argue over its past.
0:48:36 > 0:48:38Ultimately, whether we prefer
0:48:38 > 0:48:40one or other of the theories,
0:48:40 > 0:48:42or elements of all of them,
0:48:42 > 0:48:46the fact is the island ecology had changed.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49The local palm tree had become extinct.
0:48:49 > 0:48:52This is the Poike Peninsula
0:48:52 > 0:48:55and it was the first area of the island to become deforested.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58The soil quickly degraded
0:48:58 > 0:49:00and it appears that the Rapa Nui
0:49:00 > 0:49:02then abandoned any attempt to grow things here.
0:49:05 > 0:49:08The hillsides are scarred with patches of bare ground
0:49:08 > 0:49:12without any vegetation, where storm waters
0:49:12 > 0:49:14and run-off have washed the soil into the sea.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19But though the Rapa Nui gave up the fight here,
0:49:19 > 0:49:22elsewhere on the island they fared rather better.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25In fact, they showed remarkable resilience
0:49:25 > 0:49:27and a technical ingenuity that was easily
0:49:27 > 0:49:30the equal of their statue building skills.
0:49:38 > 0:49:40Their goal was to maximise
0:49:40 > 0:49:43and stabilise agricultural production
0:49:43 > 0:49:45and they developed a method that allowed them to
0:49:45 > 0:49:48hang on to their topsoil and replenish its nutrients.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55The first Europeans to see this landscape would have had
0:49:55 > 0:49:59a very clear idea of what fertile farmland looked like.
0:49:59 > 0:50:02Back home, you cleared the land of stones and rocks
0:50:02 > 0:50:04for the plough to grow crops.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07These rock-strewn fields would have struck them
0:50:07 > 0:50:10as very poor land for cultivation.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12But they were wrong.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16These stones aren't the remnants of the weathered bedrock.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19Incredibly, they've all been brought here
0:50:19 > 0:50:21and distributed deliberately.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24And they have a dramatic effect on the land that they cover.
0:50:27 > 0:50:32The stone layer protected the soil from wind and water erosion.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35It improved the microclimate for the crops they planted,
0:50:35 > 0:50:38protected the soil from the drying effects of the sun
0:50:38 > 0:50:40and deterred weeds.
0:50:40 > 0:50:46300 years later, these stones continue to preserve fertile,
0:50:46 > 0:50:49cultivable soils on the land they cover.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52This was an ingenious solution to the effect
0:50:52 > 0:50:54deforestation had on the soil.
0:50:54 > 0:50:57It's a process known as lithic mulching.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01Lithic mulching or stone mulching
0:51:01 > 0:51:04is a very special technique,
0:51:04 > 0:51:07which was invented on Easter Island.
0:51:07 > 0:51:11In its kind, unique in the whole world.
0:51:11 > 0:51:16The stones now functioned as a protection layer.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20They compensated the loss of the palm trees,
0:51:20 > 0:51:24which before protected the soils against harsh weather conditions.
0:51:24 > 0:51:28Now the stones took over this function.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34In much the same way that the Rapa Nui were able to organise
0:51:34 > 0:51:37themselves to manufacture the statues
0:51:37 > 0:51:39and clear the land for farming,
0:51:39 > 0:51:42so to they worked together on the huge task
0:51:42 > 0:51:46of covering nearly half the island with lithic mulch.
0:51:46 > 0:51:48These people were no shirkers.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53We figured out - by calculations
0:51:53 > 0:51:58of the number and size and weight of stones -
0:51:58 > 0:52:03that over about 400 years daily,
0:52:03 > 0:52:08at least 100 to 150 strong men must have been
0:52:08 > 0:52:10involved in this technique.
0:52:12 > 0:52:14I can see from this that it's entirely possible
0:52:14 > 0:52:18the Rapa Nui wanted to clear some of their island of trees,
0:52:18 > 0:52:21not to move the statues, but because they wanted to eat.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28Lithic mulching was not the only sustainable technique
0:52:28 > 0:52:30they developed to increase their productivity.
0:52:30 > 0:52:32The French botanist Jacques Barrau
0:52:32 > 0:52:37made a distinction between farmers and gardeners.
0:52:37 > 0:52:39A farmer grows a multitude of identical
0:52:39 > 0:52:42anonymous plants together in a field,
0:52:42 > 0:52:44but a gardener cherishes
0:52:44 > 0:52:46each plant individually.
0:52:46 > 0:52:51I like to think the Rapa Nui would fall into the second category.
0:52:51 > 0:52:54Another of their solutions to increase their food supply
0:52:54 > 0:52:58were little-protected gardens they called manavai.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02A small low wall enclosing a circular space
0:53:02 > 0:53:05a few metres across protected a mix of crops,
0:53:05 > 0:53:09retaining moisture and providing shelter from the salt wind.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11There are thousands of these manavai,
0:53:11 > 0:53:14"protected gardens", all over Rapa Nui
0:53:14 > 0:53:18and they show that personal solution to the food supply.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21And there were other innovations in this landscape too.
0:53:27 > 0:53:32A hidden resource, unseen from the surface, are caverns formed by
0:53:32 > 0:53:37the collapsed roofs of the island's network of volcanic lava tubes.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43Sonia Haoa is a Rapa Nui archaeologist who has spent years
0:53:43 > 0:53:48surveying the island to document all its prehistoric sites.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51Without extensive tree cover,
0:53:51 > 0:53:54many of the crops that need shade to survive
0:53:54 > 0:53:56were grown in these caverns.
0:53:56 > 0:53:58So this has all been planted, then?
0:53:58 > 0:54:02- These are all banana. It's a type of banana.- Yeah?- Yeah.
0:54:02 > 0:54:04They seem to be growing very well down here.
0:54:04 > 0:54:05They're protected from the wind.
0:54:05 > 0:54:07Yeah, yeah. They have protection,
0:54:07 > 0:54:10but also the nutrition of the rocks
0:54:10 > 0:54:12and they create like a...
0:54:12 > 0:54:14- how you say?- Microclimate?
0:54:14 > 0:54:16Microclimate inside.
0:54:16 > 0:54:19And it's not only good for banana,
0:54:19 > 0:54:22but you can put taro, ohe, tea, sugar cane.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25And how extensive are these caves?
0:54:25 > 0:54:29You can have 3km or 4km of caves
0:54:29 > 0:54:32and inside there, of course,
0:54:32 > 0:54:36is divide for different reasons.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40These caves are the inner landscape of Rapa Nui.
0:54:40 > 0:54:44They stretch under as much as 30% of the land surface.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48Accounts from Europeans who visited the island in
0:54:48 > 0:54:52the late 18th century often mention how few women they saw.
0:54:52 > 0:54:54Possibly that may have been
0:54:54 > 0:54:58because they were hidden in these caves for protection.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01But the most important role these caverns played in
0:55:01 > 0:55:03the wellbeing of the islanders
0:55:03 > 0:55:06was to offer them more variety in their diet.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10At the end, you can understand
0:55:10 > 0:55:14the relation of human with the rocks was very important
0:55:14 > 0:55:19and they are a way of surviving.
0:55:19 > 0:55:21Using and using and using the rocks.
0:55:21 > 0:55:25When you are isolated, you need to create.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29Yeah? Because you have to survive.
0:55:29 > 0:55:33These people, they have to think like a rock.
0:55:33 > 0:55:35Yeah? They have to live with the rock.
0:55:40 > 0:55:42The sweet potatoes, yams and taro
0:55:42 > 0:55:46supplied the carbohydrates the Rapa Nui needed
0:55:46 > 0:55:49to support their labour-intensive agricultural practices.
0:55:50 > 0:55:54They seem to have had plenty of protein too.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57In addition to the chickens that the first settlers brought with them,
0:55:57 > 0:56:00they supplemented their diet with sea birds.
0:56:00 > 0:56:04The island had one of the largest bird colonies in the Pacific,
0:56:04 > 0:56:07though later overhunting would force the birds
0:56:07 > 0:56:09to retreat to the offshore islets.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13There was one other resource that
0:56:13 > 0:56:15the Rapa Nui could rely on - the sea.
0:56:15 > 0:56:18They could always fish the waters around the island.
0:56:18 > 0:56:21But even here the particular characteristics
0:56:21 > 0:56:23of Rapa Nui didn't make it easy for them.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30Launching a boat is difficult on this rocky volcanic coast.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33Storms are frequent and the shore slopes dramatically
0:56:33 > 0:56:38into the ocean, without any reef to provide protection from the surf.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41ENGINE RUMBLES
0:56:41 > 0:56:44Nonetheless, fishing has always been
0:56:44 > 0:56:48a part of the Rapa Nui way of life and still is today.
0:56:49 > 0:56:53The wind, which is so noticeable on land, is just as significant
0:56:53 > 0:56:56out at sea, where the waters are almost always choppy.
0:56:59 > 0:57:01Carlos is a spear fisherman
0:57:01 > 0:57:04and we're going to see just what the ocean has to offer.
0:57:19 > 0:57:22Don't be deceived by the wetsuit and snorkel -
0:57:22 > 0:57:25Carlos' only breathing apparatus are his lungs.
0:57:28 > 0:57:31Once beneath the waves, it soon becomes clear just what
0:57:31 > 0:57:33a rich resource this would have been.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38One benefit of the deep water and the rocky shore is that
0:57:38 > 0:57:43the ocean is very clear and spotting your prey is a simple matter.
0:57:57 > 0:58:01Taking into account their various ingenious agricultural practices
0:58:01 > 0:58:04and considering they were surrounded by an ocean full of fish,
0:58:04 > 0:58:07I'm pretty confident that the Rapa Nui
0:58:07 > 0:58:10always had plenty to eat.
0:58:10 > 0:58:11Through their innovations
0:58:11 > 0:58:14and their careful cultivation of their landscape,
0:58:14 > 0:58:17they had developed a sustainable way to live
0:58:17 > 0:58:20in one of the most difficult places on Earth.
0:58:25 > 0:58:29This security allowed them to develop a society in which
0:58:29 > 0:58:31cultural expression could flourish.
0:58:31 > 0:58:33Even today, we are still uncovering
0:58:33 > 0:58:38previously unrecorded aspects of the cultural life of this island.
0:58:40 > 0:58:44There are no permanent watercourses on Rapa Nui, but on the slopes of
0:58:44 > 0:58:49Mount Terevaka, the highest point on the island, there is an ancient
0:58:49 > 0:58:52gully that takes run-off down the hillside after heavy rainfall.
0:58:52 > 0:58:54In the last few years,
0:58:54 > 0:58:58excavations by a team from the German Archaeological Institute
0:58:58 > 0:59:02have uncovered a very elaborate complex of dams
0:59:02 > 0:59:06and stone pavements, which have been hidden under the turf for centuries.
0:59:06 > 0:59:09You can really see the different kind of material
0:59:09 > 0:59:11and how the different layers have formed.
0:59:11 > 0:59:14The whole area was all covered with pavement.
0:59:14 > 0:59:19A very elaborate pavement with some very interesting structures.
0:59:19 > 0:59:22Inside, we have three parallel water channels.
0:59:22 > 0:59:25The amount of water that came down this creek
0:59:25 > 0:59:27has always been very, very little.
0:59:27 > 0:59:30It cannot be imagined like a real river or anything in that sense.
0:59:30 > 0:59:34We think that the water could have been channelled as another
0:59:34 > 0:59:37aspect of transforming the landscape.
0:59:37 > 0:59:40- MIETH:- We don't know for what purpose
0:59:40 > 0:59:43these huge constructions were built.
0:59:43 > 0:59:46Perhaps for a very special type of water cult.
0:59:46 > 0:59:51But the dam-like structures were not for retaining water behind the dam,
0:59:51 > 0:59:56because the stone structure is very loose and lets the water through.
0:59:56 > 0:59:59Perhaps this was a culture
0:59:59 > 1:00:03connected to the loss of palm forests on the island,
1:00:03 > 1:00:08connected to the importance of water after deforestation.
1:00:08 > 1:00:14Overlooking this valley, a small ahu with its fallen moai
1:00:14 > 1:00:17alludes to the ritual significance of this site.
1:00:17 > 1:00:20We found inside the pavement planting pits for palm trees,
1:00:20 > 1:00:23which is a really spectacular find,
1:00:23 > 1:00:26in that sense that we always hear about
1:00:26 > 1:00:29the Rapa Nui having cut down the palm tree vegetation,
1:00:29 > 1:00:33but now we also have evidence that they planted them.
1:00:33 > 1:00:37That they, in a way, cherished them to have them
1:00:37 > 1:00:40as part of a transformed landscape.
1:00:40 > 1:00:42How far do you think these pavements spread?
1:00:42 > 1:00:46Well, we have pavements all over.
1:00:46 > 1:00:47We have them up on the slopes.
1:00:47 > 1:00:51And even going up the ravine, you have paved areas,
1:00:51 > 1:00:55also hydraulically active structures.
1:00:55 > 1:01:00Further up the slope, this stone-lined basin was uncovered -
1:01:00 > 1:01:03more evidence that water was at the heart of this complex.
1:01:05 > 1:01:09This impression shows how the site might have appeared in the past.
1:01:09 > 1:01:13I believe this evidence of carefully engineered water features
1:01:13 > 1:01:17and plantations of Easter Island palms fundamentally alters
1:01:17 > 1:01:21our ideas about the Rapa Nui's stewardship of their island.
1:01:21 > 1:01:23These new discoveries show that
1:01:23 > 1:01:27quite late on in the life of their society, the Rapa Nui
1:01:27 > 1:01:29were not just cutting palm trees down,
1:01:29 > 1:01:31they were planting them.
1:01:31 > 1:01:34The picture I get of life here in 1722
1:01:34 > 1:01:37when first European contact is made,
1:01:37 > 1:01:40is of a people who, above all else, were able to
1:01:40 > 1:01:44live with the challenges of a limited and isolated environment.
1:01:44 > 1:01:47A people who understood their own island,
1:01:47 > 1:01:50its advantages and disadvantages.
1:01:50 > 1:01:53Above all, I think there's every reason to believe
1:01:53 > 1:01:55that they were thriving.
1:01:55 > 1:01:58They could feed a large population and support a rich,
1:01:58 > 1:02:01diverse and creative culture into the bargain.
1:02:01 > 1:02:03Statue building may even have been in full swing.
1:02:05 > 1:02:08The idea that ecocide had brought this society to its knees
1:02:08 > 1:02:12just doesn't fit with the available evidence.
1:02:12 > 1:02:15But, as we know, this culture was destroyed,
1:02:15 > 1:02:17and its story lost to us,
1:02:17 > 1:02:20so what is the alternative explanation?
1:02:21 > 1:02:24The spotlight that Jacob Roggeveen
1:02:24 > 1:02:26shone upon their lives was all too fleeting.
1:02:26 > 1:02:29When he sailed off across the horizon,
1:02:29 > 1:02:32it would be another 50 years before the next visitors.
1:02:32 > 1:02:35And as European contact became more and more frequent,
1:02:35 > 1:02:38life was going to get tough for the Rapa Nui.
1:02:45 > 1:02:50In 1770, three Spanish ships visited for a few days,
1:02:50 > 1:02:53followed in 1774 by Captain Cook,
1:02:53 > 1:02:56both looking for the same mythical southern continent
1:02:56 > 1:02:58that Roggeveen sought.
1:03:02 > 1:03:05But in the 50 years since the Dutch visited,
1:03:05 > 1:03:08it seems something dramatic had happened to the Rapa Nui.
1:03:08 > 1:03:11"Nature has been exceedingly sparing
1:03:11 > 1:03:13"of her favours to this spot," said Cook,
1:03:13 > 1:03:16and one of his officers described the people as
1:03:16 > 1:03:20"destitute of tools, of shelter, of clothing""
1:03:20 > 1:03:22And he couldn't work out how
1:03:22 > 1:03:25"the natives had been degraded to their present indigence".
1:03:28 > 1:03:32He also notes that several of the statues had been thrown down.
1:03:34 > 1:03:36When the Europeans arrived here,
1:03:36 > 1:03:41the only contact that the Rapa Nui had with the outside world
1:03:41 > 1:03:44beyond the horizon was the occasional arrival
1:03:44 > 1:03:47of sea birds and maybe driftwood.
1:03:48 > 1:03:52At least for several centuries, the island was devoid of big trees,
1:03:52 > 1:03:55so it was impossible to make a sea-worthy canoe.
1:03:55 > 1:03:58So when the Dutch arrived,
1:03:58 > 1:04:02it would be like aliens coming to planet Earth.
1:04:02 > 1:04:06It was the same kind of impact for this tiny environment.
1:04:06 > 1:04:10For them, for centuries, the universe was a small island.
1:04:10 > 1:04:11That was it.
1:04:11 > 1:04:13When the Dutch came, everything changed.
1:04:13 > 1:04:19And, mostly likely, these Dutch people brought some disease -
1:04:19 > 1:04:22flu, whatever, a cold,
1:04:22 > 1:04:25a virus against which the immune system
1:04:25 > 1:04:30of the local population had no defences.
1:04:30 > 1:04:33So probably this disease decimated
1:04:33 > 1:04:35a big part of the population at that time.
1:04:39 > 1:04:42I believe that the visit of Jacob Roggeveen was
1:04:42 > 1:04:46the trigger for a paradigm shift in the Rapa Nui universe.
1:04:48 > 1:04:49We'll never know for sure,
1:04:49 > 1:04:54but it seems to me that he unwittingly left behind diseases
1:04:54 > 1:04:58that destroyed the basis of their society, and undermined the faith in
1:04:58 > 1:05:02their stone gods - the ancestors who they believed would protect them.
1:05:04 > 1:05:09When Captain Cook arrived 50 years later, the seeds of this demise
1:05:09 > 1:05:15were already evident - there were signs of disease and malnourishment,
1:05:15 > 1:05:19and they were beginning the painful process of dismantling the ahu.
1:05:19 > 1:05:23Many of the statues, their most extraordinary achievement,
1:05:23 > 1:05:26were already lying in the dust,
1:05:26 > 1:05:30their faces hidden from the misery their descendants were suffering.
1:05:31 > 1:05:35We think that some of the population declines may have been as much as
1:05:35 > 1:05:4090% on Polynesian islands within a few decades after European contact.
1:05:40 > 1:05:44That had implications in terms of the collapse of social
1:05:44 > 1:05:47organisation - in many cases you just can't sustain
1:05:47 > 1:05:52all of the elaborate hierarchy and specialised roles of priests
1:05:52 > 1:05:56and craftsmen and all this when your society's declining by 90%.
1:06:06 > 1:06:10In the first half of the 19th century, a steady flow of ships
1:06:10 > 1:06:13visited the island, whalers and merchantmen crossing
1:06:13 > 1:06:17the Pacific, and others that would have a more devastating impact.
1:06:19 > 1:06:24In 1805, for the first time, an American ship came here
1:06:24 > 1:06:26because they needed workers,
1:06:26 > 1:06:29and they kidnapped a handful of Rapa Nui.
1:06:29 > 1:06:34And from then on, every foreign ship that approached
1:06:34 > 1:06:38the Easter Island shore was rejected by the natives, people started
1:06:38 > 1:06:44throwing stones against them, made all kinds of menacing gestures.
1:06:44 > 1:06:47Sticks and stones were not sufficient to protect
1:06:47 > 1:06:50the islanders from the visits of these ships,
1:06:50 > 1:06:54and as the century wore on, things got considerably worse.
1:06:54 > 1:06:58During this period, the Polynesian islands were all subject to raids
1:06:58 > 1:07:02known as "blackbirding", essentially the conscription of indentured
1:07:02 > 1:07:06labour to work in the South American mines and plantations.
1:07:06 > 1:07:09But, not surprisingly, they could rarely fill their ships
1:07:09 > 1:07:12with volunteers so they resorted to kidnap,
1:07:12 > 1:07:14taking the islanders by force.
1:07:15 > 1:07:20The worst period for sure was the period between 1862 and 1863.
1:07:20 > 1:07:25Big expeditions with all kinds of weapons came to the island
1:07:25 > 1:07:31and they were able to kidnap, in ten months, more than 1,400 Rapa Nui -
1:07:31 > 1:07:36the cultural or intellectual elite, people who knew how to write
1:07:36 > 1:07:38and read the ancient script.
1:07:38 > 1:07:42So it was catastrophic,
1:07:42 > 1:07:45it was a terrible thing, and the ones
1:07:45 > 1:07:49who arrived to Peru, most of them died very quickly because of
1:07:49 > 1:07:53the diseases that existed there, especially measles and tuberculosis.
1:07:56 > 1:07:58After international protests,
1:07:58 > 1:08:00including a campaign by the Bishop of Tahiti,
1:08:00 > 1:08:04the Rapa Nui were rounded up to be repatriated,
1:08:04 > 1:08:08but of those that had been taken, barely a dozen returned,
1:08:08 > 1:08:09infected with smallpox.
1:08:12 > 1:08:17Most people would say that the Easter Island culture
1:08:17 > 1:08:19died there at that time.
1:08:19 > 1:08:22Not only because of the death of
1:08:22 > 1:08:26so many people, also because of the completely demoralised
1:08:26 > 1:08:29state of the survivors,
1:08:29 > 1:08:32and because the French Catholic missionaries,
1:08:32 > 1:08:34who arrived shortly after the slave trade,
1:08:34 > 1:08:38started converting the population to the Catholic religion.
1:08:38 > 1:08:42So these two things working in parallel
1:08:42 > 1:08:47killed most of the cultural aspects of Easter Island.
1:08:48 > 1:08:51But this was not the end of the Rapa Nui's woes.
1:08:53 > 1:08:57You might think, having suffered almost complete annihilation,
1:08:57 > 1:09:00things couldn't get much worse for these people, but their
1:09:00 > 1:09:04homeland was about to suffer one final act of change.
1:09:09 > 1:09:13In the late 1860s, a French adventurer called
1:09:13 > 1:09:17Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier began buying land on Rapa Nui
1:09:17 > 1:09:21from the islanders for insultingly small sums,
1:09:21 > 1:09:22and often at gunpoint.
1:09:24 > 1:09:30He used his newly-acquired property to graze 435 head of merino sheep,
1:09:30 > 1:09:32imported from Australia.
1:09:33 > 1:09:35They would eventually number 70,000.
1:09:38 > 1:09:42After a short period of despotic rule, Dutrou-Bornier was
1:09:42 > 1:09:44murdered by the islanders,
1:09:44 > 1:09:48but his sheep were bought by the Scottish firm of Williamson-Balfour
1:09:48 > 1:09:52and they remained the sole permitted agricultural land use.
1:09:52 > 1:09:57The remaining Rapa Nui were rounded up and confined in Hanga Roa
1:09:57 > 1:10:00while the livestock roamed free, completely destroying
1:10:00 > 1:10:05the environment, leaving behind the barren steppe we see today.
1:10:05 > 1:10:08The island was all but deserted, a place of ghosts.
1:10:08 > 1:10:11In 1877, a French survey ship
1:10:11 > 1:10:14recorded only 111 persons living here.
1:10:16 > 1:10:19Only 36 of these people had offspring,
1:10:19 > 1:10:23and all of the Rapa Nui people today are descended from them.
1:10:25 > 1:10:29Just 150 years after the first European sailed
1:10:29 > 1:10:34over their horizon, the Rapa Nui had very nearly been wiped from history.
1:10:38 > 1:10:41Whatever the future holds, I feel strongly that
1:10:41 > 1:10:44by looking back at their past, we can clear
1:10:44 > 1:10:48the Rapa Nui of the accusation of ecocide. There is no evidence
1:10:48 > 1:10:52that they wilfully destroyed their environment, quite the reverse.
1:10:52 > 1:10:56The landscape that they cherished and which worked so well for them
1:10:56 > 1:11:01was destroyed by the imposition of an inappropriate monoculture
1:11:01 > 1:11:05in the most heartless way by the supposedly civilised Europeans.
1:11:08 > 1:11:11In 1888, in a treaty they neither understood,
1:11:11 > 1:11:14nor had any choice in assenting to,
1:11:14 > 1:11:16the island was finally annexed by Chile.
1:11:18 > 1:11:20It seemed as if one of the most remarkable
1:11:20 > 1:11:21civilisations in the world
1:11:21 > 1:11:25had come to an end, but it wasn't ecocide - it was genocide.
1:11:26 > 1:11:28The sheep had the place to themselves.
1:11:30 > 1:11:34But even at this darkest hour, there were still memories
1:11:34 > 1:11:37to be salvaged from the handful of people who could recall a period
1:11:37 > 1:11:41when the island's culture still had a pulse.
1:11:41 > 1:11:45Salvation was at hand, in the most unlikely of guises.
1:11:58 > 1:12:02On a warm August afternoon in 1910, a middle-aged couple,
1:12:02 > 1:12:05Katherine and William Routledge, visited the British Museum
1:12:05 > 1:12:10in London to admire the statue known as Hoa Hakananai'a.
1:12:10 > 1:12:14This figure was given to the crew of HMS Topaze by the Rapa Nui
1:12:14 > 1:12:20in 1868, and subsequently donated by Queen Victoria to the museum.
1:12:20 > 1:12:24As a result, it is the single most viewed moai in the world,
1:12:24 > 1:12:27visited by more people than any of its companions on Rapa Nui.
1:12:28 > 1:12:33Katherine was a wealthy woman with a fascination for archaeology,
1:12:33 > 1:12:35formidably well-educated for the time,
1:12:35 > 1:12:38and William was keen to persuade her that Easter Island would provide
1:12:38 > 1:12:43them with an opportunity to make their names in intellectual circles.
1:12:43 > 1:12:47This visit was to have immense consequences for the little island
1:12:47 > 1:12:51on the other side of the world. Katherine Routledge
1:12:51 > 1:12:54would write a book that would make Easter Island internationally
1:12:54 > 1:12:58famous, helping to establish it as one of the world's great mysteries.
1:13:00 > 1:13:03Katherine and William commissioned an ocean-going schooner
1:13:03 > 1:13:06and set sail for the South Pacific,
1:13:06 > 1:13:11arriving on the island 13 months later on 29th March 1914.
1:13:13 > 1:13:18For nearly 200 years, every European who had visited Easter Island
1:13:18 > 1:13:22had gazed in awe at the moai and wondered about their history.
1:13:22 > 1:13:25Katherine Routledge was the first person to come equipped with
1:13:25 > 1:13:28the tools to make a modern archaeological survey,
1:13:28 > 1:13:30and start to seek some answers.
1:13:30 > 1:13:34She was the right woman, in the right place, at the right time,
1:13:34 > 1:13:36and she was interested in the archaeology but she was
1:13:36 > 1:13:40equally interested in the people and their language and in their history.
1:13:40 > 1:13:46I think her contribution is the intuitive way she approached
1:13:46 > 1:13:49collecting ethno-historical data on Easter Island.
1:13:50 > 1:13:53- PAKARATI:- I think her presence on Easter Islands
1:13:53 > 1:13:55was so positive for many reasons.
1:13:55 > 1:13:58Katherine Routledge preserved all this knowledge
1:13:58 > 1:14:00for the next generations.
1:14:00 > 1:14:03All these elders that she managed to interview, who were born
1:14:03 > 1:14:08long before the Peruvian slave trade, long before the arrival
1:14:08 > 1:14:11of the Catholic missionaries,
1:14:11 > 1:14:13they could give her
1:14:13 > 1:14:15information about the lifestyle
1:14:15 > 1:14:18in those days, pre-Christian times.
1:14:19 > 1:14:22Her translator, Juan Tepano, my great-great-grandfather,
1:14:22 > 1:14:27realised that the elders had something interesting to tell.
1:14:27 > 1:14:32Lots of people realised only after Katherine Routledge's visit that
1:14:32 > 1:14:37people abroad, people in other parts of the world found Easter Island
1:14:37 > 1:14:42culture and the achievements of the Rapa Nui as something interesting.
1:14:44 > 1:14:47The most extensive dig Routledge was able to conduct
1:14:47 > 1:14:51was inside the crater at the quarry in the Rano Raraku volcano.
1:14:52 > 1:14:55She called these two statues Mama and Papa.
1:14:56 > 1:14:59Despite being a self-financing amateur,
1:14:59 > 1:15:02Katherine Routledge ultimately put Easter Island on the map,
1:15:02 > 1:15:06publishing a book about her time here under the inevitable title
1:15:06 > 1:15:09The Mystery Of Easter Island.
1:15:09 > 1:15:12Though her archaeology was helpful in the early understanding of
1:15:12 > 1:15:17the island, it was the information she recorded by talking to
1:15:17 > 1:15:22the Rapa Nui people that constitutes her most valuable legacy.
1:15:22 > 1:15:24She was obviously an empathetic listener,
1:15:24 > 1:15:27and became quite involved in the day-to-day concerns
1:15:27 > 1:15:31of the villagers imprisoned in Hanga Roa, unable to visit
1:15:31 > 1:15:35their own ancestral lands which they could see beyond the pale.
1:15:36 > 1:15:38In the summer of 1914,
1:15:38 > 1:15:41during the first months of her stay on the island, there was
1:15:41 > 1:15:46a native uprising led by a charismatic woman known as Angata.
1:15:47 > 1:15:55Angata's rebellion in 1914 had a very strong religious aura.
1:15:55 > 1:15:57Everything was done in the name of God -
1:15:57 > 1:16:00of the Christian god. But this Christian god
1:16:00 > 1:16:06had lots of Rapa Nui traits. I mean, he wanted sacrifices of sheep.
1:16:06 > 1:16:10When she gave the order, "Bring 100 sheep from the company
1:16:10 > 1:16:13"and kill them in the name of God," and they made all kinds of big
1:16:13 > 1:16:17feasts just like in the time of the Birdman competition.
1:16:17 > 1:16:20So lots of people thought she was like a priestess
1:16:20 > 1:16:22or she was a prophet.
1:16:22 > 1:16:27The uprising was diffused partly by the calm, level-headed
1:16:27 > 1:16:30negotiations between Katherine and Angata,
1:16:30 > 1:16:34but ultimately by the arrival of a Chilean warship.
1:16:34 > 1:16:37The sense of injustice remains, though.
1:16:37 > 1:16:40The theft of their land, and their barbaric treatment by successive
1:16:40 > 1:16:45groups of outsiders, have left a legacy that simmers to this day.
1:16:46 > 1:16:51In 2009, the airport was closed for two days by a pro-independence
1:16:51 > 1:16:55sit-in, and other protests have resulted in violent clashes
1:16:55 > 1:16:57with the island's largely Chilean police force.
1:17:01 > 1:17:04Working out how a post-independence island would function
1:17:04 > 1:17:06is a challenge.
1:17:06 > 1:17:09Devising some fair way to redistribute the land amongst
1:17:09 > 1:17:14the Rapa Nui families has been a hot topic in this parliament chamber.
1:17:14 > 1:17:16IN TRANSLATION FROM HIS OWN LANGUAGE:
1:17:46 > 1:17:50This map, that delineates these territories supposedly drawn up
1:17:50 > 1:17:54by Hoto Matu'a a thousand years ago, is in reality
1:17:54 > 1:17:58based on one drawn by Katherine Routledge only a century ago.
1:19:12 > 1:19:15In many ways, Rapa Nui has recovered.
1:19:15 > 1:19:19Its population is approaching 5,000, just over half
1:19:19 > 1:19:22of whom can trace their ancestry back to the original families.
1:19:25 > 1:19:28The statues have given it a source of income,
1:19:28 > 1:19:31but tourism is both a blessing and a curse.
1:19:34 > 1:19:36A programme to re-erect some of the statues
1:19:36 > 1:19:40and restore their ahu was begun in 1960.
1:19:42 > 1:19:46A member of the Heyerdahl expedition, William Mulloy, stayed
1:19:46 > 1:19:52behind on the island and became the driving force behind this process.
1:19:52 > 1:19:55Using Rapa Nui ingenuity and muscle
1:19:55 > 1:19:59and employing only modest lengths of timber and rope, they showed
1:19:59 > 1:20:02once more how effective these simple techniques were, allowing
1:20:02 > 1:20:06a small group of men to erect the figures with relative ease.
1:20:09 > 1:20:13This undoubtedly makes them more impressive to visitors,
1:20:13 > 1:20:17but what the 18th-century Rapa Nui would have thought of this process,
1:20:17 > 1:20:20having spent so long lowering them to the ground, we'll never know.
1:20:23 > 1:20:26The construction of the airport in the 1960s completed
1:20:26 > 1:20:30the infrastructure under which the island operates today,
1:20:30 > 1:20:33accessible to tourists, but dependent on the global economy.
1:20:37 > 1:20:40The extraordinary isolation of this island,
1:20:40 > 1:20:43which was such a significant factor in its history, is no more,
1:20:43 > 1:20:47and the environment is changing with increasing speed.
1:20:48 > 1:20:52Even those running the island during its time as a sheep ranch
1:20:52 > 1:20:56recognised that deforestation was a problem, but their well-intentioned
1:20:56 > 1:21:01attempts to introduce non-native trees have often made matters worse.
1:21:02 > 1:21:05These eucalyptus groves were planted in the 1870s,
1:21:05 > 1:21:09but though they provide some shelter from wind erosion, they draw
1:21:09 > 1:21:12large amounts of moisture from the soil,
1:21:12 > 1:21:14and their bark and leaves create
1:21:14 > 1:21:16a highly acidic layer of litter
1:21:16 > 1:21:19in which no other plants can grow.
1:21:20 > 1:21:23The most shocking evidence of erosion damage
1:21:23 > 1:21:27is on the northern slopes of the Poike Peninsula, where the run-off
1:21:27 > 1:21:31from the frequent storms washes the red volcanic soil into the ocean.
1:21:33 > 1:21:36This soil is not a renewable resource,
1:21:36 > 1:21:39and once it has gone, it cannot easily be replaced.
1:21:42 > 1:21:44IN TRANSLATION FROM HER OWN LANGUAGE:
1:22:56 > 1:23:01So what are the lessons we can learn from this extraordinary tale?
1:23:01 > 1:23:04Is it really helpful to saddle this island with our own fears
1:23:04 > 1:23:07for the future of the planet?
1:23:07 > 1:23:13Well, maybe - but only if you stop the clock on Good Friday, 1722.
1:23:13 > 1:23:16Had they been left to develop by themselves -
1:23:16 > 1:23:18with no contact to the outside world,
1:23:18 > 1:23:20no foreign diseases,
1:23:20 > 1:23:23no slave raids, no missionaries and no sheep -
1:23:23 > 1:23:24passing their wisdom
1:23:24 > 1:23:29down the generations through an oral tradition and growing fat
1:23:29 > 1:23:32on the produce of their innovative farming techniques,
1:23:32 > 1:23:35then they might make a good stand-in for the Earth,
1:23:35 > 1:23:38because so far, no-one else has contacted this planet,
1:23:38 > 1:23:41and we too are isolated in the cosmos.
1:23:42 > 1:23:44As we know, that's not what happened.
1:23:46 > 1:23:48But there seems one respect in which the island
1:23:48 > 1:23:53has a lesson for us, even if the Rapa Nui themselves coped with
1:23:53 > 1:23:55it in the most ingenious of ways.
1:23:56 > 1:23:59The island has now lost its trees.
1:23:59 > 1:24:01Its ecology has changed.
1:24:01 > 1:24:05It has now moved beyond the tipping point
1:24:05 > 1:24:07where it can no longer recover.
1:24:07 > 1:24:09The basic lesson is very clear
1:24:09 > 1:24:11in that they thought this island was the whole world.
1:24:11 > 1:24:13From the highest point of the island, Terevaka,
1:24:13 > 1:24:15you can see the whole thing,
1:24:15 > 1:24:17they could see what was happening.
1:24:17 > 1:24:19And so we on our planet,
1:24:19 > 1:24:23which is the only world we know of with our species on it,
1:24:23 > 1:24:26we can see very clearly what we're doing to the planet.
1:24:26 > 1:24:30Our population is rocketing up and we are using natural resources at
1:24:30 > 1:24:34an ever-increasing rate, and there is going to come a crunch at some time.
1:24:34 > 1:24:37And we just hope and pray that science will be able to make us
1:24:37 > 1:24:42sustainable and keep us going beyond that crisis, but we shall see.
1:24:43 > 1:24:48One of the single most important ways in which Rapa Nui people
1:24:48 > 1:24:51adapted to the changing circumstances of their island
1:24:51 > 1:24:55was they pushed the envelope of creativity,
1:24:55 > 1:24:57they pushed the envelope of belief,
1:24:57 > 1:25:01they caused people to question the very ideas
1:25:01 > 1:25:03that they had held sacred,
1:25:03 > 1:25:06and then they created new symbols for enacting
1:25:06 > 1:25:12those new beliefs. So this is a remarkable intellectual and artistic
1:25:12 > 1:25:16way of addressing a very real economic and social problem.
1:25:19 > 1:25:23I think the most important message that people could
1:25:23 > 1:25:27get from Easter Island would be the resilience.
1:25:27 > 1:25:30And I think it is because people here learned how
1:25:30 > 1:25:35to survive and they have survived with the chin up,
1:25:35 > 1:25:40always with...seeing the bright side of things,
1:25:40 > 1:25:45and I think that's the best message we can give to the outside world.
1:25:45 > 1:25:48IN TRANSLATION FROM HER OWN LANGUAGE:
1:26:14 > 1:26:19If the young people of Rapa Nui can marry this kind of optimism
1:26:19 > 1:26:22and the intelligent management of their ecology with political
1:26:22 > 1:26:26solutions to their disputes with the Chilean government, there is every
1:26:26 > 1:26:29reason to believe they will have a home to be proud of once more.
1:26:31 > 1:26:35Their ancestors, whose faces lay buried in the earth for so long,
1:26:35 > 1:26:38not seeing the loss of their incredible inheritance
1:26:38 > 1:26:43and hidden from the pain and sorrow visited upon their descendants,
1:26:43 > 1:26:44might finally have a reason
1:26:44 > 1:26:49to stand tall once more, in silent respect for their achievements.
1:26:55 > 1:26:59If this island is to rediscover a sustainable future, it's not
1:26:59 > 1:27:01going to happen any time soon.
1:27:01 > 1:27:04The ecological timescales for recovery will
1:27:04 > 1:27:09stretch into the future, beyond the lifetimes of its young people today.
1:27:09 > 1:27:14But Rapa Nui is a magical place, complex and intriguing,
1:27:14 > 1:27:16challenging and enigmatic,
1:27:16 > 1:27:20and if it is to stand as a metaphor for our planet, then we have a great
1:27:20 > 1:27:24deal to learn from its extraordinary history and remarkable people.