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A long section adjacent to a former obsidian quarry on Easter Island (Rapa Nui) reveals a sequence of agricultural strategies, beginning with the clearing of palm trees in the twelfth century AD, and the making of an open garden growing yams and taro, that continued through the fifteenth century. The later phases between the seventeenth and ninetee...
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... ancient garden reported in this paper is located at the base of the south-western slope of Maunga Orito adjacent to the road to Vinapu that parallels the airport runway ( Figure 3). • Site 4-3 was destroyed by the soil barrow ...
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... Orito is a steeply sided cone with a mid-section slope of approximately 30 degrees. Numerous habitation sites along with a few small shrines and statues are present on the slopes and at the base ( Figure 3, Table 1) (McCoy 1976). It is also the location of one of the four obsidian outcrops that were extensively exploited in prehistory. Open pit mines reflecting this activity are located about 100m upslope. Recent soil mining at the base of the hill has created a large quarry pit with a north-west -south-east oriented soil profile that is over 100m in length (Figure 3, Figure 4). This soil removal exposed a stratigraphic profile that incorporated an anthropogenic horizon formed by prehistoric cultivation. Although we refer to this area as a domestic garden, our initial observations noted cultural features and charcoal lenses at varying depth, which suggested that multiple cultivation events had occurred over time and space. The soil profile was investigated on three occasions. In early 2002, Mieth and Bork sketched a 65m section of the profile and selected radiocarbon samples from cultural features with the goal of documenting pre- historic land use activities and the resulting phenomena of soil erosion/deposition in this area. Later in the year, after further mechanical soil extraction with a front-end loader from Hanga Roa, the site was visited by Stevenson and Jackson and additional work was conducted. In this effort, a 122m section of the profile was scraped, profiled, and drawn to scale. A level reference line and 30m tapes were used to control for distance and relative elevation ( Figure 5). Agricultural planting pits within an anthropogenic soil horizon and cultural hearths and living surfaces within a colluvium were identified, drawn and photographed. The rock distributions at the current surface were also recorded along the entire extent of the soil profile. A final visit was made in late 2004 by Stevenson, Ladefoged, Mieth, and Bork to re-evaluate the stratigraphic profile. It was during this visit that a buried garden horizon was encountered at the far eastern end of the profile and sampled for datable carbon and obsidian fragments. We have combined the results of the three investigations to provide a more complete picture of past agricultural activity in this ...
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... Orito is a steeply sided cone with a mid-section slope of approximately 30 degrees. Numerous habitation sites along with a few small shrines and statues are present on the slopes and at the base ( Figure 3, Table 1) (McCoy 1976). It is also the location of one of the four obsidian outcrops that were extensively exploited in prehistory. Open pit mines reflecting this activity are located about 100m upslope. Recent soil mining at the base of the hill has created a large quarry pit with a north-west -south-east oriented soil profile that is over 100m in length (Figure 3, Figure 4). This soil removal exposed a stratigraphic profile that incorporated an anthropogenic horizon formed by prehistoric cultivation. Although we refer to this area as a domestic garden, our initial observations noted cultural features and charcoal lenses at varying depth, which suggested that multiple cultivation events had occurred over time and space. The soil profile was investigated on three occasions. In early 2002, Mieth and Bork sketched a 65m section of the profile and selected radiocarbon samples from cultural features with the goal of documenting pre- historic land use activities and the resulting phenomena of soil erosion/deposition in this area. Later in the year, after further mechanical soil extraction with a front-end loader from Hanga Roa, the site was visited by Stevenson and Jackson and additional work was conducted. In this effort, a 122m section of the profile was scraped, profiled, and drawn to scale. A level reference line and 30m tapes were used to control for distance and relative elevation ( Figure 5). Agricultural planting pits within an anthropogenic soil horizon and cultural hearths and living surfaces within a colluvium were identified, drawn and photographed. The rock distributions at the current surface were also recorded along the entire extent of the soil profile. A final visit was made in late 2004 by Stevenson, Ladefoged, Mieth, and Bork to re-evaluate the stratigraphic profile. It was during this visit that a buried garden horizon was encountered at the far eastern end of the profile and sampled for datable carbon and obsidian fragments. We have combined the results of the three investigations to provide a more complete picture of past agricultural activity in this ...
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... small radiocarbon samples were selected from within a planting pit feature within the buried Aga-Horizon in Section D ( Figure 13). This context precedes the later colluvial build up dated in Section A. The fragments were suitable for AMS dating and were submitted to Beta Analytic (Table 2). Another charcoal sample was taken from a planting pit in the buried Aga-Horizon 90 centimetres below the present surface. This sample was dated in the Leibniz-Laboratory, Kiel, Germany (Table 2). All of the radiocarbon assays on cultural carbon samples from Section A had multiple intercepts on the calibration curve. However, the probabilities associated with each of the intercepts show the greatest likelihood of the true age in three of the samples (KIA 17116, 17117, Beta-178860) to occur in the middle to late AD 1700s. The fourth date (KIA 17118) suggests later activity in the nineteenth century. Two AMS samples from Section D (Beta 196925, 196926) had only single intercepts on the calibration curve and both samples dated to the middle of the fifteenth century with 2-sigma calibrations of AD 1420-1490 and AD 1410-1480. The third AMS sample (KIA 25975) from Section D had two intercepts on the calibration curve and is of younger age. The 2-sigma calibrated age is AD 1477-1531 and ...
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... prehistoric settlement pattern in the vicinity of Orito is now fragmentary as a result of modern farming and the construction of roads and an airport. However, the remnant archaeological sites show that habitation sites are numerous within the vicinity of the obsidian quarry (Table 1). Obsidian reduction seems to have been largely confined to the quarry proper since few outlier workshops are present. The mechanically excavated soil profile exposed a portion of a habitation site likely to be Site 4-17 ( Figure 3). Numerous carbon lenses and hearths, a storage pit and planting pits reflect human occupation in this area. The occurrence of these features in the profile reveals the chronological development of land use. Radiocarbon samples from a portion of these features suggest that this dynamic lasted until the middle to late AD 1700s, and may have extended into the nineteenth century. The planting pits below the colluvium document the oldest period of land use in this area that date between the twelfth through fifteenth centuries. However, their stratigraphic location below the habitation site and within an intact and earlier Aga-Horizon show that a period of garden activity preceded other types of land ...
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Citations
... On Rapa Nui, the subtropical climate limited the range of traditional Polynesian crops that could be grown, and, as in Hawai'i, the sweet potato dominated agricultural production. Several distinctive agronomic adaptations were developed by the island's farmers, including small walled garden pits (manawai) that tapped shallow groundwater and allowed for cultivation of taro and bananas and extensive "rock gardens" utilizing lithic mulch (Stevenson et al. 2006). Rock-derived nutrients (especially P) in the lithic mulch boosted the available nutrient supply, enhancing production (Vitousek et al. 2014). ...
This chapter provides an overview of the archaeology of East Polynesia (with the exception of Aotearoa, which is treated in a separate chapter). Whereas the island cultures of West Polynesia were settled ca. 800-900 BC, the East Polynesian islands were not discovered and settled until much later, between AD 950-1250. This final stage of Polynesian expansion included contact with South America, and introduction of the sweet potato to East Polynesia. Today, every major island in East Polynesia has seen at least some archaeological investigation and some islands have had extensive research. Major themes of current research include: continued voyaging, interaction, and exchanges between islands following initial settlement; the impact of human activities on island biota and landscapes, resulting in the development of socioecosystems; the intensification of agricultural and other means of production; and, the rise of complex socio-political systems, as evidenced in particular through household archaeology and the study of monumentality. A holistic, multidisciplinary approach that combines archaeology with natural sciences, linguistics, cultural anthropology, and oral traditions has proven critical to refining our understanding of long-term dynamics and cultural changes in East Polynesia.
... Only one Chilean territory that followed a different dynamic was Easter Island (Rapa Nui). With the arrival of the first colonisers, several crops started to be cultivated, such as dryland taro (Colocasia esculenta), yam (Dioscorea spp.), and ti (Cordyline) [23]. In the case of wine production, the farm owners began to work and produce together, giving rise to the greater specialisation of the existing processes [24]. ...
Soil is one of the most important and non-renewable elements of the environment. In order to improve income and increase productivity from the soil, various techniques (e.g. tillage) and substances (e.g. pesticides, fertilisers) have been employed. The use of these techniques and substances increased soil degradation. This is coupled with other socioeconomic processes that occurred in recent years, such as the land-use change from forest areas to agricultural lands. For this reason, in recent decades, awareness has been raised about these issues, and various regulations have been dictated on the need to protect the environment and the soil in agricultural areas, identify sustainable practices to implement in agricultural areas, control the number of fertilisers and pesticides used, and protect the mosaic of territories to avoid further degradation.KeywordsEcosystem servicesLand-use changeSoil degradationSustainable agriculture
... Still, there are temporal correlations between the expansion of lithic mulch gardens and the sequence of deforestation for the island that hint at a causal relationship. The earliest dated examples of lithic mulch gardens on Rapa Nui were constructed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (Bork et al. 2004;Stevenson 1997), with the most intensive use evident in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries (Ladefoged et al. 2013;Stevenson et al. 2006). Based on this chronological sequence, Hans-Rudolf Bork and colleagues (2004:12) explicitly connected the development of lithic gardens to ecological change on Rapa Nui (see also Hunt 2007:498); and Christopher M. Stevenson and coauthors (2006) hypothesized a sequence that began with forest decline, was followed by open field cultivation, and was then replaced with the use of lithic mulches as aridity increased with forest contraction. ...
Agricultural practices modify the environment, and that modified environment is,
in turn, inherited by subsequent generations. Humans are not the only animals that
transform the environment, however, and humans often use ecosystems that depend on the engineering and services of other animals for maintained functionality. In this way, non-human animals also influence trajectories of agricultural change, as we demonstrate empirically using case studies from East Polynesia focused on Rapa Nui, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, and the Gambier Islands. Through the discussion of ecosystem engineering and ecological inheritance, we show how non-human animals bring about incremental changes to the environment, which are then inherited by human populations and come to affect the ways food production and other cultural practices intersect and cascade through time.
... On Rapa Nui in Eastern Polynesia, endemic trees were collected as firewood and for use in constructing houses and canoes. Slash and burn agriculture, which resulted in wind erosion, higher evapotranspiration, and reduced soil moisture retention, as well as the loss of bird guano inputs into soil nutrient regimes, also contributed to extensive deforestation (Stevenson et al., 2006;Kirch, 2017). Unbeknownst to its settlers, soil degradation on Rapa Nui was likely both more rapid and severe than in other parts of Eastern Polynesia, given the island's high aridity and size relative to human population (Ladefoged, 2005). ...
Analyzing the spatial and temporal properties of information flow with a multi-century perspective could illuminate the sustainability of human resource-use strategies. This paper uses historical and archaeological datasets to assess how spatial, temporal, cognitive, and cultural limitations impact the generation and flow of information about ecosystems within past societies, and thus lead to tradeoffs in sustainable practices. While it is well understood that conflicting priorities can inhibit successful outcomes, case studies from Eastern Polynesia, the North Atlantic, and the American Southwest suggest that imperfect information can also be a major impediment to sustainability. We formally develop a conceptual model of Environmental Information Flow and Perception (EnIFPe) to examine the scale of information flow to a society and the quality of the information needed to promote sustainable coupled natural-human systems. In our case studies, we assess key aspects of information flow by focusing on food web relationships and nutrient flows in socio-ecological systems, as well as the life cycles, population dynamics, and seasonal rhythms of organisms, the patterns and timing of species’ migration, and the trajectories of human-induced environmental change. We argue that the spatial and temporal dimensions of human environments shape society’s ability to wield information, while acknowledging that varied cultural factors also focus a society’s ability to act on such information. Our analyses demonstrate the analytical importance of completed experiments from the past, and their utility for contemporary debates concerning managing imperfect information and addressing conflicting priorities in modern environmental management and resource use.
... A chronological review of archaeological records supported by direct biological evidence (remains of plant origin) is provided below, whereas indirect evidencestructures such as walls or pits (e.g. Stevenson et al. 2006), as well as oral traditions and legends (Best 1925;Heyerdahl 1952;Wallin et al. 2005)-is beyond the scope of this chapter and is not discussed. ...
Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam., the sweet potato, is one of the most important crops worldwide and a staple in many countries. It is cultivated in warm countries for its edible storage roots, and thousands of cultivars and landraces have been recorded worldwide. It is the best-known member of the genus Ipomoea L., the morning glories, a group of over 800 species present in all tropical and subtropical regions of the World (Muñoz-Rodríguez et al. 2019).
... Then, the unfertile, weathered volcanic rock underneath these garden soils was eroded, partially washed or blown into the sea, or deposited in downslope areas. In turn, not only gardens but also cultural sites in the depositional areas were shrouded or buried by sediments (Sherwood et al. 2019;Bork 2003, 2017;Stevenson et al. 2006;Mann et al. 2003). ...
The exact timing of the first settlement of Rapa Nui is still subject of debate. Some authors argue for a settlement around 800 to 1000 AD (Steadman et al. 1994; Martinsson-Wallin and Crockford 2002; Mieth and Bork 2010). Other authors advocate the scenario of initial settlement around 1150 AD at the earliest (e.g., Hunt and Lipo 2006; DiNapoli et al. 2020). Undoubtably, however, the first settlers found an island covered in pristine woodland. The presence of an initially dense vegetation consisting of relatively few tree species and an understory of diverse shrub species, herbs, and ferns has been extensively documented in recent decades by palynological, anthracological, and geoarcheological research, and most recently summarized in detail by Rull (2020b). A now extinct palm species of the Cocosoidae subfamily played a dominant role in the species composition of the woodland. The palm species was probably closely related to the Chilean wine palm (Jubaea chilensis), whose exact taxonomic classification either to the genus Jubaea or as a separate species of a new genus Paschalcocos has been discussed (Dransfield et al. 1984; Zizka 1991). Biotic evidence for the former existence of more than one palm species has also been discussed (Delhon and Orliac 2007). The former existence of the now extinct palm species is undoubtedly proven by their remains in geoarchives and/or anthropogenic contexts: pollen, phytoliths, charred wood, and especially by nutshells (endocarps) that appear either as deposits in protected places or as charred pieces in fireplaces. The most impressive indication of the former spatial distribution of the palm-dominated woodland is provided by palm root imprints preserved in the autochthonous soils that are attributable to the respective locations of individual trees. These imprints were found by Bork et al. (2019a) on more than 80% of Rapa Nui’s surface area and up to an altitude of 500 m asl on the Terevaka volcano. In their latest calculations, the authors arrived at a total number of 19.7 million palms that once grew on Rapa Nui (Bork et al. 2019a).
... 20 years have significantly increased our knowledge of Rapa Nui cultivation and shown otherwise. While there is evidence of soil erosion associated with forest clearance and agricultural activities, particularly on the steep slopes of Rano Kau, Poike, and northwest Terevaka (e.g., [92,122]), an island-wide study of current erosion demonstrates that while much of the island is potentially susceptible to erosion, only around 5% of the land surface is severely eroded [123], and much of this is attributed to the post-contact effects of historic sheep ranching [63,122,124]. ...
... Crop production on the island largely focused on the use of small, walled gardens (manavai) and various unique lithic mulching techniques [109] (Figure 5). Lithic mulch takes a variety of forms, from veneers of small stones to large boulder gardens [124][125][126][127][128][129], and these cover large portions of the island [130]. Lithic mulch is hypothesized to increase productivity and reduce risk and uncertainty, by increasing nutrient inputs from weathered volcanic stone, limiting evapotranspiration, reducing soil erosion, and minimizing temperature variance [109,125,127,131,132]. ...
The history of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has long been framed as a parable for how societies can fail catastrophically due to the selfish actions of individuals and a failure to wisely manage common-pool resources. While originating in the interpretations made by 18th-century visitors to the island, 20th-century scholars recast this narrative as a "tragedy of the commons," assuming that past populations were unsustainable and selfishly overexploited the limited resources on the island. This narrative, however, is now at odds with a range of archaeological, ethnohistoric, and environmental evidence. Here, we argue that while Rapa Nui did experience large-scale deforestation and ecological changes, these must be contextualized given past land-use practices on the island. We provide a synthesis of this evidence, showing that Rapa Nui populations were sustainable and avoided a tragedy of the commons through a variety of community practices. We discuss this evidence in the context of Elinor Ostrom's "core design principles" for sustainable communities and argue that Rapa Nui provides a model for long-term sustainability.
... These findings are independently supported by recent research showing that monument construction steadily continued even after European arrival 57,77 . In addition, research now demonstrates that deforestation was a prolonged process, did not result in catastrophic erosion, and that land cover was quickly replaced by lithic mulch gardens that increased agricultural productivity 66,67,[80][81][82][83][84][85] . Moreover, while some claim that deforestation resulted in the loss of food 29,68 , there is no evidence that palms were a significant dietary resource for islanders 66,86 . ...
Examining how past human populations responded to environmental and climatic changes is a central focus of the historical sciences. The use of summed probability distributions (SPD) of radiocarbon dates as a proxy for estimating relative population sizes provides a widely applicable method in this research area. Paleodemographic reconstructions and modeling with SPDs, however, are stymied by a lack of accepted methods for model fitting, tools for assessing the demographic impact of environmental or climatic variables, and a means for formal multi-model comparison. These deficiencies severely limit our ability to reliably resolve crucial questions of past human-environment interactions. We propose a solution using Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) to fit complex demographic models to observed SPDs. Using a case study from Rapa Nui (Easter Island), a location that has long been the focus of debate regarding the impact of environmental and climatic changes on its human population, we find that past populations were resilient to environmental and climatic challenges. Our findings support a growing body of evidence showing stable and sustainable communities on the island. The ABC framework offers a novel approach for exploring regions and time periods where questions of climate-induced demographic and cultural change remain unresolved.
... While the island never had abundant resources or rich soils, it was transformed by humans over ca. 500 years through the introduction of the commensal Pacific rat [76][77][78], forest clearance [79,80], and the establishment of vast lithic mulch gardens for food production [e.g., [81][82][83][84][85][86][87]. Recent studies show that freshwater sources available in groundwater discharge (springs) predict the locations of ahu and point to community activities centered on this shared critical resource [88][89][90]. ...
Understanding how and why cultural diversity changes in human populations remains a central topic of debate in cultural evolutionary studies. Due to the effects of drift, small and isolated populations face evolutionary challenges in the retention of richness and diversity of cultural information. Such variation, however, can have significant fitness consequences, particularly when environmental conditions change unpredictably, such that knowledge about past environments may be key to long-term persistence. Factors that can shape the outcomes of drift within a population include the semantics of the traits as well as spatially structured social networks. Here, we use cultural transmission simulations to explore how social network structure and interaction affect the rate of trait retention and extinction. Using Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) as an example, we develop a model-based hypothesis for how the structural constraints of communities living in small, isolated populations had dramatic effects and likely led to preventing the loss of cultural information in both community patterning and technology.
... Like the cultural land-use, the evidence indicates that deforestation was heterogeneous in time and space (Rull et al., 2015;Seco et al., 2019). After the onset of intense deforestation, people took up various types of stone gardening (Bork and Mieth, 2004;Stevenson et al., 2006Stevenson et al., , 2015. Somewhere between the mid-16th and the late 18th century AD, presumed social instability, potentially exacerbated by natural factors that included an earlier shift in climate, resulted in a series of cultural changes, as indicated by the abandonment of houses and gardens, the toppling of moai and the emergence of the birdman cult (Rull, 2016;Rull et al., 2018;Stevenson et al., 2015). ...
... Other pit features recorded on the island include planting pits, storage pits, fire pits/ hearths and ovens/cooking pits (umu) (cf. Mieth and Bork, 2003;Mieth et al., 2002;Haoa Cardinali, 2008a, 2008b;Stevenson et al., 2006;Wozniak and Stevenson, 2008). Charcoal can also be expected in planting pits, fire pits and ovens or cooking pits, making these types the most likely alternative candidates. ...
Although Rapa Nui has been proposed as a classic example of cultural collapse, this hypothesis has been repeatedly questioned. This paper investigates cultural continuity on Rapa Nui following the onset of deforestation through a study of red ochre pits. Red ochre pigments are well-known from various contexts on Rapa Nui, but until recently its origin and the extraction process involved in their production were not precisely understood. New excavations have revealed the presence of multiple pits used for pigment production and storage by the island’s prehistoric culture. Previous geoarchaeological studies, including geomorphological, pedological, geochemical and micromorphological analyses, have shown that the pits contain fine layers of reddish iron oxides (ochre), which result from repeated intentional burning. The oxide layers alternate with thin layers of phytoliths, interpreted as the remains of plant material used as fuel, and diatoms. This paper presents new phytolith and diatom data from the previously described site of Vaipú East, complemented with data from similar pits at the new sites of Vaipú West and Poike. New 14C dates are also presented from these sites. The phytolith and diatom data provide crucial information about the chaîne opératoire of the ochre production and the formation processes associated with the pits. The evidence of pigment production and storage at Vaipú East shows that labour-intensive ochre production took place on Rapa Nui during at least two separate phases after deforestation, while the pits discovered at other sites indicate that Vaipú East did not stand alone. This provides a further line of evidence in favour of cultural continuity rather than collapse following deforestation in the island’s late prehistory. (See also the linked data).
