An island-wide assessment of the chronology of settlement and land use on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) based on radiocarbon data

The slow demise of Easter Island: insights from a modeling investigation

“…We propose here a third possibility, a slow demise, which comprises aspects of both ecocide and genocide and is in line with very recent findings (Mulrooney, 2013) questioning a sudden, ecological and societal change prior to the island's discovery by Europeans. Under this scenario, the human population grew rapidly only during the first two centuries until reaching unsustainable numbers.…”

“…While palynological analyses (Flenley and King, 1984;Flenley et al, 1991;Mann et al, 2008) and radiocarbon dates of charcoal remains (Mann et al, 2003;Bork, 2004, 2005;Rolett and Diamond, 2004;Hunt and Lipo, 2006;Mulrooney, 2013) confirm reports of the first eye witnesses (Hunt, 2007) that the island was almost entirely deprived of its forest by the time Europeans discovered it in 1722 AD, there is no reliable evidence about the precise temporal dynamics of the human population and the timing of a potential collapse.…”

“…In contrast to most previous modeling studies on Easter Island (Brander and Taylor, 1998;Anderies, 2000;Dalton and Coats, 2000;Reuveny and Decker, 2000;Basener and Ross, 2004;D'Alessandro, 2007;Basener et al, 2008;Sprott, 2011;Motesharrei et al, 2014), we evaluate the simulations by comparing the model results against two compilations of radiocarbon dates (Hunt and Lipo, 2006;Mulrooney, 2013), because the frequency distribution of these radiocarbon dates provide a temporally resolved estimate of the forest clearance intensity, which can be directly compared to the forest clearance rate predicted by the model. Unlike other studies (Collard et al, 2010;Mulrooney, 2013;Shennan et al, 2013), therefore, we do not consider the radiocarbon frequencies as an indication of the size of the human population, but rather of the islanders' clearance activities.…”

“…Unlike other studies (Collard et al, 2010;Mulrooney, 2013;Shennan et al, 2013), therefore, we do not consider the radiocarbon frequencies as an indication of the size of the human population, but rather of the islanders' clearance activities. Being aware of the potential pitfalls in using radiocarbon dates as proxies for human activities (Surovell and Brantingham, 2007;Armit et al, 2013), we ascribe more importance to the similarity in the general form of the frequency distribution and the modeled clearance rate than to high frequency fluctuations, which may be due to sampling biases, the calibration curve, or the binning of the data.…”

Adapting to Population Growth: The Evolutionary Alternative to Malthus

“…Peiser (2005: 527-8) shows that this date actually comes from Thor Heyerdahl's rather dubious ideas. Recent research seems to indicate continuous settlement and land use up to and beyond European contact (Mulrooney 2013). When the first Europeans arrived in 1722, the Dutchman Roggeveen described the island as fertile and thriving although devoid of trees (see Peiser 2005: 520;Hunt & Lipo 2010: 26) and no drop in population seems indicated before the latter half of the 18 th century (Mulrooney 2013;cf.…”