Pascoa Island

But a new Journal of Pacific Archaeology paper suggests a more complicated history - by analysing the chemistry of the instruments used to make the large rock carvings, archeologists found proof of a demanding community where humans would share information and collaborate. "Laure Dussubieux, one of the writers of the field museum, says that for a long period of times peoples have been surprised by the cultural background behind these very important figures.

"to help us rethink the theoretical framework. "Dale Simpson, Jr., archeologist at the University of Queensland, says that the concept of Easter Island contest and breakdown could be exaggerated. "For me, the grinding shop is a sound proof that there was collaboration between family and crafts groups.

" Approximately 900 years ago the first humans came to Easter Island (or Rapa Nui in the national language). "According to verbal records, the basic universe consisted of two paddlers under the direction of the island's first chieftain, Hotu Matu? a," says Simpson, who is currently on the College of DuPage department.

Throughout the years the populace grew to hundreds of millions and formed the intricate company that created the Easter Island sculptures for which it is known today. Actually these sculptures, also called moonis, are full bodied figurines, which were partly interred with the years. There are almost a thousand of them, the biggest being over fifty ft large, representing the important predecessors of rapeseed Nui.

Simpson says that the scale and number of molecules indicate a highly developed population. "Old man Rafa Nui had chieftains, clergy and working class guilds fishing, farming and making mai. Some socio-political organisation was needed to make almost a thousand statues," says Simpson.

The recent digs of four sculptures inside Rano Raraku, the Broken Tomb, were carried out by Jo Anne Van Tilburg of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA and Principal of the Easter Island statue project, along with her Rafa Nui digging group. In order to better comprehend the company that made two of the sculptures, Simpson, Dussubieux and Van Tilburg have taken a close look at twenty-one of about 1600 rock implements made of vulcanic rock named Basalt found during Van Tilburg's archaeological search.

Approximately half of the implements, named Tokyo, were restored, were pieces that indicated how they were used. "when they were near where they live. "On Easter Island there are at least three different springs from which the Rapa Nui produce the materials for their rock tool.

These various types of quarry, the instruments that came from them and the movements between different types of site, both archeological and geographic, provide information about the pre-historic nature of Rapid Nuiism. "Dussubieux conducted the chemistry study of rock tooling. Archeologists using a lasers saw off minute bits of rock from the Tokyo and then used an analytical tool known as a bulk analyzer to analyse the quantities of different chemicals in the specimens.

Simpson thinks that the company requires a level of cooperation. "Most of the Tokyo population came from a rock pit compound - if they found the rock pit they liked, they would stick with it," Simpson says. "In order for anyone to use any kind of rock, he had to work together.

" For Simpson, this layer of large-scale collaboration goes against the populist story that the Easter Island residents ran out of natural means and fought to doom. "There is so much secrecy around Easter Island because it is so secluded, but on the island, humans have been and are still in the process of interaction in large quantities," says Simpson.

Whereas later on the company was depleted by settlers and slave labor, the Rape Nui civilization has survived. "Today, hundreds of millions of Rapa Nui live - today's population is not gone," Simpson states. "Using a stone pit almost exclusively to make these seventeen pieces of tooling provides a perspective of craftsmanship specialisation on the basis of information sharing, but we cannot know at this point whether the interactions were collaborational.

Our research is encouraging further mappings and rock acquisitions, and our digs are continuing to shed new life on mooncrafting. "As well as opening the way to a more differentiated vision of the Rapa Nui tribe, Dussubieux points out that the survey is important because it provides far-reaching insight into the functioning of society.

"The majority of humans do not reside on a small island, but what we have learned in the past about human interaction is very important to us today, because what defines our lives is how we deal with each other. "Analyzing huge rock caps found on Rapa Nui, Chile (Easter Island) provides proof that contradicts the widespread beliefs that old civilisation had a martial cultur.

The Easter Island is known for its singular Moai monuments sculpted by the Rapa Nui who are thought to have reached the isolated land mass in the southeast Pacific around the twelfth cenury. A 13-ton cap on a huge sculpture? This is what a research crew is trying to find out by studying the Easter Island sculptures and the scarlet caps that are sitting on some of them.

The Arts and Humanities Research Council gave two-thirds of a million books to a research group of archeologists investigating the iconic sculptures in the countryside of a small island in the pacific ocean. In March, a research group headed by William D'Andrea, Adjunct Research Fellow at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, traveled to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) to work on a large research initiative....

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