When Polynesian explorers landed on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, around 1200 C.E., they found nearly 20 million palm trees; by the time Dutch explorers arrived in 1722, they found only ...

Rapa Nui Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, is among the most contested case studies of environmental archaeology, with the role of the Polynesian rat in its deforestation being central to this ...

Illustration of Polynesian Rat, Rattus exulans from an article entitled 'On the New Zealand Rat. (With Illustrations.)', by Walter Buller, Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New ...

The giant statues on Easter Island have been a subject of theorising down the centuries ...