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Today, the journey to Easter Island takes five hours. flight from Chile to a distance of more than three and a half thousand kilometers. It’s hard to believe that in the first millennium AD this island was purposefully populated by a group of people sailed a little shorter on the sea – presumably more than three thousand kilometers from the island of Mangarev (Tuamotu archipelago in modern French Polynesia). Grades the dates of the settlement of Easter Island by scientists vary from 300 to 1000 years of our era. Version about random settlement of the island rejected. Computer models show that at that level The island could only be inhabited by technology intentionally – expedition on several large canoes, with a substantial supply of water and food, as well as pets (the islanders had chicken) and tools. Of several hundred famous stone statues Easter islands facing the sea facing only seven. According to local legend, they were put in memory of the seven leaders (the chiefs of seven canoes sailing to the island?) Isle. But it is unlikely that these people were driven by a thirst for discovery. Most likely, faced in their homeland with deadly factors like natural disasters, overpopulation and hunger, or tribal enmity, they put all available forces and resources into almost hopeless sea expedition in order to try save the life of a kind remains.
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There is a version that in the XV century sailed to the island Incas who managed to conquer the islanders and become ruling here class. Scientists and indeed found genetic markers characteristic of indigenous people South America. The traditional name for Easter Island is Rapa Nui. Its modern name Easter Island received, when the Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeven saw him on the day Easter in 1722. His card immediately graced newfound land. Today Easter Island this land without forests and sparse soil. But when they sailed to the island the first settlers, it was covered in forests and probably seemed to them paradise. The main mysteries of Easter Island relate to large stone statues “moai”. The seeming absurdity of finding these statues on a relatively small and treeless the island has hit all European mariners, starting with Englishman James Cook, who landed here in 1774. By the way he was the first to pay attention to the similarity of the statues of the island Easter with the famous South American statues Indians in the territory of present Ecuador and Bolivia. Apparently, the construction of numerous statues began the Incas who took power. Dividing the land and people on the island between themselves, they started something like a Cold War with each other, constantly erecting ever newer and larger statues. it rivalry undermined the fragile ecosystem of a small islands. During it, the forests necessary for the delivery of statues from quarries to special ceremonial platforms. Soil erosion has begun. Indigenous the islanders faced hunger, despite the fact that on the island had numerous taboos (bans) on hunting and fishing designed to preserve fish and animal populations for future generations. This could not last long. In the 16th century, the indigenous the population rebelled and completely exterminated the Inca ruling class. Unfinished stone statues left to lie in quarries where are still located. But it was too late. Undermined the ecosystem could no longer recover. The island plunged into the abyss of fierce wars between genera, famine and cannibalism. Stone statues glorified this island, but first they became the cause of the death of his ecology and culture.
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Another mystery of Easter Island – unique writing Rongo rongo. This type of writing world science is still officially considers unencrypted. However, the Russian Academy Science recognizes correct very convincing decryption Rongo-rongo, performed by Russian researcher Irina Konstantinovna Fedorova (1931 – 2010), who devoted more 40 years.
DNA Inca Civilization Easter Island
