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Rapa Nui,

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also known as Easter Island.

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This tiny little island
in the South Pacific

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is world-famous
for one thing.

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The moai.

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Moais are incredible.

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The moai is the first part
that people see.

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These enigmatic stone giants
stand like sentinels

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all around the island,

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but what was their purpose,
and why have so many fallen?

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It is easy to imagine that this is
the scene of some catastrophe

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where things fell apart.

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For centuries, Western researchers
have studied the moai,

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trying to answer these questions,

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and they've come up
with their own theories.

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But now, new research that looks
beyond the moai

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is challenging those views.

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In all the evidence that we saw,

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we were seeing
signs of sustainability.

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There was really no evidence
of collapse.

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For you, this can be an ancient
abandoned village.

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For me, it's the place
where my family used to live.

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Genetics is revealing surprising
clues about the origins

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of the island's earliest settlers.

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When we first saw this, we thought
maybe we did something wrong.

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From their incredible engineering

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to their beautiful
and unique writing...

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Some people say that
they contain legends.

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..the real story of Rapa Nui
is finally coming to light.

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Most visitors come all the way
to Easter Island

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because of these stone statues,

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the moai.

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Moai, they're amazing
and they're outstanding.

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And they are unique.

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Constructed between 1300
and some time after the 1700s,

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there are more than 1,000
of these giant carved figures

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scattered across the landscape.

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Cut from volcanic rock...

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..some are more than 30ft high.

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Over time, all of the moai
have fallen down.

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The 50 or so that are upright today
were put back up in recent decades.

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With their backs to the sea,

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they stare impassively
into the island,

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arms held rigidly by their sides.

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Some stand on ceremonial
platforms known as ahu.

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Others are sunk into the earth.

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Moais are incredible,

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but Rapa Nui is
so much more than that,

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and its archaeology is so much
richer than just moais.

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The moai is the first part
that people see,

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but behind the moais
there is a big history.

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One archaeologist who believes
the story of Rapa Nui encompasses

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more than just the moai
is Sonia Haoa Cardinali.

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Born on Rapa Nui 70 years ago,

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she has dedicated her entire life
to the history and anthropology

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of the island.

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I feel sorry when they're just
talking about the moai.

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70% of the island is surveyed.

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More than
25,000 archaeological sites.

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So that means
not only the sites,

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it means also
how people live, what they do,

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their family and everything.

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Sonia wants to understand
more about the moai,

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but she and other Rapa Nui islanders
see them as only part of the puzzle.

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There are bigger questions to ask.

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Who are the ancestors
of the Rapa Nui people?

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Where did they come from,

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and how did they survive and thrive

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in this remote and hostile land?

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The island of Rapa Nui stands alone.

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The easternmost inhabited rock
of the Polynesian island chains,

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it lies approximately 2,000 miles
from the Tuamotu Archipelago

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of French Polynesia in the west
and Chile in the east,

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4,500 miles from Hawaii.

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Only 14 miles long
by seven miles wide,

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today, most of the roughly 8,000
inhabitants live beneath

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an extinct volcano
on the western corner of the island.

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First encountered by the Dutch
in 1722,

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it was claimed by the Spanish
nearly 50 years later,

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then annexed by Chile in 1888.

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But when the original Rapa Nui people
first came to this land,

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and where from,
remains hotly debated.

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The general consensus

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is that the first people to settle
here were sailors

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from other Polynesian islands,

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migrating east
some time around 1200 CE.

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We are Polynesians.

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Our life was the canoe
and our territory was the ocean.

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Polynesians, we were populating

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and colonising islands
across the Pacific.

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That belief forms the heart
of Rapa Nui identity,

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cherished by elders
like Carlos Edmunds.

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It is the bedrock of Rapa Nui
oral tradition.

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There's knowledge in the old people
and in the oral history.

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Behind every legend,

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there's knowledge there.

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Legends handed down from generation
to generation

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tell how and why their ancestors
came to this land.

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They are retold even today
by Rapa Nui performers

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dedicated to keeping
the old traditions alive.

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That is the base of all our history.

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Fortunately, today,
science and scientists

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are helping us to show
how oral tradition

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was the first,
the most and the real history.

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For settlers migrating
from the warm tropical islands

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of western Polynesia,

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this windswept lump of inactive
volcanoes

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in the Southeastern Pacific

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was a bad land
where their crops could not grow.

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Rapa Nui is a subtropical island,
so there's a big difference

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in climate to the tropical islands,

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for example, of French Polynesia.

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The problem was that some
of those tropical species

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just didn't grow and didn't take.

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Because it's colder here,

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the first settlers of Rapa Nui,

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travelling from
the Polynesian tropics,

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would have struggled
to grow any plants

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they'd brought with them.

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One man who is fascinated
by how those settlers survived

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on this bad land is Hetereki Huke.

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You know what? There's not that much
material about any...

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An architect by trade,

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Hete started an office in 2014

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to record Rapa Nui's heritage

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through the archaeological record.

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At that moment, there were not many
young researchers in Rapa Nui.

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They're releasing the water...

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So, Hete turned to Terry Hunt
and Carl Lipo from the USA.

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We have been collaborating
with Carl and Terry for a long time,

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and we have done so many
things together.

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They were a great support
during this fieldwork.

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And that was amazing because
with Carl and Terry,

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we could map the rocks
and at the same time

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we could have
the legend behind them.

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And that is just beautiful.

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One of the sites they studied
was Ahu Tepeu,

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which lies on the northwestern coast
of the island

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and was a typical
ancient Rapa Nui settlement.

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Central to its layout is the ahu,

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a raised stone platform.

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At Ahu Tepeu,

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there are five of these.

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Some of them with moais
and some others without.

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Fanning out from the ahu
are the houses, chicken coops

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and walled gardens known as manavai,

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and behind the houses lie the fields
that fed the community.

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For you, this can be an ancient
abandoned village.

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For me, it's the place
where my family used to live.

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And they still are here.

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This place, it's quite alive for us.

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So, the approach of
a Rapa Nui researcher,

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or any Pacific researcher,

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would be dramatically different
from a Western researcher.

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Rapa Nui and Western
researchers agree

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that the ancient settlers
were Polynesian.

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But where did those
Pacific Islanders come from?

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Some previous research suggested
that they came from the islands

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of East Asia.

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But in 1947, a Norwegian explorer
named Thor Heyerdahl

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launched an expedition
called Kon-Tiki,

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intended to prove a drastically
different view

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of where
the Polynesians originated.

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His theory on South American origins

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flew in the face of known linguistic
evidence,

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so Heyerdahl followed
this up with a series

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of archaeological expeditions
to Rapa Nui.

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Despite years of investigating
the island,

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he could never prove
a definite link to South America.

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One Rapa Nui archaeologist who worked
with him was Sonia Haoa Cardinali.

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I worked with Thor Heyerdahl
for almost ten years, and for me,

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it's an honour to work with him.

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No matter how we think
about his theory,

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never forget
that he is one of the person

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who puts Rapa Nui in the map.

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In Heyerdahl's day, experimental
archaeology seemed the only way

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to explore possible links
between Polynesia and South America.

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But today, we can use DNA,

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which is a powerful tool
for tracing human ancestry.

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So, did the original settlers
of Rapa Nui have links

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with South America?

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One geneticist who set out
to answer that question

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was Andres Moreno-Estrada.

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Genetics can be a powerful tool
to answer this big question

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about whether the Rapa Nui
people made contact or not

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with Native Americans in prehistory,
which has been a debate

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that has been on for decades.

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Andres put together
an international team,

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including researchers
from Hawaii and Rapa Nui,

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to study
the DNA of the people of Polynesia.

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..gracias.

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And they reached out
to the community to gain the support

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of Rapa Nui's elders.

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Community engagement is really
the essence of all these approaches.

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When you study human genetic
diversity,

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it's all about humans, really.

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It's a voluntary participation,

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so it's really key to talk
with the community beforehand,

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and as we carry out the research
as well,

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keep them informed
about the results of the study.

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Collaborating with Andres is
genetic data analyst Alex Ioannidis.

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What I really love about genetics
is it's essentially

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about participation with the people
whose story you're telling.

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It's their sample
that's telling the story.

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Stories like Bianca's, the daughter
of a Chilean father who moved back

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from mainland Chile and wanted
to know if what her mother

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had told her was true.

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An individual's DNA is contained
within 23 pairs of chromosomes

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known as a genome.

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And that's your genetic fingerprint.

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When they began the research,

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Andres and his colleagues
were expecting

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the Rapa Nui fingerprint
to contain markers showing mostly

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Polynesian,
Spanish and Chilean ancestry,

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since these were the main
colonists of the island

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in the last 250 years.

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To extract the DNA,

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they take swabs
from their volunteers in the field,

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then take it back to the lab
in cold storage for analysis.

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DNA samples are loaded into
a sequencer

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so that we can get
the pieces of DNA

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that make up the whole genome
of that individual.

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This allows the researchers
to identify specific chains of DNA

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that can be attributed
to certain groups.

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Red denotes Spanish ancestry,

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blue, Polynesian,

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green, Chilean,

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and yellow, other European.

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The process is very rewarding,

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because participants
are very interested in knowing

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about their own genetic origins,

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and when they see that actually
they have retained a lot

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of the Polynesian roots
in their DNA,

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it's something
that helps them to basically value

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and identify their own lineages.

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Most of the results helped
confirm the islanders' beliefs

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about their Polynesian origins,

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mixed with more recent colonists.

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I just found out the results.

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I'm so mixed.

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My mum is from Chile
and from England and Scotland,

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and my father is an islander,

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but he's also mixed with French

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and other people,

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so it's very interesting to know

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where you come from.

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They did, however, find some pieces
of DNA that they didn't expect.

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When we first saw this,
we were really surprised

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and so we thought maybe
we did something wrong.

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We thought,
"Well, let's double-check this."

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These pieces of DNA seem
to have their origins

252
00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:14,400
in South America,

253
00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:16,520
but when
they tried to pinpoint the source,

254
00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:18,240
they got a surprise.

255
00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:21,520
They were quite different from
the more modern Chilean ancestry

256
00:18:21,520 --> 00:18:23,480
found in some volunteers.

257
00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:25,760
We compared it to a panel
of indigenous groups

258
00:18:25,760 --> 00:18:28,400
from across the entire Pacific coast
of South America,

259
00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:30,640
and the closest match
was the Zenu group.

260
00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:36,280
The Zenu are a Native American
people who occupied the coast

261
00:18:36,280 --> 00:18:38,840
of Colombia long before Chile

262
00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:41,240
annexed Rapa Nui in 1888.

263
00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:45,360
How could their genetic markers
wind up in the DNA

264
00:18:45,360 --> 00:18:47,400
of modern Polynesians?

265
00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:49,920
And how many generations
back did they go?

266
00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:55,920
Because each parent only hands
down half of its DNA to the next,

267
00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:59,560
Alex was able to figure out
when that piece of pre-Colombian DNA

268
00:18:59,560 --> 00:19:01,960
had been incorporated into
Polynesian chromosomes,

269
00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:03,480
by measuring its length.

270
00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:06,640
We can actually look at the length
of those individual pieces

271
00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:08,320
and figure out
how many generations ago

272
00:19:08,320 --> 00:19:10,560
this combination of Native Americans

273
00:19:10,560 --> 00:19:12,640
and Polynesians took place.

274
00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:16,640
The date they came up with was much
earlier than they expected.

275
00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:21,200
We saw very small pieces, indicating
that this ancestry from the coast

276
00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:23,640
of Colombia entered Rapa Nui
a long time ago,

277
00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:25,720
actually in a period around what
we would call

278
00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:28,600
the European Middle Ages,
around 1200 AD.

279
00:19:29,920 --> 00:19:34,040
What's more, the same identical DNA
segments were often seen

280
00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:36,440
in volunteers from different
islands.

281
00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:39,880
Which means that these segments came
from the same ancestors,

282
00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:42,120
and since they came from the same
ancestor,

283
00:19:42,120 --> 00:19:44,960
we think that this means there was
a single contact event

284
00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:47,960
between Indigenous Americans
from the coast of Colombia

285
00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:49,320
and Polynesians.

286
00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:52,640
This means that a group
of Polynesians met somewhere

287
00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:55,760
with Native Americans,
had descendants, and more likely,

288
00:19:55,760 --> 00:19:58,040
this never happened again.

289
00:19:58,040 --> 00:20:01,720
By looking at the DNA of people
on other Polynesian islands,

290
00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:03,960
the team traced the telltale
genetic markers

291
00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:06,920
back to the Marquesas
and Tuamotu Isles,

292
00:20:06,920 --> 00:20:10,440
and were also
able to plot a timeline of migration

293
00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:15,080
across eastern Polynesia
to Rapa Nui from around 1100.

294
00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:19,320
Polynesian migrations spread east
into Tuamotu Archipelago,

295
00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:22,760
up to the Marquesas and all the way
down to Mangareva,

296
00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:24,040
and from there,

297
00:20:24,040 --> 00:20:26,840
all the way out to
Rapa Nui around 1200.

298
00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:32,240
Looking closely at these
particular islands,

299
00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:35,000
there's something else
they all have in common,

300
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:37,240
something much bigger than DNA.

301
00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:42,960
Most of these islands,
the Marquesas, Rapa Nui,

302
00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:45,720
and Raivavae have
these very large

303
00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:47,520
stone statues on them.

304
00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:51,040
Where the idea of creating
large stone statues comes from,

305
00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:55,880
we can't say, and we can't say
for sure if these islands develop

306
00:20:55,880 --> 00:20:58,720
the idea independently, but the fact
that they're all existing together

307
00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:01,760
in the same genetic cluster
suggested to us that this culture

308
00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:04,840
was developed once and spread
to all these islands.

309
00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:09,480
Sonia believes that even
if this culture developed

310
00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:11,240
within the Polynesian islands,

311
00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:14,400
there was also some influence
from South America.

312
00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:17,920
And behind the spectacular
ahu of Tongariki,

313
00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:21,080
she believes she has the evidence
to back up her hunch.

314
00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:28,440
We see the very good evidence
of influence of South America.

315
00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:32,320
This single broken moai
has its hands across its body,

316
00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:34,800
in a style that can be found in...

317
00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:36,520
..ancient Colombia.

318
00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:43,560
If you compare with
the South America, it's the same.

319
00:21:43,560 --> 00:21:47,040
The hands and the description
of the arm.

320
00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:51,560
The body is completely the same.

321
00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:54,720
There is no doubt the influence
of South America.

322
00:21:54,720 --> 00:21:59,400
And here we have
the structural evidence.

323
00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:03,560
I cannot lie to you that that looks
like a moai normal.

324
00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:06,680
No, no.

325
00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:10,600
Maybe if I am blind,
yes, but it's here.

326
00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:14,800
But this is the only moai
on the island with arms

327
00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:16,360
across its body.

328
00:22:16,360 --> 00:22:19,040
All others have their arms
by their sides.

329
00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:25,600
So it cannot prove that the template
for carving statues in stone

330
00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:27,520
came from ancient Colombia,

331
00:22:27,520 --> 00:22:30,040
though
the DNA suggests some ancient,

332
00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:31,760
albeit isolated, link.

333
00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:37,040
What is provable is where the moai
were created.

334
00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:41,880
Almost all of the statues scattered
around the island were carved

335
00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:44,200
from the volcanic rock
of Rano Raraku.

336
00:23:13,360 --> 00:23:16,200
And on the slopes of
its massive crater,

337
00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:18,560
about 400 statues
can still be found

338
00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:20,720
in various states of completion.

339
00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:25,000
High up on these slopes, Terry Hunt
and Carl Lipo can see evidence

340
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:28,440
of the skill and ingenuity
of the Rapa Nui stonemasons.

341
00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:32,000
It's amazing, being up this high
in the quarry,

342
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,400
and all the work
and quarrying out of the bedrock

343
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:36,880
and statues this big that,
way up here, had to be

344
00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:38,000
taken down the slope.

345
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:40,880
You can see several moai
being carved.

346
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:42,680
The large moai here,

347
00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:44,960
and there, you can see
the beginnings of moai

348
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:46,200
up on the side, as well,

349
00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:47,680
high up here in the quarry.

350
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:49,080
You know, being this high
up on the cliff,

351
00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:51,080
really, they can take advantage
of the gravity, right? Yeah.

352
00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:53,600
So you've got them up high, and now
you can use that to slide them down

353
00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:55,360
and get them in the upright
position. That's right, yeah.

354
00:23:55,360 --> 00:23:57,760
While it's a huge amount
of investment and labour,

355
00:23:57,760 --> 00:23:59,920
they actually take advantage
of the positions

356
00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:02,920
in order to get them
out, down to the base.

357
00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:05,280
The moai were slid down the slope

358
00:24:05,280 --> 00:24:08,160
and into purpose-built trenches.

359
00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:09,520
Over time,

360
00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:12,120
weathering has filled the trenches,

361
00:24:12,120 --> 00:24:14,360
burying the bodies of those moai.

362
00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:18,760
You can see several moai
being carved.

363
00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:21,960
The large moai here, and there,
you can see the beginnings

364
00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:23,840
of moai up on the side, as well.

365
00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:25,360
They stopped. They abandoned this.

366
00:24:25,360 --> 00:24:27,680
And it's a reminder that this isn't
like Pompeii,

367
00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:29,760
where something happened
and everybody dropped their tools

368
00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:31,240
and ran on one day.

369
00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:32,920
There's a lot of history
in the quarry.

370
00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:35,760
There are many older statues
that were abandoned,

371
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:37,880
more recent statues
that were also abandoned,

372
00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:40,280
and so you have to look
at the chronology here.

373
00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:42,360
Yeah, what we're seeing
is the aggregate of events

374
00:24:42,360 --> 00:24:45,480
that occurred over 500 years
of activity here at the quarry,

375
00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:46,600
not a final product.

376
00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:48,400
This is all the things
that happened here.

377
00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:49,920
It's interesting because the quarry,

378
00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:51,800
it's kind of a common area
that's shared.

379
00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:54,560
And so there's an understanding
that everyone on the island,

380
00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:58,040
every community on the island,
has access to the resource here.

381
00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:02,760
But rock isn't just confined
to the quarry.

382
00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:06,400
All over Rapa Nui,
rock is spread across the land.

383
00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:11,120
To Western explorers
like Captain James Cook,

384
00:25:11,120 --> 00:25:13,760
who visited the island in 1774,

385
00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:16,960
this looked like a wilderness.

386
00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:21,880
"The ground had but a barren
appearance, being a dry, hard clay,

387
00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:24,280
"and everywhere covered with
stones."

388
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:29,600
The early European visitors saw
crops being grown in stones,

389
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:32,200
and they thought this was
somehow pathetic

390
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:35,320
because they're expecting
to see ploughed fields

391
00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:37,760
and the agriculture of Europe.

392
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:40,000
How could the Rapa Nui survive

393
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:43,400
on what appeared to be such
a barren wilderness?

394
00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:45,400
But this wasn't what it seemed.

395
00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:49,920
The soils on Rapa Nui
are nutrient-poor.

396
00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:51,920
There is an ingenious solution
to that,

397
00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:54,120
and it's using rock mulch.

398
00:25:55,120 --> 00:25:57,800
Volcanic rock is packed
full of nutrients

399
00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:00,440
that bring new life into the world.

400
00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:03,080
Somehow, the ancient Rapa Nui

401
00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:06,440
had learned how to make the best
of this austere landscape

402
00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:10,080
by fertilising their fields
with stones.

403
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:14,400
And using rocks in cultivation
will release nutrients into the soil

404
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:16,680
and make them available
to the plants.

405
00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:20,880
Sonia also sees lots of evidence
that the rock-strewn wilderness

406
00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:25,080
described by Captain Cook
was actually fertile fields.

407
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:28,960
Here, you see a very nice complex,

408
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:32,560
and that means you have
everything here.

409
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:38,120
In the centre part,
you can see they take all the rocks.

410
00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:45,480
And what you see in the landscape
around here is like a garden, yeah?

411
00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:49,760
This was not the first or last time

412
00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:53,600
that Western misconceptions
would colour the history of Rapa Nui.

413
00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:58,280
Right from their very first
encounter, on April 5th, 1722,

414
00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:01,360
the world-view of its
European visitors

415
00:27:01,360 --> 00:27:03,760
would have a profound
effect on the island.

416
00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:06,400
The name Easter Island comes
from the first Europeans

417
00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:09,200
arriving here on Easter Sunday.

418
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:11,720
The modern traditional name
is Rapa Nui,

419
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:16,040
and the older traditional name
is Te Pito o Te Henua,

420
00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:17,960
which really means
"the navel of the world",

421
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:21,520
which probably reflects
the island's isolation

422
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:24,440
and-or its centrality
as to the whole world.

423
00:27:26,120 --> 00:27:28,880
The first encounter between
the Dutch explorers

424
00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:31,960
and the local residents was
marked by curiosity

425
00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:34,400
and a tragic misunderstanding.

426
00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:40,720
What we know from
the historic accounts,

427
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:44,360
from the logs of
Captain Roggeveen himself

428
00:27:44,360 --> 00:27:46,680
and of other crew members,

429
00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:51,480
is that there was big interest
in the Netherlands ships arriving,

430
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:54,680
in the construction of the ships,

431
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:59,560
and so there was no hostility
towards those newcomers.

432
00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:04,720
Also, bearing in mind that Rapa Nui
had been isolated

433
00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:07,240
for many generations at that point.

434
00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:10,720
People swam out to the ships,
they went aboard,

435
00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:13,760
they measured every aspect
of the ships,

436
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:16,920
and the landing party
was quite substantial.

437
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,880
MAN SINGS
The Dutch landing party

438
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:23,200
found themselves confronted
by a vibrantly painted man.

439
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:26,880
He performs what they perceive
as a very strange dance,

440
00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:30,280
and this strange dance was probably
really an important ritual

441
00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:32,880
that the Rapa Nui would have
perceived as proper

442
00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:35,520
in these people coming ashore
to their land.

443
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:38,720
He saw the possessions
that the Dutch had,

444
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:44,320
the clothes, the hats and the guns,
and he reached for the gun.

445
00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:46,520
MAN SPEAKS

446
00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:49,120
And several crewmen opened fire.

447
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:51,560
GUNFIRE

448
00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:55,560
So the very first encounter
on the shores of Rapa Nui

449
00:28:55,560 --> 00:29:01,000
was overshadowed by 12 islanders
dead and many more injured.

450
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:24,120
The clash of cultures
that led to this massacre

451
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:26,920
would profoundly affect the way
that Rapa Nui was perceived

452
00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:28,800
in the centuries to come.

453
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:34,280
Western preconceptions have coloured
the view of Rapa Nui in many ways.

454
00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:37,600
Seeing the moai,
seeing the monuments here,

455
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:41,080
they can't imagine how people
would move them

456
00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:44,160
with no wooden carts or wheels,

457
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:47,680
and because they don't understand
how it could have been done,

458
00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:50,680
it leads to notions of the mystery
of Easter Island -

459
00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:54,600
and the mystery is really just
what visitors didn't understand.

460
00:29:56,440 --> 00:30:01,040
Just as with Captain Cook,
Western visitors saw a barren land,

461
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:03,560
covered in rocks

462
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:08,360
and devoid of the trees needed to
make wooden sleds or wheels.

463
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:10,600
But it wasn't always like this.

464
00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:13,840
Researchers found pollen evidence
in the fossil record

465
00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:16,280
suggesting that 1,000 years ago,

466
00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:18,840
much of this land was covered
in dense forest.

467
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:52,120
For many Western researchers,

468
00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:55,720
the answer lay strewn across
the island at sites like Ahu Tepeu.

469
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:58,000
Yeah, it's interesting.
It has the triangle stones.

470
00:30:58,000 --> 00:30:59,360
These are pieces of moai,

471
00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:02,320
the large statues that once stood
on top of the ahu.

472
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:05,440
I don't know how many of the statues
there were here. Maybe four or five.

473
00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:07,720
It is easy to look at these
landscapes,

474
00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:10,720
when you see the ahu
when they're broken down,

475
00:31:10,720 --> 00:31:13,040
and statues that have fallen
and broken -

476
00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:15,600
like this one here, which has
no head, it's just the body,

477
00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:18,640
the head, that's over here -
to imagine that this is the scene

478
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:22,440
of some catastrophe
where things fell apart.

479
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:26,760
To Western eyes, this was evidence
of a collapse of society,

480
00:31:26,760 --> 00:31:31,440
so successive generations of Western
scholars constructed a narrative.

481
00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:36,000
It explained the barren,
rock-strewn land,

482
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:38,160
the collapse of the moai

483
00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:40,520
and the disappearance of the trees.

484
00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:46,080
The collapse story basically goes
that people got to an island

485
00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:48,480
that was filled with trees,
palm trees,

486
00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:51,240
other kinds of trees as well,
sort of an earthly Paradise,

487
00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:54,120
filled with food and opportunities
for the people that were here.

488
00:31:54,120 --> 00:32:00,440
The moai-building has often been
portrayed as some kind of frenzy,

489
00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:05,960
as some kind of competition
between different clan groups,

490
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:08,920
where lots of trees were cut down

491
00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:13,400
in order to construct
and to transport the moai.

492
00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:17,200
Archaeologists had long investigated
stone monument-building

493
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:19,160
in places like ancient Egypt.

494
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:23,000
Westerners thought the moai
were probably moved on wooden sleds

495
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:25,800
or rollers pulled by hundreds of men,

496
00:32:25,800 --> 00:32:28,520
which required people and trees -

497
00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:31,560
lots of people and trees.

498
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:34,360
And these Westerners assumed
that moai-building

499
00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:36,240
had spiralled out of control.

500
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:39,400
People here kind of got into
a moai mania.

501
00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:42,000
They started to make
bigger and bigger statues,

502
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:43,080
and at some point,

503
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:46,040
that overexuberance of
statue construction

504
00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:49,000
ultimately depleted the island
of the resources needed

505
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,320
to make up ahu in the first place.

506
00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:56,560
According to this view,
moai-building deforested the island.

507
00:32:56,560 --> 00:33:01,840
The soil was starved of nutrients,
leaving a barren, rock-strewn land.

508
00:33:01,840 --> 00:33:06,640
Then, this theory goes,
things got worse.

509
00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:12,640
The scarcity of resources resulted
in a societal collapse.

510
00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:16,680
The island erupted into
inter-tribal warfare

511
00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:21,000
and led to a very
impoverished population

512
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:23,520
living on a barren island.

513
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,720
This so-called collapse theory
posited that the island

514
00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:47,480
once had more than
10,000 inhabitants,

515
00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:51,120
whose own folly triggered a collapse
of the forest ecosystem

516
00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:54,840
and reduced them to a mere 3,000,
living on the scraps.

517
00:33:56,040 --> 00:33:59,320
For many Western scholars,
it was a compelling narrative,

518
00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:02,080
a morality tale for our times.

519
00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:07,200
But for some researchers,
this idea had one big problem.

520
00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:09,640
When we looked at
the evidence on the ground,

521
00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:11,960
we simply didn't see
evidence of warfare.

522
00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:17,160
In 1722, at the very first contact,
the descriptions of the island

523
00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:18,920
are very positive still,

524
00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:22,880
to the point that the island is
described as an earthen Paradise

525
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:26,320
that the inhabitants,
the Rapa Nui people,

526
00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:31,160
are described as very healthy,
of very good stature.

527
00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:36,200
There's no indications of warfare,
no weapons carried.

528
00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:47,760
Well, it looks like this one
is being dismantled,

529
00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:50,440
because we find some
of these construction elements

530
00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:52,280
in other features over there.

531
00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:56,520
For Hete, what were once considered
ruins at Ahu Tepeu

532
00:34:56,520 --> 00:34:59,800
turn out to be evidence
of continuous use.

533
00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:04,880
This is the head of a moai
that was part of the second ahu

534
00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:06,920
in this ceremonial complex.

535
00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:08,200
In this second ahu,

536
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:11,440
all of the moais are laid down
in the back of the platform.

537
00:35:11,440 --> 00:35:14,680
That is because that second ahu
was being dismantled

538
00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:17,000
to enlarge the first one.

539
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:20,560
Pieces of earlier moai were
being reused

540
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:23,800
to create an even more
spectacular ahu.

541
00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:27,080
From this particular ahu,
we couldn't say that

542
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:28,680
there's evidence of collapse.

543
00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:32,320
There's evidence of transformation
and human societies changing,

544
00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:35,480
and that's beautiful.
Destruction is recycling

545
00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:38,120
and creation. It's part of
a larger process,

546
00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:40,680
and, in a certain way,
this moai reflects that.

547
00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:45,600
Across the island, what some
Western researchers

548
00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:49,520
had seen as evidence of collapse
didn't stand up to scrutiny.

549
00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:55,160
Even the island's caves, long seen
as refuges against an enemy tribe,

550
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:58,360
appear to be something
very different.

551
00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:01,080
This is a great example of a cave
that has that construction,

552
00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:03,440
where they've taken a cave
and added these features to it.

553
00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:05,720
Yeah, and it's not a refuge cave.

554
00:36:05,720 --> 00:36:08,320
It's not a hiding place.
It's a habitation.

555
00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:11,600
So they made this nice entrance,
with paving stones and everything.

556
00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:15,240
And they've used lots of different
materials, like this paenga stone.

557
00:36:15,240 --> 00:36:19,760
Paenga are a kind of foundation stone
found in elite houses.

558
00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:24,120
The holes bored into them acted
as bases for the wooden struts.

559
00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:27,600
The use of these paenga in cave walls

560
00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:32,240
was argued to be evidence of some
last-ditch defence against attack.

561
00:36:32,240 --> 00:36:36,800
Some people think that this is
evidence of tearing down elaborate

562
00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:40,000
or elite houses and reusing
the stone out of desperation,

563
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:42,120
but these stones are reused
everywhere.

564
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:45,040
We see the re-use of these paenga
stones not only in things like ahu,

565
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:47,320
but also in the chicken houses,
the hare moa,

566
00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:50,480
as well as earth ovens. So they're
really used in all kinds of contexts

567
00:36:50,480 --> 00:36:52,320
because people used the stone
that was available to them,

568
00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:53,840
and some of that stone were paenga.

569
00:36:53,840 --> 00:36:57,480
Reusing and recycling stone
materials here is really the norm.

570
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:01,280
At another set of caves nearby,

571
00:37:01,280 --> 00:37:06,400
Hete, Carl and Terry find yet more
evidence of a thriving community.

572
00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:12,320
Here, the Rapa Nui even used the
collapsed lava tubes as hothouses,

573
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:16,640
fed by something rare on an island
of permeable volcanic rock -

574
00:37:16,640 --> 00:37:21,440
an abundant supply of water
in caverns deep within the caves.

575
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:24,280
In those caves,
we can find fresh water.

576
00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:27,480
It was one of the largest
water reservoirs,

577
00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:30,720
so it's a very rich part
of the island.

578
00:37:30,720 --> 00:37:34,200
So Rapa Nui's caves weren't
just simple refuges.

579
00:37:34,200 --> 00:37:36,920
They were complex,
sun-dappled ecosystems

580
00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:38,840
that had been used for centuries,

581
00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:41,200
long before the collapse
that was supposed

582
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:42,800
to have driven people into them.

583
00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:47,480
Nothing here in Te Pahu,
or in the area that we worked,

584
00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:51,000
shows that people were struggling.

585
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:52,960
On the contrary, they were thriving.

586
00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:55,800
We were seeing signs of
sustainability.

587
00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:58,120
There was really
no evidence of collapse.

588
00:38:02,560 --> 00:38:06,360
Even though Carl and Terry found no
direct evidence for collapse,

589
00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:09,480
they would not dismiss the idea
without more research...

590
00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:16,360
..especially when it came to the
population of the island over time.

591
00:38:16,360 --> 00:38:20,240
They started by mapping all the moai
on one side of the island...

592
00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:26,080
..then moved on to the settlement
and resource sites.

593
00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:29,240
Our goal is really to sort of
characterise the settlement systems

594
00:38:29,240 --> 00:38:31,680
and how people are distributed
across the landscape

595
00:38:31,680 --> 00:38:33,400
and use resources there.

596
00:38:35,760 --> 00:38:38,080
We've got a good sample
of the communities,

597
00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:41,040
but we're continuing to do
that as an ongoing basis.

598
00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:44,120
They match these with carbon dates
from the sites

599
00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:47,880
to build up a pattern showing when
each settlement was in use.

600
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:51,200
Then they ran them through
a computer model

601
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:54,160
which converted the carbon data
into population numbers

602
00:38:54,160 --> 00:38:57,640
by calculating the highs and lows
of human activity on the island.

603
00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:03,360
The results confirmed their hunch.

604
00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:07,600
It showed the population rise from
a small number of first settlers,

605
00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:12,240
continuing to grow steadily, with
no sign of collapse at any point.

606
00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:18,040
The population could fluctuate
slightly,

607
00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:21,160
but its average maximum
is probably around 3,000,

608
00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:23,400
probably what Europeans encountered

609
00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:25,480
when they first arrived
on the island.

610
00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:28,800
A maximum population of 3,000
was much smaller

611
00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:32,320
than the numbers cited
in the Western collapse story.

612
00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:35,960
The collapse theory proposed
all kinds of numbers -

613
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:37,640
7,000, 10,000, 15,000,

614
00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:41,000
even up to 30,000 population
for this small island.

615
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:44,480
But Carl, Terry and their colleagues
found no evidence

616
00:39:44,480 --> 00:39:48,080
that there were ever that many
people living on Rapa Nui.

617
00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:50,360
The lack of huge populations
being on the island

618
00:39:50,360 --> 00:39:52,680
sort of takes the wind out
of the collapse theory,

619
00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:55,040
because, in fact, there's nothing
from which to collapse.

620
00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:56,840
There isn't a large population.

621
00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:01,760
But if you don't have
tens of thousands of people

622
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:03,160
living on the island,

623
00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:06,400
how could the Rapa Nui
build and transport the moai?

624
00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:08,600
For some Western researchers,

625
00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:11,600
Rapa Nui oral history
suggested an answer.

626
00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:43,920
This actually referred
to small wooden statues,

627
00:40:43,920 --> 00:40:48,120
but some Westerners thought it
also described the stone moai.

628
00:40:49,240 --> 00:40:51,400
Thor Heyerdahl and his colleagues

629
00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:53,600
attempted to move the statues
upright,

630
00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:55,320
to effectively make them walk.

631
00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:58,520
But the experiment hadn't worked,

632
00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:02,840
so most experts still believed that
they were dragged on their backs.

633
00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:06,440
But when Carl and Terry
analysed the moai

634
00:41:06,440 --> 00:41:09,480
lying by the roads
that led from the quarry,

635
00:41:09,480 --> 00:41:12,160
they noticed something significant.

636
00:41:12,160 --> 00:41:14,120
These are impressive things,
aren't they? Yeah.

637
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:16,240
We're looking, right here,

638
00:41:16,240 --> 00:41:20,920
at the reason why they were not
transported on logs on their backs.

639
00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:23,440
That's true.
How would they be in this position,

640
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:25,600
face down, and the neck broken?

641
00:41:25,600 --> 00:41:27,320
Right. It makes no sense.

642
00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:31,080
That just simply doesn't happen if
they're on their backs on rollers.

643
00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:33,560
They also noticed
a structural difference

644
00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:37,120
between moai lying on the road
and those standing on the ahu.

645
00:41:38,880 --> 00:41:44,240
A moai on the ahu has a flat base,
so the statue stands straight up.

646
00:41:44,240 --> 00:41:47,760
But most of the moai lying
on the road have angled bases,

647
00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:53,280
and Carl and Terry believe that
angle had a very specific purpose.

648
00:41:53,280 --> 00:41:56,680
A road moai has to be shaped
in a way that can be transported.

649
00:41:56,680 --> 00:41:58,360
They did it by shaping their base

650
00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:00,640
so they leaned forward
to enable them to walk.

651
00:42:00,640 --> 00:42:02,840
This is a great example
of the forward lean

652
00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:04,320
of these transport moai.

653
00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:06,720
So, if you took the statue
and we could put it back up,

654
00:42:06,720 --> 00:42:08,440
it would be leaning really
far forward.

655
00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:10,760
It means that as you rock it
side to side,

656
00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:14,080
it falls forward across that
front edge and takes a step. Yeah.

657
00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:15,840
Without that, it would just rock
back and forth

658
00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:17,080
and not really go anywhere.

659
00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:20,080
And walking really describes
what these moai did.

660
00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:23,040
To test their theory,

661
00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:27,760
in 2012, Carl and Terry built
a model of a moai out of concrete,

662
00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:30,040
carefully mixed to
match the fragile density

663
00:42:30,040 --> 00:42:32,600
of the ancient statues'
volcanic rock,

664
00:42:32,600 --> 00:42:34,320
and made it walk.

665
00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:37,920
In our experiments, we found it took
remarkably few people

666
00:42:37,920 --> 00:42:39,960
to move the statue -
and we were terrible at it.

667
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:42,320
You know, we were the least
expert of any people

668
00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:44,240
who've ever moved a moai
in the world -

669
00:42:44,240 --> 00:42:47,400
but we were able to do a five-tonne
statue with 18 people.

670
00:42:53,680 --> 00:42:55,640
Whether they walked or not,

671
00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:58,160
most experts now agree
that building moai

672
00:42:58,160 --> 00:43:00,800
could not have caused
the loss of the forest.

673
00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:06,400
I like to use a...basically,
just a math example.

674
00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:09,800
There's about a thousand moai
on the island.

675
00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:13,040
About 400 of them are still
at the quarry site,

676
00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:16,600
so only 600 have been transported,

677
00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:22,600
and the amount of trees that you
need to fell to move 600 statues

678
00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:25,960
cannot even closely account
for that degree

679
00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:28,560
of deforestation that happened.

680
00:43:35,280 --> 00:43:40,720
There are vegetation reconstructions
for Rapa Nui,

681
00:43:40,720 --> 00:43:45,600
talking of 18 million, 19 million
palm trees on the island,

682
00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:49,800
so the amount that were cut down
for transporting or building moai

683
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:53,400
would only have been a very, very
small percentage.

684
00:43:55,200 --> 00:43:59,400
So, if trees across the island
weren't felled to transport moai,

685
00:43:59,400 --> 00:44:00,920
what happened to them?

686
00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:03,040
An area of forest is cleared.

687
00:44:03,040 --> 00:44:07,160
It is used for gardening,
for horticulture.

688
00:44:07,160 --> 00:44:10,360
This process is known
as slash and burn,

689
00:44:10,360 --> 00:44:13,400
and is a millennia-old practice
used all over the world.

690
00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:16,320
In slash-and-burn cultivation,

691
00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:19,960
you can clear an area, burn
the wood that you've cleared.

692
00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:21,960
This releases nutrients
into the soil.

693
00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:23,280
Plant the crops.

694
00:44:23,280 --> 00:44:27,960
As that soil becomes exhausted
from cultivation,

695
00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:29,600
you repeat the sequence.

696
00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:33,200
As the vegetation grows
back, especially trees,

697
00:44:33,200 --> 00:44:35,160
this can be a rotating system

698
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:38,960
where you're continually adding
nutrients to the soil.

699
00:44:38,960 --> 00:44:42,360
But on Rapa Nui, the burned
woodland didn't grow back

700
00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:44,640
as it did elsewhere in Polynesia.

701
00:44:44,640 --> 00:44:46,040
Why not?

702
00:44:46,040 --> 00:44:50,400
The fossilised DNA of ancient
animals may hold some answers.

703
00:44:50,400 --> 00:44:53,360
Analysis suggests that
the early settlers

704
00:44:53,360 --> 00:44:55,280
of Rapa Nui had a passenger.

705
00:45:18,280 --> 00:45:21,320
And they reach an environment
with unlimited food.

706
00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:23,080
The nuts of the palm trees,

707
00:45:23,080 --> 00:45:26,120
the nuts and seeds of other
native plants on the island.

708
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:28,000
You get a vicious cycle here

709
00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:30,800
where people are practising
slash and burn,

710
00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:33,240
as they have throughout the Pacific,

711
00:45:33,240 --> 00:45:36,240
and the rats are busy eating
the next generation of plants

712
00:45:36,240 --> 00:45:37,920
as they eat the seeds.

713
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:55,120
We don't know if this is
what happened,

714
00:45:55,120 --> 00:45:57,760
because there are
no historical records

715
00:45:57,760 --> 00:46:00,320
to chart the island's early history.

716
00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:04,280
But it is clear that trees were not
needed to move the moai,

717
00:46:04,280 --> 00:46:06,600
as the Rapa Nui continued
to erect moai

718
00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:08,680
long after the trees had died out.

719
00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:13,200
So why did the Rapa Nui
go to such lengths

720
00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:15,520
to build them in the first place?

721
00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:17,360
What were the moai for?

722
00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:20,000
One tradition that might one day
tell us the answer

723
00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:23,120
is being lovingly preserved
by Luis Huki,

724
00:46:23,120 --> 00:46:24,920
a park ranger on Rapa Nui.

725
00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:06,080
Rongorongo is the traditional
writing system of the Rapa Nui.

726
00:47:06,080 --> 00:47:08,680
It is inscribed onto wooden tablets.

727
00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:31,080
Luis is one of just a handful
of people still carving rongorongo.

728
00:47:43,240 --> 00:47:47,640
No-one knows how old rongorongo is,
or what it actually says,

729
00:47:47,640 --> 00:47:50,240
but in a secluded monastery in Rome,

730
00:47:50,240 --> 00:47:54,080
Silvia Ferrara is studying
a remarkable wooden artefact

731
00:47:54,080 --> 00:47:56,240
which might help answer
those questions.

732
00:47:57,680 --> 00:48:00,040
This is the Echancree tablet.

733
00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:01,320
It's made of wood,

734
00:48:01,320 --> 00:48:04,520
and it's one of the 27 tablets
written in this script,

735
00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:06,440
which is still undeciphered.

736
00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:11,240
The Echancree tablet was gifted
to the Bishop of Tahiti in 1869

737
00:48:11,240 --> 00:48:14,120
by Catholic converts from Rapa Nui.

738
00:48:14,120 --> 00:48:18,800
It is one of only 27 scattered
across museums around the world,

739
00:48:18,800 --> 00:48:21,440
and the way its figures are oriented

740
00:48:21,440 --> 00:48:24,440
suggests a very unusual
reading method.

741
00:48:24,440 --> 00:48:29,960
What you need to do is turn
the tablet from one line to the next

742
00:48:29,960 --> 00:48:33,400
in order to read it,
and this is a unique feature

743
00:48:33,400 --> 00:48:34,760
of this writing system.

744
00:48:34,760 --> 00:48:39,560
No other script works in
the same way, all over the world,

745
00:48:39,560 --> 00:48:41,760
so it's really quite special.

746
00:48:41,760 --> 00:48:45,840
Despite this unique system,
it has been said that rongorongo

747
00:48:45,840 --> 00:48:48,360
was inspired by European writing.

748
00:48:48,360 --> 00:48:51,600
That's kind of a degrading
view of Rapa Nui ingenuity.

749
00:48:51,600 --> 00:48:54,680
It's not only simplistic,
but it's patronising.

750
00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:58,360
It's one of the most
unique and beautiful

751
00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:01,880
forms of knowledge, of art,
in the world.

752
00:49:01,880 --> 00:49:04,640
Nevertheless,
we have to face critics,

753
00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:07,240
or thoughts that we were copying.

754
00:49:07,240 --> 00:49:12,640
The glyphs in rongorongo are clearly
connected to the art on the island.

755
00:49:12,640 --> 00:49:15,480
You see the glyph forms
in petroglyphs.

756
00:49:15,480 --> 00:49:18,120
They don't imitate European writing
in any sense.

757
00:49:18,120 --> 00:49:20,560
To put the debate to bed
once and for all,

758
00:49:20,560 --> 00:49:24,240
Silvia gained permission
to radiocarbon date this tablet.

759
00:49:24,240 --> 00:49:29,960
The radiocarbon date points in the
direction of a 15th century date,

760
00:49:29,960 --> 00:49:33,600
which antecedes
the arrival of the Europeans

761
00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:36,120
by more than 200 years.

762
00:49:36,120 --> 00:49:40,920
Silvia believes this might make
rongorongo one of the few instances

763
00:49:40,920 --> 00:49:43,760
of independently invented
writing in the world.

764
00:49:43,760 --> 00:49:45,840
But what was rongorongo for?

765
00:49:45,840 --> 00:49:50,120
Many believe that it contains
the secrets of Rapa Nui culture.

766
00:49:50,120 --> 00:49:53,920
Some people say that they contain
legends, or rhythms,

767
00:49:53,920 --> 00:49:57,840
or encrypted instructions
of how to move moais,

768
00:49:57,840 --> 00:49:59,840
or develop some technologies.

769
00:49:59,840 --> 00:50:03,040
There are many, many different
theories about it,

770
00:50:03,040 --> 00:50:05,720
but what we do know
is that they contain knowledge.

771
00:50:07,520 --> 00:50:10,360
Until rongorongo surrenders
its secrets,

772
00:50:10,360 --> 00:50:13,600
researchers are using tried
and tested scientific methods

773
00:50:13,600 --> 00:50:17,080
to understand why the moai
and the ahu platforms

774
00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:19,680
are located where they are.

775
00:50:19,680 --> 00:50:24,360
When we look at the question
of where ahu are located,

776
00:50:24,360 --> 00:50:26,120
why are they located there?

777
00:50:26,120 --> 00:50:30,000
Why are some of them very large
and some of them smaller?

778
00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:33,120
Why are there some ahu
in the interior

779
00:50:33,120 --> 00:50:35,560
while most of them
are on the shoreline?

780
00:50:35,560 --> 00:50:37,840
It's easy to describe them
as being religious.

781
00:50:37,840 --> 00:50:39,600
Certainly, that's part of the story.

782
00:50:39,600 --> 00:50:42,080
But the question is, why
would you invest so much energy

783
00:50:42,080 --> 00:50:43,840
in doing these over and over again?

784
00:50:45,320 --> 00:50:47,520
They started with a map.

785
00:50:47,520 --> 00:50:50,400
They marked out the locations
of all the ahu

786
00:50:50,400 --> 00:50:52,480
on the east side of the island.

787
00:50:52,480 --> 00:50:55,640
Then they began to compare
them with the locations

788
00:50:55,640 --> 00:50:57,120
of vital resources.

789
00:50:58,240 --> 00:51:01,320
They chose three as the key sources
of sustenance -

790
00:51:01,320 --> 00:51:05,600
rock mulch, seafood,
and fresh water.

791
00:51:05,600 --> 00:51:08,840
But when they tried to map
the ahu over the rock mulches,

792
00:51:08,840 --> 00:51:12,520
a simple mismatch
became glaringly obvious.

793
00:51:12,520 --> 00:51:14,960
There's rock mulch everywhere
across the island,

794
00:51:14,960 --> 00:51:17,400
but we don't see
ahu and moai everywhere.

795
00:51:17,400 --> 00:51:20,760
What we find is, in fact, that ahu
and moai are in particular locations

796
00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:23,880
independent of the mulch itself.

797
00:51:23,880 --> 00:51:27,800
Next, they looked at resources
from the sea.

798
00:51:27,800 --> 00:51:31,000
When you drive around the island,
you see, one after the other,

799
00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:33,400
an ahu with moai
all the way along the coast.

800
00:51:33,400 --> 00:51:34,680
And, of course, the coast

801
00:51:34,680 --> 00:51:36,240
has a lot of resources -

802
00:51:36,240 --> 00:51:38,160
fish, shellfish,
other kinds of things

803
00:51:38,160 --> 00:51:39,920
that would support populations.

804
00:51:41,120 --> 00:51:45,160
But while the ahu on the coast
matched sea resources very well,

805
00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:48,760
this cannot explain the ahu erected
in the interior of the island.

806
00:51:50,080 --> 00:51:54,240
That left one final resource -
fresh water.

807
00:51:55,600 --> 00:51:58,400
Most of the moai
are along the coastline

808
00:51:58,400 --> 00:52:00,480
with their backs to the sea.

809
00:52:00,480 --> 00:52:03,480
At first glance,
that doesn't seem like a good place

810
00:52:03,480 --> 00:52:05,160
to find fresh water -

811
00:52:05,160 --> 00:52:06,800
but look a little closer.

812
00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:08,120
The water is fresh.

813
00:52:08,120 --> 00:52:10,480
You'd think this water is salty,
that it's sea water,

814
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:12,120
but, in fact,
this is a freshwater sea,

815
00:52:12,120 --> 00:52:14,560
a source of water that comes
from the interior of the island,

816
00:52:14,560 --> 00:52:16,840
moves through the underground
and then comes out at the coast.

817
00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:21,120
It's a place where Rapa Nui people
access water for their daily lives.

818
00:52:21,120 --> 00:52:23,680
On a young volcanic island
like Rapa Nui,

819
00:52:23,680 --> 00:52:25,120
the rocks are very porous.

820
00:52:25,120 --> 00:52:27,680
The rainwater will enter the island

821
00:52:27,680 --> 00:52:30,240
and flow through the porous island

822
00:52:30,240 --> 00:52:31,920
and into lava tubes, etc,

823
00:52:31,920 --> 00:52:35,640
and will come down to the level
and float on top of salt water

824
00:52:35,640 --> 00:52:37,760
and then enter the ocean
at low tide.

825
00:52:37,760 --> 00:52:40,160
When Captain Cook arrived
on the island,

826
00:52:40,160 --> 00:52:42,760
what he saw was people
drinking straight from the ocean,

827
00:52:42,760 --> 00:52:45,360
and he thought, "This is crazy.
Why would people do that?"

828
00:52:45,360 --> 00:52:47,880
What he was actually seeing
is people drinking water

829
00:52:47,880 --> 00:52:49,920
that comes from these
freshwater seeps

830
00:52:49,920 --> 00:52:52,120
that emerge right at the coast
of the island.

831
00:52:52,120 --> 00:52:55,560
And when Carl and Terry
compared their map of ahu moai

832
00:52:55,560 --> 00:53:00,400
with a map of fresh water sources,
they got a roughly 90% match.

833
00:53:00,400 --> 00:53:04,120
In fact, the locations of
fresh water are the best predictor

834
00:53:04,120 --> 00:53:06,960
of the locations of ahu
throughout the island.

835
00:53:06,960 --> 00:53:10,640
For many, this near-perfect match
is not surprising,

836
00:53:10,640 --> 00:53:14,160
because ahu are usually linked
with settlements.

837
00:53:14,160 --> 00:53:19,680
Those hamlets or villages
are located, in many cases,

838
00:53:19,680 --> 00:53:25,480
close to water sources, which makes
perfect sense, that the essentials

839
00:53:25,480 --> 00:53:30,200
for survival, like your crops
and your drinking water,

840
00:53:30,200 --> 00:53:33,080
is close to where the people
actually settle.

841
00:53:33,080 --> 00:53:36,320
Yet for Carl and Terry, it's
the precise location of the moai

842
00:53:36,320 --> 00:53:38,080
that is the key to this theory.

843
00:53:38,080 --> 00:53:41,240
One of the interesting aspects
about Rapa Nui people

844
00:53:41,240 --> 00:53:43,280
is they lived in a dispersed
settlement pattern,

845
00:53:43,280 --> 00:53:46,160
in which people used the landscape
around the ahu

846
00:53:46,160 --> 00:53:47,600
in sort of a wide area,

847
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:51,040
but they're brought together
at the ahu and the moai.

848
00:53:51,040 --> 00:53:52,320
Again and again,

849
00:53:52,320 --> 00:53:57,200
the ahu, not the settlements,
are closest to the water.

850
00:53:57,200 --> 00:53:58,880
So we find, in fact,
the ahu and the moai

851
00:53:58,880 --> 00:54:00,800
right next to the critical resource,

852
00:54:00,800 --> 00:54:03,360
because in fact, that is the heart
of the community.

853
00:54:06,960 --> 00:54:09,560
It seems the moai acted
as a statement,

854
00:54:09,560 --> 00:54:13,760
erected close to a community's most
vital resource.

855
00:54:13,760 --> 00:54:17,320
But Rapa Nui tradition
would see this differently.

856
00:54:19,040 --> 00:54:22,040
They represent the soul
of a dead king.

857
00:54:22,040 --> 00:54:26,280
So, moais' location
and eventual collapse

858
00:54:26,280 --> 00:54:31,520
is also related with an evolution
of a political and social structure.

859
00:54:56,560 --> 00:54:59,760
The statement is,
"We're honouring our ancestors",

860
00:54:59,760 --> 00:55:02,640
and they might even say
to us, if we could time travel,

861
00:55:02,640 --> 00:55:05,360
"Don't you honour your ancestors
in this way?"

862
00:55:08,480 --> 00:55:10,760
Looking at all
the archaeological evidence,

863
00:55:10,760 --> 00:55:14,560
it seems more likely that, rather
than a self-inflicted ecocide,

864
00:55:14,560 --> 00:55:17,160
the true collapse
of Rapa Nui society

865
00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:20,280
was caused by outside influences.

866
00:55:20,280 --> 00:55:22,920
As time went on and the evidence
accumulated,

867
00:55:22,920 --> 00:55:25,960
we realised that a lot of what
people thought was collapse

868
00:55:25,960 --> 00:55:30,120
was something that actually happened
after Europeans arrived,

869
00:55:30,120 --> 00:55:33,080
and it had an entirely
different cause,

870
00:55:33,080 --> 00:55:37,000
and that was the introduction
of Old World disease.

871
00:55:37,000 --> 00:55:40,920
There was the smallpox,
there was the Spanish flu,

872
00:55:40,920 --> 00:55:42,960
leprosy, slave trading.

873
00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:45,120
It was difficult to live here,

874
00:55:45,120 --> 00:55:48,800
and it was more difficult to keep
the social structures

875
00:55:48,800 --> 00:55:51,400
and the life as the way
that we knew it.

876
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:55,400
Over time, we see people sort of
abandoning ahu and moai.

877
00:55:55,400 --> 00:55:56,680
It's a loss of population.

878
00:55:56,680 --> 00:55:59,240
There are just fewer people
because of the effects of diseases.

879
00:55:59,240 --> 00:56:01,280
So people are not attending
to the ahu

880
00:56:01,280 --> 00:56:04,440
and rebuilding them in the way
that they did in the past.

881
00:56:04,440 --> 00:56:07,480
Things got even worse in the 1860s.

882
00:56:07,480 --> 00:56:09,960
Peruvian slave traders

883
00:56:09,960 --> 00:56:14,640
captured about a third
of the population on the island

884
00:56:14,640 --> 00:56:18,880
and forced them onto their ships
to work in Peru.

885
00:56:44,640 --> 00:56:46,480
By the time it was over,

886
00:56:46,480 --> 00:56:49,480
there were less than 200
Rapa Nui left alive.

887
00:56:52,960 --> 00:56:56,840
The true story of Rapa Nui is one
of survival against the odds

888
00:56:56,840 --> 00:56:59,480
by an ingenious and resilient people

889
00:56:59,480 --> 00:57:02,040
who came to a bad land
and made it good.

890
00:57:03,640 --> 00:57:05,560
But that story has been
overshadowed

891
00:57:05,560 --> 00:57:08,440
by a Western fascination
with the moai,

892
00:57:08,440 --> 00:57:10,520
and for Sonia and Hete,

893
00:57:10,520 --> 00:57:14,800
that is the true tragedy
and triumph of Rapa Nui.

894
00:57:14,800 --> 00:57:19,400
If we look only at the moai,
we are not making this place bigger.

895
00:57:19,400 --> 00:57:22,480
We are making it small.

896
00:57:22,480 --> 00:57:27,920
That means you don't believe
in my capacity as a human being.

897
00:57:27,920 --> 00:57:31,680
If there's one thing that I would
like people to take from Rapa Nui,

898
00:57:31,680 --> 00:57:34,200
it's that the history
has been narrated

899
00:57:34,200 --> 00:57:36,320
by a very selective group of people.

900
00:57:36,320 --> 00:57:38,360
There are different realities.

901
00:57:38,360 --> 00:57:42,360
The world is full of beautiful,
amazing stories

902
00:57:42,360 --> 00:57:46,360
that deserve to be told,
and people deserve to hear.

903
00:57:46,360 --> 00:57:48,640
Our history is not unique.

904
00:57:48,640 --> 00:57:53,840
We share with many islands,
and we share a beautiful past,

905
00:57:53,840 --> 00:57:56,200
a complex present,

906
00:57:56,200 --> 00:58:00,320
and many, many tragedies
in the midway.