The culture on the remote Easter island of Rapa Nui has largely developed in isolation after its first settlement – so far. But that is not entirely true how new analyzes show. Accordingly, people on Rapa Nui were more in contact with the islanders of Central Polynesia than assumed. For example, they were the first ritual sites, which were then imitated on the western islands. Only later did the exchange were lost, which is why the famous Moai sculptures today only exist on the Easter Island.
The first people in Polynesia spread quickly and colonized the numerous islands in the South Pacific from west to east – from Tonga and Samoa to Central Polynesia to Hawaii in the north, New Zealand in the south and Rapa Nui in the east. After this first colonization, however, the islands of Eastern Polynesia remained isolated from the other South Sea world, especially the most remote Easter Island-called Rapa Nui. So the previous acceptance of science.
Nevertheless, similar ritual practices and monumental structures as on the more central Polynesian islands were observed on the Easter Island. For example, people on Rapa Nui also built the fortified open -air centers Marae/Ahu, which served as community ritual areas and are still sacred to this day. However, the assembly places changed over time and developed differently on various Polynesian islands. For example, the famous Moai sculptures were created on Rapa Nui and placed in the ritual places. These oversized stone heads are only available there.
From west to east – and vice versa
But how did the remaining matches, despite the seclusion of the eastern islands? In which order and direction the ritual forms of expression spread at the time? In order to find out, Paul Wallin and Helene Martinsson-Wallin from the University of Uppsala have compared archaeological and radiocarbon data from places all over Eastern Polynesia. Among them were settlements, ritual places and monuments. The two archaeologists identified three different phases of ritual activity in Eastern Polynesia.
The first phase lasted from around 1000 to 1300 AD and reflects the already known early west-east expansion. At that time, the residents of the individual South Sea Islands were continuously in contact and exchanged. Ritual activities such as burials and festivals spread to Eastern Polynesia and Rapa Nui. The places where these ritual actions were carried out – for example hill – marked the residents in this phase by simple stone posts.
In the second phase of development, between 1300 and 1600 AD, the islanders then built the extensive Marae/Ahu, which was attached with stones, as a meeting place for their rituals. This idea of making ritual places more visible through paved soil was apparently not spreading from west to east, but had originated its origin on the Easter Island, as the radiocarbond data. “The complex, uniform ritual rooms known as Marae show previous C-14 dating in the east,” says Wallin. They were built before 1400. Only then did Marae also be built on the islands of Central Polynesia, including the Tuamotu Archipelago, the Marshal, Social and Cook Islands. This suggests that people on Rapa Nui were still in contact with their western neighbors in the South Pacific.
Monumental buildings were added late
The third phase, on the other hand, was characterized by increasing islands, including the eastern, as the team stated. This led to local differences between the individual islands of Polynesia: on Rapa Nui, Tahiti, Hawaii and Co, other hierarchical social structures developed independently during this time. At the same time, various monumental systems or megalith structures were built to demonstrate the power of the individual island groups.
It was only in this phase that people on Rapa Nui build the Moai sculptures, according to the data between 1350 and 1500 AD. In the following centuries, for example, the Heiau Temple in Hawaii, the Pā fortune in New Zealand, the Mahaiiatea facility in Tahiti, the Tiki statues on the marshal islands and the TapaputaAa temple on the island of Raiatea, which belongs to the social islands, were created on other islands.
The researchers conclude that the previous idea that Rapa Nui had only been populated once and then developed in isolation, was not true. Polynesia was actually colonized from west to east. New ideas such as the elaborate temple buildings were transferred from east to west during the subsequent ritual developments of Polynesia but also via networks in the opposite direction. “The results indicate a more complex pattern than previously assumed,” concludes Wallin.
Source: Paul Wallin and Helene Martinsson-Wallin (University of Uppsala); Antiquity, DOI: 10.15184/AQY.2025.10096
