Rapa Nui Journal

Volume 21, Number 2 • October 2007

FROM THE EDITORS

The VII International Conference on Easter Island and the Pacific, which took place at Gotland University, Sweden, at the end of August, is to be seen as another major arena for discussion and dialogue. With 200 participants from 27 nations, it is really true to say that Easter Island and the Pacific attract attention from all over the world. It was wonderful to greet old colleagues and friends as well as making new acquaintances, and to take part in the academic discussions. In this global arena of dialog, many interesting papers that contribute to the ongoing debate were presented. The themes spanned a wide variety: from the presentation of new archaeological and geological data, re-evaluation of old data and new ways of analyzing archaeological and environmental data on Rapa Nui with digital tools, to issues concerning what it means to be Rapanui, and how the island is presented to the World.

Most notable and refreshing during the conference were several young Rapanui professionals, some inspired by Rapanui archaeologist Sonia Haoa (CONADI), and who have now entered the arena of scientific discussions. They talked about the past as well as engaged themselves in the concerns of the future of their small and vulnerable Island. We hope, in the future, to see and read more from the research and points of views of these young Rapanui in Rapa Nui Journal or other publications on Pacific research.

Debate and the questioning of scientific results are central themes for the scientific modus operandi, and new results are the necessary fuel for ongoing discussions. All this creates a useful dialogue, helping to recover new data and developing new research methods, and it also enables us to see research questions from new angles. The discussions in current archaeological research on Easter Island focus on issues such as the initial settlement dates as well as deforestation and catastrophic scenarios. These ongoing discussions require an evaluation of old data sets and a search for new data sets, as well as the development or refinement of scientific methods.

In this issue, Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo continue the discussion on initial settlement dates for Easter Island as well as past human impact on the Rapa Nui environment, in a reply to the paper by John Flenley and Paul Bahn, "Conficting View of Easter Island" which appeared in our last issue (May 2007:11-13). Following the paper by Hunt and Lipo, Flenley, Bahn, & Butler add a brief rebuttal.

Candace Gossen’s report presents the results of her research on the scirpus found in the crater lake at Rano Kau. Her findings provide some fascinating information on past climate change. And, another short report, by Georgia Lee, provides an additional point of dialogue. It is a matter of contemporary Rapanui interacting with the past by making new petroglyphs. These acts are a statement of how past actions and expressions are transformed and used in the contemporary setting to reveal something about identity and heritage, and gives rise to a discussion of authentic rock art when "old" and "new" blur over the passage of time.

David Addison’s study continues with Part 3 in his dialogue concerning Marquesan agriculture and land use as observed in the contact phase; and Shawn McLaughlin provides a reflection concerning the sweet potato in the Pacific, based on the recent monograph The Sweet Potato in Oceania: A Re-appraisal.

Our "Look Back" feature is the Spanish visit to Rapa Nui in 1770 when, by raising three crosses on Poike, they tried to convey the message of Christianity and superiority. The "Getting to Know You" page makes us more familiar with the French archaeologist Michel Orliac, who has a longstanding research interest in the East Polynesian area and whose book, Easter Island: Mystery of the Stone Giants, co-written with his wife Catherine, is a must-have for every Rapanuiphile.

— Helene Martinsson-Wallin and Paul Wallin

Senior Editors, RNJ

• • •

The VII International Conference on Easter Island and the Pacific was not only a successful meeting but a truly rewarding experience. Visby, Gotland’s main city, is a delight. Medieval buildings, cobblestone streets, ancient ruins, crenellated towers, museums, and lovely parks charmed all. Conference attendees scurried about, cameras at the ready. Well-planned sightseeing trips to some of Gotland’s archaeological sites were a real treat and a chance to interact with other conference members outside of the lecture halls. And, as always, having the opportunity to talk informally with one’s peers is one of the great perks of any conference. Opening ceremonies included a welcome from the President of the Municipality and County Council, Lilian Edwards. Helene Martinsson-Wallin spoke as did the President of the University, Leif Borgert. Owe Ronström and his son entertained with a hilarious program that had everyone jumping in their seats. Dave Rose, EIF president, welcomed attendees and was followed by Chris Stevenson. A dance performance by Susana Nahoe was next and then Sonia Haoa spoke, to be followed by a filmed greeting from His Highness, Tupua Tamasese. The keynote speech by John Flenley was next — and the conference was off to a great start!

The final party, a Medieval Banquet, was great fun. Locals came in costumes, including a Viking on a horse, with all the trappings. There were dancing girls, fire dancers, an feast of barbequed roast lamb, among other things. It was an event to remember and one that will be hard to top in the future. We thank Paul and Helene for all the hard work and planning that goes into a successful conference.

Finally, we thank Paul Horley for allowing us to use his excellent photographs taken at the conference. Many more images can be seen at: http:www.islandheritage.org/conference2007.html

— Georgia Lee

Volume 21, Number 1 • May 2007

FROM THE EDITORS

In both contemporary popular and scientific debates, it is evident that, for a long time, Rapa Nui has been viewed as an island of conflict, contradiction, and ruination. Intense competition amongst chiefs in the late society is obvious in the manufacture of huge ahu and moai statues. This rivalry resulted in open conflicts and destruction that are exceptional when compared to other Polynesia societies, as well as on a global scale. Internal conflicts and disruption are not unique to Rapa Nui society but, because the island is small, isolated, and contains stone monuments on a megalithic scale, radical social changes can be seen clearly.

A focus on destruction has overshadowed a basic fact: that the Rapa Nui society — despite the past dramatic environmental and social changes — not only has survived but is today in a dynamic place.

General views about Rapa Nui in the media are often fragmentary and may be quite ignorant of the facts. We have heard statements that “Rapa Nui is a tropical island located not far from Haiti, and that nobody knows about the antiquity nor where the gigantic statues come from...” but still there is a great interest in this geographically-isolated small piece of land and, surprisingly, many individuals do have good general knowledge about the island and its location.

In the scientific community, by contrast, contemporary conflicting ideas on the past of Rapa Nui have reached a rather refined level. Current issues under debate are of great significance as to how we should interpret the entire prehistoric sequence, as well as the ancient migration patterns in the eastern Pacific area. When exactly did people arrive to the island, did the society develop in total isolation, and what impact did humans (and rats?) have in the fundamental changes to the landscape? These questions have been pondered upon for many decades and still we haven’t reached a definite solution. During the last fifty years, there has been much research done on this fascinating place and what we find equally fascinating is that the scientific discussions still continue. Clearly, there remain exciting issues to be solved, old theories to be tested by new methods and theoretical approaches, and new excavations to be done.

Of course, the gigantic moai continue to be the greatest mystery of Rapa Nui. We know how they were manufactured, for the most part, but how were they transported? How were the topknots placed on the heads of the statues? And another continuing mystery is the origin of the islanders themselves. From whence did they come?

We therefore welcome the debating paper by John Flenley and Paul Bahn that discusses new chronological and natural-historical results by Hunt and Lipo, who have published in Science (2006a) and American Science (2006b). Two main statements of Hunt and Lipo are that the island was settled as late as AD 1200 and that the Polynesian rat was instrumental to the deforestation of the island. Flenley and Bahn discuss Hunt and Lipo’s hypotheses and, as they point out, these need to be further examined. We hope that the paper by Flenley and Bahn will trigger more debate on these issues, both at the upcoming conference on Easter Island and the Pacific at Gotland, Sweden, in August, and in subsequent issues of RNJ.

An old theme for Rapa Nui Journal concerns Rongorongo tablets and their inscriptions. In this issue, two papers deal with the tablets from very different approaches. Catherine Orliac’s paper, “Botanical Identification of the Wood of the Large Kohau Rongorongo Tablet of St. Petersburg” provides interesting results from her identification of the wood from which the tablets were made. Paul Horley analyzes the structure of the “text” in his contribution.

Archaeologist David Addison continues his ethnohistoric study of “Cultivation and Processing of Specific Agricultural Products,” Part II of IV, an amazingly in-depth study of Marquesan agriculture as described by early visitors to those islands.

On contemporary issues, Laura Jean Boyd contributes a paper concerning her film about veterinarian Jon Artz’s work with horses on the island, Caballo Loco on Easter Island — Boyd’s graduate thesis project from Montana State University. Her effort won best student film at the American Conservation Film Festival and will be featured on National Geographic’s Wild Chronicles.

And, Rapanuiphile Ben Baldanza sent us a paper on games that use Rapa Nui as their focus, a phenomenon that had previously gone unnoticed by our staff and proves the old adage that nothing is sacred.

W.A. Powell’s report of his visit to Easter Island is our “Look Back” feature. Powell, who was on the HMS Topaze when it visited Easter Island, describes some of his adventures in the London Times for January 1869. Some of the text in this article was subsequently incorporated into his 1899 article published by the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia. Powell’s article is here annotated by Shawn McLaughlin.

This issue of RNJ contains several important reviews. Scott Nicolay both reviews and discusses two papers that have appeared elsewhere, and deals with the current “hot” topics in Polynesian studies; Nicolay also contributes a review of an interesting new periodical, Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology.

Finally we hope that RNJ will continue to be a forum for contemporary debates on Rapa Nui prehistory, and we welcome papers that consider the controversies visible in the past as well as in the present.

— Paul Wallin and Helene Martinsson-Wallin

Senior Editors, RNJ

References

Flenley, J. and P. Bahn

The Enigmas of Easter Island. Island on the Edge. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002

Hunt, T.L. and C.P. Lipo.

“Late Colonization of Easter Island” - Science 311:1603-1606 (2006a)

Hunt, T.L. and C.P. Lipo.

“Rethinking the Fall of Easter Island: New Evidence Points to an Alternative Explanation for a Civilization’s Collapse” - American Scientist 94:5, 412-419 (2006b)

Volume 20, Number 2 • October 2006

FROM THE EDITORS

This issue of Rapa Nui Journal focuses on prehistoric economics and subsistence, replicative archaeology, and early agriculture in the Marquesas Islands.

Professors Thomas Dalton (Professor of Economics, Southern University at New Orleans); R. Morris Coats (Argent Bank Professor of Economics, Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, Louisiana); and Leon Taylor (Associate Professor of Economics, KIMEP, Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research, Almaty, Kazakhstan) use Rapa Nui’s past as an example when searching for a way to navigate into the future of the Earth. Rapa Nui has been a quite popular model of what may happen if we over-exploit our resources. However, in our opinion, the real disaster of Rapa Nui culture was not their internal struggles, but the external European contacts. The final blow to traditional Rapa Nui culture came with the Peruvian slave raids’ “black-birding” in the 1860s. A question that we may ask is: What path would Rapa Nui culture have taken without European interaction? It is a hypothetical question that we cannot answer, but only imagine! A dynamic Rapa Nui culture still exists, however, and it is heading toward new directions.

The paper by Dalton, Coats and Taylor was somewhat delayed when the three authors were forced to evacuate New Orleans as hurricane Katrina raced ashore. Taylor, a professor at Tulane University, was trapped in his second-floor office for days before he was rescued and evacuated to the Houston Astrodome. Because some programs at Tulane were subsequently discontinued, he took a position in Kazakhstan! Dalton’s specialty is labor and public economics; he was Professor of Economics at Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO). He evacuated prior to Katrina’s landfall but, with sharp declines in enrollment, he relocated to the University of Arizona. Coats specializes in public economics, with an emphasis on an interdisciplinary area of economics that applies economic reasoning to political and social phenomena or non-market activity, called public choice. Among the courses Coats teaches at Nicholls State University is one concerning environmental and natural resource economics. Coats also evacuated New Orleans and his life-altering experience was hearing the stories of evacuees whose lives were turned upside down, and witnessing dreadful conditions that prevail in the city as New Orleans struggles to recreate itself.

Rapa Nui is not the only place to experience a cultural collapse in the past; in fact, prehistory is full of such events. An article by Professor Colin Renfrew entitled "Systems Collapse as Social Transformation" deals with this issue, describing general features of systems collapse. Renfrew also discusses classical examples such as the Mycenaean civilization, the Indus Valley, Egypt, the Classic Maya, Tiahuanaco, etc., and suggests that collapses are indicated by the disappearance of organizational structures, but usually there are elements that continue into a following period, and often called a “Dark Age” by archaeologists. This denomination is due to the fact that material remains often become less visible (such periods are probably not that “dark” but may instead be seen as periods of transformation). In many cases, new central areas develop in the old core areas and new authority is claimed through descent from earlier rulers or from the heroes that have overthrown the earlier rulers (Renfrew 1984:366-389). These processes concern the development of chiefdoms in Scandinavian prehistory, and have been discussed by Kristian Kristiansen and Michael Rowlands. Their research indicates that, in a long-time perspective, the Scandinavian Bronze and Iron Age chiefdoms appear to go through evolutions and devolutions in a cycle. A first peak is seen at around 1700 BC but it declines around 500 BC, and once more reaches a peak at the beginning of the Viking age, around AD 800 (Kristiansen and Rowlands 1998:252-264).

David Addison’s paper deals with his Marquesan research and concerns agriculture and subsistence. Addison began his studies of tropical horticulture at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo and received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. He began working in the Marquesas in 1992. Little research had previously been done on the traditional agricultural systems of the Marquesas, and yet they are important for understanding East Polynesian prehistory. For the past seven years, he has been conducting research in Samoa. Addison’s future plans include continuing research on traditional agriculture in the Marquesas and also the prehistory of Samoa.

Because Addison’s study is quite extensive, it will therefore be divided in four parts in the following way: Part I: General Observations on Marquesan Agriculture. Part II: Cultivation
and Processing of Specific Agricultural Products. Part III: Observations on Land Ownership and Labor. Part IV: Marquesan Food Resources. In this issue we start with Part I. Addison’s ethnohistorical material is collected from the notes made by twenty-seven foreigners who visited or lived in the Marquesas Islands from 1774 to the end of the 19th century, and is useful to all who are interested in early Polynesian plants and agriculture. It also shows us the interest of historical/contact archaeology and evaluation of such data.

Robert Bollt received a PhD in anthropology from the University of Hawai‘i in 2005 and he is currently a lecturer there. He has excavated sites in Hawai‘i, the Marquesas, and the Austral Islands, the latter being the focus of much of his research. Bollt’s students and co-authors — Jesse E. Clark, Philip R. Fisher, and Hirosato K. Yoshida — are undergraduate anthropology majors at the University of Hawai‘i.

Bollt and his students conducted an experiment in replication and classification of mata‘a stone tools from Easter Island, and they discuss how shape might relate to stages of production. Bollt’s paper, by focusing on the mata‘a, takes another line of great interest, experimental archaeology.

The mata‘a probably had central importance during the Rapa Nui civil wars, the time of internal collapse. Bollt’s experiments deal with the question of how the Rapanui shaped their tools. An ideal shape was probably the aim, but sometimes the manufacturing process went wrong and the tool had to be shaped in an alternative manner. The mata‘a can be divided into different stages in their production, leading to different types. However, the size of the mata‘a may indicate functional differences, but such questions may be the scope of a future paper.…

Our "Look Back" feature for this issue is Three Voyages of a Naturalist. Being an Account of Many Little-Known Islands in Three Oceans Visited by the “Valhalla” R.Y.S. It is written by M.J. Nicoll, a Member of the British Ornithologists’ Union and was published in London in 1908. The Valhalla was at Easter Island from March 10-13, 1903. Nicoll had the good fortune to be taken along on several sea voyages by the Earl of Crawford who, suffering from rheumatism and asthma, sailed off for sunnier climes to escape the cold and damp winters in England.

Paul Horley contributes a short paper about the prominent Russian scientist, Nikolay Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay. This year, 2006, marks the 160th anniversary of Nikolay’s birth.

Plans are moving along at a great rate for the VII International Conference to be held at Gotland University, Sweden. Brochures are in the mail and we urge everyone to send in their reservation as early as possible. Anyone wishing to receive a brochure, please contact us at rapanuibooks@att.net or see the conference website at http://www.hgo.se/archaeology/conference2007.

— Paul Wallin and Helene Martinsson-Wallin

Senior Editors, RNJ

References

Kristiansen, K. and M. Rowlands

Social Transformation in Archaeology: Global and Local Perspectives - Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 1998

Renfrew, C.

Systems Collapse as Social Transformation. Approaches to Social Archaeology - Edinburgh University Press, 1984

Volume 20, Number 1 • May 2006

FROM THE EDITORS

This issue of Rapa Nui Journal focuses on both historic and contemporary problems and their connection to prehistoric remains. Ceremonial sites in the Pacific were modified and changed during their "lifetime" and such changes may provide chronological sequences. Changes occurred because of natural disasters (e.g., tsunami, as the case with Ahu Tongariki on Rapa Nui, or by hurricanes, as observed in the Society Islands), and various kinds of human actions. Sometimes sites change due to archaeological restorations and reconstructions.

Beverly Haun's Letter to the Editor touches upon a serious incident where a contemporary "artist" with an obvious lack of historical knowledge and respect for past cultural objects, created rock "arrangements" on the Rapa Nui landscape and at ancient ahu sites. This was done to provoke the Rapa Nui community (which he succeeded in doing) and to make himself a "name". While the editors agree that societies/things must change to survive, such changes must originate from within, not applied by single actors who only want to make an "artistic" happening. We strongly reject these actions as being disrespectful toward the people of Rapa Nui as well as to the island as a World Heritage site.

Contrarily, when changes occurred in prehistoric societies, they were deeply meaningful actions and often necessary for the survival of the society. It is those changes that created chronological markers that we, as archaeologists, may detect within the prehistoric remains. This leads us to the articles by Wallin and Solsvik, as well as the paper by Cauwe et al. These papers deal with the classic problem in archaeology: how to date ceremonial stone structures.

Different methods of dating have been used since Kenneth Emory first began archaeological investigations of ceremonial structures (marae) in the 1920-30s in east Polynesia. He first used traditional history and genealogies that were sometimes tied to marae structures. With this method, he indicated that such structures in east Polynesia might be dated to between AD 1000-1750. Historical observations also helped define the period of use. Ceremonial structures were in use when the first Spanish visitors landed in the Marquesas Islands in the year of 1595, and continued to be mentioned in the missionary reports of the 1820s. Thereafter, everything changed with European colonization; use of these structures was forbidden.

Archaeological excavations in Polynesia took off in the early 1950s due to the possibility of chronological reconstruction that came with the introduction of the C¹⁴ dating method in archaeology. For the first time it was possible to examine the absolute age of prehistoric sites. Excavations were initiated by Kenneth Emory and Yosi Sinoto in Hawai‘i; on Rapa Nui by Thor Heyerdahl et al.; and in the Marquesas by Carl Suggs. Quite soon, chronological models were constructed. Unfortunately, many cultural historical scenarios were based on very few dates, and creating a preliminary and shaky foundation. The earliest dates were found in the Marquesas Islands, hence the dispersal center was placed there and from this region, arrows of colonization went off in all directions. A quite uncritical, or maybe optimistic, view concerning the accuracy of the dated samples made it possible to place the original settlement just before the first century BC in the Marquesas Islands, around AD 300 on Rapa Nui, and around AD 100-200 on Hawai‘i.

Recent excavation and re-excavation of old sites and critical examinations of earlier dates have changed this picture. The initial settlement for East Polynesia has, at present, been established to the time period around AD 800-1000 (except for New Zealand, which is later). An important turning point in this discussion was established when ANU scholars Matthew Spriggs and Atholl Anderson published their 1993 article "Late colonization of East Polynesia", and suggested a "Protocol for acceptance or rejection of dates" (Spriggs and Anderson 1993:207) in Pacific archaeology. While this approach is widely accepted today, it is, in several instances, difficult to live up to completely. For example, it is recommended that samples should be analyzed for wood species so that only young or short-lived material is used for dating. This avoids built-in age effects from older wood. A complete adherence to the recommended protocol is difficult since the wood may be difficult to identify, and there are only a few people available who can do this type of analysis. Most wood samples, up to quite recent times, have not been sourced, which would lead to rejection of almost all previous dates. This is not realistic at the moment.

Based on these guidelines, Wallin and Solsvik take a critical point of departure in their article on ceremonial marae structures in Huahine and come to the conclusion that the earliest construction dates for such structures in this island may be around AD 1450-1500. Their results may impact the discussion of dispersal and influence tied to ceremonial structures in East Polynesia, a point that becomes central and quite evident when comparing the Society Island dates with, for example, Rapa Nui, as shown in the article by Cauwe et al. (see also Skjølsvold 1994:105-109 and Martinsson- Wallin and Crockford 2001). These data indicate earlier dates on ceremonial structures in Rapa Nui than what we so far can argue for in Central East Polynesia.

As we recently have seen in an article by Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo (2006), a question has been raised, based on new radiocarbon analyses, that Rapa Nui might have been settled as late as AD 1200 which is a date that still needs to be further investigated. But, that is another question, maybe for a future issue of RNJ!

— Paul Wallin and Helene Martinsson-Wallin

Senior Editors, RNJ

References

Hunt, T.L. and C.P. Lipo

"Late Colonization of Easter Island" - Science 311:1603-1606 (2006).

Spriggs, M. and A. Anderson

"Late Colonization of East Polynesia" - Antiquity 67:200-217 (1993)

Martinsson-Wallin, H. and S.J. Crockford

"Early Settlement of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)" - Asian Perspectives 40(2):244-278 (2001).

Skjölsvold, A. 1994.

Archaeological Investigations at Anakena, Easter Island - Kon-Tiki Museum Occasional Papers Vol. 3. Oslo.

• • •

Aside from our lead papers (Paul Wallin and Reidar Solsvik; and Nicolas Cauwe, Dirk Huyge, Johnny De Meulemeester, Morgan De Dapper, Dominique Coupé, Wouter Claes, and Alexandra De Poorter, of Belgium), this issue also includes several diverse and rather eclectic papers, as well as our usual news from Hangaroa that, sadly, continues to amaze and distress us, as more schemes to develop the island are put forward. On the "up" side, we have news of the appointment of a new governor for Easter Island by Chile's recently-elected president, Michelle Bachelet. The new appointee is Melania Caroline Hotus Hey. We congratulate Rapa Nui's new governor, and wish her success.

This issue contains an update on the pending EIF conference at Gotland University in August 2007. Already we have a stellar collection of major scholars from the Pacific who will be chairing sessions. Clearly, this is one conference that should not be missed! A conference brochure will be mailed out by June. Gotland itself sounds like the perfect place for an archaeological conference. It has Viking hoards, ruins and ramparts, and the end of the conference coincides with a Medieval festival that includes jousting, parades, and plays — all taking visitors back to the 1300s.

Several articles in this issue concern our beloved moai. Paul Horley from the Ukraine contributes an interesting short paper regarding the proportions of Easter Island's famous statues and it is followed by a paper from Professor Herbert H. Einstein of Massachusetts Institute of Technology who assigned his engineering class a unique project: figure out how the moai were moved. The results are interesting and we include them in this issue. Vincent Lee, who worked with a TV project on moving the moai, comments on the methods suggested by the students. As we all know, various approaches work well on a coffee table using a six-inch moai. Translated into tons, things change radically.

Jacques Guy of Australia tackles the thorny problem of rongorongo, including patterns, composition, and internal structure of those mysterious and endlessly fascinating little glyphs. Guy postulates that some may have had phonetic value.

Australia's Petra Campbell sent us a paper that is a real eye-opener. Petra has studied the problems of the island's infrastructure: the aquifer, the island's garbage dump, and the fact that 95% of the island's homes and hotels have pit latrines. Pollution is clearly a serious problem and needs serious
solutions. We hope our readers will consider her report and perhaps be moved to assist with efforts to rectify the situation.

Retired educator Stephen Pendleton, an expert on Easter Island's postage stamps, describes their history as well as the commemorative covers that depict the island. "Things postal" have certainly changed on the island lately, not the least due to increased flights to and from the island. In 1982, it took me four weeks to get a letter off the island. That winter the post office was out of stamps and I was told to come back after the next flight to the island. The next week I returned to the post office but there were no stamps because someone had neglected to put them on the airplane. Another week passed. Finally the stamps arrived and I was able to post my letters. But the next flight going to Santiago (from Tahiti) didn't land on the island because too few passengers were scheduled to get off; the airplane just flew over and continued on. So another week went by. Finally the plane landed, the mail was loaded on board and sent off. I began to understand why so few Rapanui islanders bothered to write letters. It was just too much trouble.

Our "getting to know you" report features George Gill, University of Wyoming, who needs little introduction to those familiar with Easter Island archaeology. His research has helped clarify many things about the ancient culture, from origins to health issues. And his work continues.

Beverley Haun's contribution, mentioned above, is titled "Aesthetic Aggression". When Haun heard about the acts of vandalism by Montreal artist Bill Vazan, who formed what he calls "landworks" on Easter Island by taking stones from archaeological sites, she was outraged. But when a major art magazine, Canadian Art (Fall 2005:110-115) featured his work, thus giving him a public forum for his "artistic" output, she went into orbit. After island authorities discovered Vazan's "efforts", he was fined and his film confiscated, but he managed to smuggle some rolls of film off the island
and bragged about it ("My sleight-of-hand rearrangement of the contents…") and he added that some of his rock creations still were undiscovered by authorities. Archaeologists beware! That arrangement of stones you just noted may be one of Vazan's little jokes. Illustrated in Canadian Art magazine are Vazan's stone arrangements at Rano Raraku; a "nest of rocks" at Kari Kari; behind the ahu at Tongariki; and at the topknot quarry, Puna Pau. Where else on the island might they be? Vazan also mentions that he collected samples of earth and sand from the island for another one of his ongoing projects, but hid these from the police.

Claudio Cristino and Roberto Izaurieta bring us up-todate on the size of Rapa Nui, using air-photogrammetric digital mapping.

And last — but not least — Doug Porteous, author of The Modernization of Easter Island (one of the classic books that should be found in any Rapanuiphile's library) sent us a bit of poetry for this issue.

We, the Editors, thank our many contributors, and we hope our readers enjoy this issue of Rapa Nui Journal.

— Georgia Lee

Volume 19, Number 2 • October 2005

FROM THE EDITORS

Starting with this issue, the Rapa Nui Journal faces a new challenge. The main scientific papers are being peer-reviewed. This is not a sudden idea from two new senior editors, but a topic that has been under discussion for some time by all the editors. This step is seen as a way to bolster scientific standards and strengthen the Journal as a forum for Pacific archaeology, anthropology and history. We have already received a good response from a number of leading scientists in archaeology and anthropology who have expressed their interest in taking on the task as reviewers for future papers. At the same time, one section of the journal will still be kept on a more informal but still informative level and serve as a platform for different reflections on what is "going on" in Rapa Nui and other Pacific Islands. This section will also include shorter communications and reports.

RNJ will continue as the main journal for Rapa Nui research, but we will also accept a wider range of papers concerning research on other Pacific Islands, including Micronesia and Melanesia. Each issue will have an editorial where we take the opportunity to reflect on current research issues, both in a general way and from a "Pacific" point of view.

This issue of RNJ includes three papers covering research questions from both East and West Polynesia. Robert Bollt, University of Hawai‘i, describes and discusses a recently excavated tiki pendant from the island of Rurutu, French Polynesia; Ernest "Quent" Winterhoff, University of Oregon, takes an experimental perspective concerning basalt adze use and exchange and applies it in a West Polynesian context. Paul Horley of the Yuri Fedkovych Chernivist National University, Ukraine, continues the discussion on the rongorongo script of Rapa Nui, this time with the aid of statistical analysis.

Based on the topics of the papers from Winterhoff and Horley, we raise the question of why statistical methods and experimental archaeology are important to research. The so-called "New Archaeology", formulated by Lewis Binford (1962), was a reaction against traditional culture-historical archaeology. In New Archaeology, methods became the solution; they were used to calculate and thereby understand prehistoric events, and the outcome of the method became the answer to what happened in the past.

The post-processual reaction against this view has mainly resulted in an archaeology more or less revealed from (statistical) methods but also supported by structuralist views. Within the post-processual sphere of research it has been commonly stated that it is impossible to calculate what happened in the past by quantifying the material remains since all past activity is in the hands of the present. We suggest here that statistical methods can and should be implemented. We see ways to move beyond the processual and post-processual views where methods can be used to produce new hypotheses, and answer questions about what the studied material remains may reflect, and not provide a simple answer about past relations.

Experimental archaeology is certainly a productive way of creating new information of great value and adding to the understanding of how things might have worked in the past. Such tests can be refined and repeated (in the present). You can experimentally make a stone adze and experimentally cut a tree with it. You can build a Polynesian double canoe and sail it by the stars and thereby learn by the experience. Such knowledge can never be attained at a desk!

If we use statistical methods and experiments as tools to produce new knowledge and hypotheses about past relations which we bring with us into the research and the excavation event, we could be on our way to a "new post-processual" archaeology. The post-processual reaction against this view, mainly expressed by Ian Hodder (1986) and Shanks and Tilley (1987), has in many ways resulted in an archaeology more or less revealed from statistical methods, but also supported by structuralistic views.

Within the post-processual sphere of research, it has been commonly stated that it is impossible to calculate what happened in the past by quantifying material remains: "interpretation cannot be reduced to a methodology", as Shanks and Tilley (1987:27) expressed it. Thus, since all past activities are in the hands of the present or, as the same authors formulate it, "The past, then, is gone; it can’t be recaptured in itself, relived as object. It only exists now in its connection with the present, in the present’s practice of interpretation" (Shanks and Tilley 1987:26).

Therefore, we also suggest that statistical methods can and should be used in present-day practice. We see ways to move beyond the processual and post-processual views, where methods can be seen to produce new hypotheses and questions of what the studied material remains might reflect.

This can be a way to reach an archaeology that combines a general processual thinking with individual post-processual ideas. To be able to do this we suggest that we must agree that statistical methods and experiments never really can capture the "truth" about prehistoric relations, but they should be seen as useful tools in helping us to create new hypotheses for the ongoing archaeological discourse.

Experimental archaeology is a productive way of generating new information of value for the understanding of how things might have worked in the past. Such tests can also be refined and repeated (in the present).

— Paul Wallin and Helene Martinsson-Wallin

Senior Editors, RNJ

References

Binford, Lewis R

Archaeology as Anthropology - American Antiquity 28:217-225 (1962).

Hodder, Ian.

Reading the Past. Current Approaches to Interpretation in Archaeology - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Shanks, M. and C. Tilley

Social Theory and Archaeology - Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987

• • •

Research projects in the Australs are somewhat rare, as is the literature on the subject, although recently we published a book about Ra‘ivavae, another of the Austral islands (Ra‘ivavae by Edmundo Edwards, 2003). While the art and iconography of the Australs has been mentioned in art books about the Pacific, little is known about the meaning of the few pieces that survived massive destruction by converts to Christianity. Rob Bollt, of the University of Hawai‘i, whose dissertation fieldwork was conducted on Rurutu, Austral Islands in 2003, made a spectacular "find" – a tiki pendant – uncovered from a marae on the island of Rurutu. It is the only carved Austral ornament from the Classic period ever to be excavated archaeologically. The Rurutu pendant appears to have been a high-status item and likely was a part of a more complicated piece. Bollt’s next project, also in the Austral Islands, will begin in 2006.

Ernest Harold Winterhoff V is currently in the field, working on his dissertation research (University of Oregon). Known to his friends as Quent, his research focuses on Geochemical Techniques, Exchange and Trade, Stone Tool Production, and Samoa Culture History. He has worked and studied in Polynesia and Micronesia, and is a Project Leader for the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon. His undergraduate work was done at Ohio University.

Another of our featured authors, Paul Horley, is already familiar to readers of RNJ because of his contribution to Vol. 18(2), October 2004, when we published his translation of Urey Lisjanskij’s Travel Round the World Onboard the ship Neva (pp. 118-125). He is also the artist who contributed finely-detailed drawings of Easter Island’s petroglyphs for our notecard series. We wondered how Horley made it from his homeland in the Ukraine to Easter Island, and so he sent us the following odyssey, one that sounds familiar to those of us who were first inspired by Heyerdahl’s Aku Aku. Paul wrote,

"When I was about age ten, I read Heyerdahl’s Aku-Aku. It fascinated me completely: the stories of the solitary island with its hundreds of huge stone statues with elongated faces, deep dark caves, and mysterious inscriptions — it was so intriguing! Later I attended art school and, from that time, I still have old drawings of moai, made after Aku-Aku photographs, as well as about a dozen small moai replicas made of clay. The years passed and, when I was working on a solar cell research project in Mexico, I returned to my childhood dream — to visit the enchanted island. I read as much as I could find on the Internet and ordered An Uncommon Guide to Easter Island from Antoinette, and finally — that was fantastic! — one warm November evening I stepped off the plane at Mataveri airport. I can’t explain it — it was as if I were dreaming — the girls saluting the newcomers with Iorana, a solemn choir of cycadae, and a distant murmuring of the ocean, licking the shores of the Navel of the World. The nine full days I spent there passed as if in a fairy tale, leaving charming memories of the island, the kind open-hearted Rapa Nui people, and the unique archaeological heritage of the island. After I returned home, I began to gather my own Easter Island library, trying to learn more and to find the answers to the questions, and hoping to better understand what I had seen there. I decided to do some research and, as my field of study is in the areas of computational and statistical physics, I thought about two possible subjects, both very interesting to me and where I could apply my mathematical and programming skills. One was the modeling of moai transport; the other, a statistical analysis of rongorongo script. After reading about the numerous experimental approaches to solve the first problem by various authors, I decided to focus on the script. And, after more than two years of intensive work, I submitted my paper to RNJ".

A report on an on-going research project, by Thegn Ladefoged, Christopher Stevenson, Peter Vitousek, and Oliver Chadwick, is titled Soil Nutrient Depletion and the Collapse of Rapa Nui Society. This "breaking news" report concerns innovative gardening techniques used by the Rapanui to enhance soil nutrient levels, in response to a challenging environment. The authors are developing laboratory procedures to evaluate the importance of nutrients and to study the problems that contributed to the decline of the pre-contact society. Ladefoged, from the University of Auckland, is well known to our readers, as is Stevenson. We welcome Peter Vitosek, from Stanford University, and Oliver Chadwick from UCSB; both of whom are new to Rapa Nui Journal readers. Peter Vitousek is an ecologist in the Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University. His research uses natural and agricultural ecosystems of the Hawaiian Islands as a model system for understanding the maintenance of soil fertility and plant productivity on long time scales. Chadwick is a soil scientist in the Department of Geography, UCSB). His interests include developing chemical and isotopic tracers to determine soil formations. He has worked extensively in the Hawaiian Islands with Ladefoged and others, studying the role of soil nutrients and their role in Polynesian agriculture.

Our "Getting to Know You" feature for this issue focuses on Christopher Stevenson, a familiar name to Rapanuiphiles. Chris’s Easter Island projects deal with the less glamorous facets of the ancient society; instead of statues, he studies flakes of obsidian; instead of monumental ahu, he concentrates on earth ovens and stone mulch. These are the nuts-and-bolts of archaeology and they can tell us much about the past.

A short note by Georgia Lee considers the question of the authenticity of stone statuettes from Easter Island. Items said to be "ancient" pieces from the island often are offered for sale, and a recent eBay item, a small carved stone figure, led to a comparison to some undeniably authentic pieces from the island, previously unpublished.

Sidsel Millerstrom contributes a report concerning an unusual petroglyph from the Marquesas Islands. Sidsel, who has worked extensively in the Marquesas, Tahiti, and Hawai‘i, documenting petroglyphs and excavating sites, got her start in archaeology while working with Georgia Lee’s petroglyph project on Rapa Nui. She went on from there with her own research projects. Sidsel is associated with the Archaeological Research Facility, Oceanic Archaeology Lab, University of California, Berkeley; she will be working at a site in November on the island of Maui with Patrick Kirch.

Our Look Back Feature for this issue is the "Diary of a Cadet on the Warship La Flore, 1872" by Pierre Loti. Translated by Ann M. Altman, PhD, this is a delightful description of Easter Island from those early years. Less factual than some writers, he romantically describes the wind and the smells, the views and the colors. He was also a gifted artist. Loti (a pseudonym; his real name was Louis Marie Julien Viaud) went on to write many books and stories and was considered one of the most original of the French writers of the 2nd half of the 19th century.

This description, along with those of Eyraud and Pinart, have been published in one volume, Early Visitors to Easter Island, available from the EIF.

Ann M. Altman also translated Easter Island and Its Mysteries by Charles Stéphen-Chauvet, published in Paris in 1935. Edited by Shawn McLaughlin, and incorporating extensive annotations, this English translation is now available, with all illustrations, on the Internet at www.chauvet-translation.com.

Although Chauvet never visited the island, he was obsessed by it. As a medical doctor, he assumed that the moai kavakava (wood carved skeletal figures) indicated that the Rapanui islanders had some dread disease, probably aggravated by "drinking seawater". His "take" on things Rapanui is very much off the mark, and very much a "period piece". His book was self-published, as is clear from his original bibliography; the many errors indicate that he did not have an editor, resulting in some very humorous entries: Jack Cook (for Captain James Cook). Readers beware!

This issue of RNJ also contains an interesting update on the search for the lost ships and crew of La Pérouse, missing since they sailed out of Botany Bay, Australia, in 1788. Ruins of his two ships have been explored since 1981 when wreckage was discovered at Vanikoro, in the southern Solomon Islands. Divers have found artifacts and skeletons, and excavations on the island have uncovered many items from the two wrecks. The excavations continue; researchers hope to discover if any of the crew survived to build a small boat and try to escape from the island.

We thank Christina Hellmich, Associate Curator of Oceanic Art, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, for her review of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new exhibit of Marquesan art. The Met’s museum catalog is also reviewed in this issue.

A lot of news from Hangaroa is in this issue, and not all of it is positive. A disturbing incident of vandalism has occurred, plans are afoot for upscale hotels and, of all things, gambling casinos. New laws are being proposed for the island, one of which will prevent Chileans from moving to the island without special permission; and one that provides autonomy for Rapa Nui. It is amazing that this little island can generate so much activity, anger, angst, and controversy.

On a brighter note, we are happy to announce that one of RNJ’s new correspondents is Mahina Tea Pakomio, a Rapanui islander who is studying journalism in Santiago. Mahina, daughter of Uri Pakomio Paoa, is a 3rd year journalism major at the Universidad Santo Tómas. She graduates in two years and hopes to return to the island, working in the field of journalism. This issue contains her first report for RNJ, on the subject of the proposed gambling casinos on Rapa Nui. Welcome, Mahina! We look forward to receiving your notices and essays.

We are sad to report that Sergio (Kio) Teao Atan, a well-known and well-loved musician, composer, singer, painter, and diver, died in a diving accident. His funeral Mass and burial were attended by the majority of the island’s population, with many Rapanui remaining at the grave site for several hours, singing favorite songs written by Kio. It was a difficult goodbye. Kio’s distinctive voice and talents will be missed. His music and his lyrics will linger on.

Kio Teao in 1982.

Photo by Georgia Lee.

• • •

THE VII INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

ON EASTER ISLAND AND THE PACIFIC

The VII International Conference on Easter Island and the Pacific is scheduled for August 21-25, 2007 in the medieval city of Visby (a World Heritage city) located on the Island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, Sweden. The sponsors of the conference will be Gotland University and the Easter Island Foundation. Co-chairmen are Helene Martinsson-Wallin, Paul Wallin and Christopher M. Stevenson.

As currently configured, the conference will host two featured speakers. The first will be the Opening Speaker, Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi, former Samoan prime minister and current deputy head of state, Samoa, who will present opening remarks. The second special event will be a lecture given by Featured Speaker, John Flenley of Massey University, New Zealand. The title of his talk is "A Palynologist Looks at the Colonization of the Pacific." We will set aside one-hour, non-competing sessions for these presentations.

Key researchers in the field of Oceanic and Polynesian studies will chair various sessions. Suggested sessions at this time include: Easter Island Archaeology; Easter Island Anthropology and Traditional History; Archaeology in East Polynesia; Archaeology in West Polynesia; Archaeology in Micronesia, Melanesia, and South East Asia; Pacific Island Osteology; Pacific Arts, Literature and Language; Cultural Heritage – International Perspectives; Migration Strategies and Traditional Navigation in Island Communities; Identity Matters: Movement and Place, Islands and Islanders; Current Theories and Methods in Pacific Island Archaeology and a General Session. These sessions will be modified as time goes on, but they provide the general framework for the conference. We are open for additional suggestions at this time. A special workshop for students and young scholars is also planned with participants from three World Heritage Islands (Rapa Nui, Gotland, and Zanzibar), as well as a Poster Session.

The venue for the meetings will be Gotland University, with its new university building, located in the old harbor area of the city. Here are all the facilities needed, including well-equipped auditoriums, seminar rooms, meeting rooms, lunch/restaurant, coffee shops, etc. Other localities that will be used for the inauguration and general meetings include the beautiful main hall (the Picture Stone Hall) of the County Museum, and a new Congress Hall that is currently under construction (and promised to be ready in May 2007).

There are numerous alternatives for accommodations, ranging from hostels to fine hotels. Prices range from around $40US per person per night at the hostels to around $250 US for a double room/night at the upscale and luxurious Wisby Hotel. All accommodations are within 2-10 minutes walk from the University.

Because we will be living at different hotels, the student house called "Rindi" will be transformed into a meeting place at night, plus there is a wide range of available pubs in the area for informal meetings.

A one-day mid-conference excursion in the city of Gotland will be arranged. This will provide a good view into the island’s rich prehistory, ranging from the Stone Age to the Viking Period. Pre- and post-conference tours in the medieval city of Visby will be arranged. Also being planned is a post-conference bus tour that will travel from Gotland to Oslo. This tour will take about three days and it will include selected prehistoric sites along the way to Oslo, including the Regal ship Wasa in Stockholm, and the Vitlycke rock carvings in Western Sweden — another World Heritage site.

The tour will end with a visit to the Kon-Tiki Museum. Prices for these trips will be calculated and presented in more detail in the next issue of RNJ.

Abstracts of papers to be presented at the conference should be submitted before May 1, 2007 (more details about content and formatting guidelines will be forthcoming). As usual, each presentation must not be more than 20 minutes in length. Slide projector, Powerpoint, overhead and digital projectors will be provided to facilitate your presentation.

We urge you to take this unique opportunity to combine the great prehistory of Gotland and Rapa Nui — and other small islands. After all, islands are islands….

— Paul Wallin; Helene Martinsson-Wallin

Volume 19, Number 1 • May 2005

This issue features a report from Dirk Huyge and Nicolas Cawre, Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium, regarding their research project on a site located on the south coast of Rapa Nui. The site was discovered by Catherine and Michel Orliac, who named it Viri o Tuki (Ko te Aheru, south coast). They now have C14 dates for this site, providing further evidence for an archaic building episode on the island.

“Resistance and Land Control on Rapa Nui” is the title of a joint paper by J. Douglas Porteous and Tandy Shephard-Toomey, University of Victoria, British Columbia. This important and timely paper discusses land distribution and the future of Rapa Nui. Lack of control over land and the uses to which the land is put are thorny subjects for the Rapanui who strive to make their own decisions and have serious concerns about the future of their island … and with good reason.

Paul Wallin and Reidar Solsvik of the Kon-Tiki Museum provide a report concerning their research in French Polynesia, “Historical Records and Archaeological Excavations of Two National Marae Complexes on Huahine, Society Islands”. Their paper discusses excavations at two of the most prominent marae on Huahine, revealing sequences of building phases and provided dates for those phases.

Hans-Rudolf Bork and Andreas Mieth, Department of Ecotechnology and Ecosystem Development, University of Kiel, Germany, contribute a paper on their recent research in the Galapagos Islands where human impact is causing major problems. They have a great “throwaway” line in their paper about a Baroness and her lovers who lived on Floreana Island and mysteriously disappeared in 1934. This piqued our curiosity and caused us to locate a book published in 1983, The Galapagos Affair, by John Treherne. It was indeed a most strange and bizarre ménage à trois, and I am surprised that some dark movie hasn’t been made about this odd episode in the island’s history. Shortly after sending us this paper, the dynamic duo flew off to the Juan Fernandez Islands on another research project. Some people will go anywhere to get out of winter’s snow and freezing temperatures!

The thorny problem of cannibalism is the focus of a paper by Shawn McLaughlin. There are hints of cannibalism in various sources about Easter Island and the subject is often mentioned in legends from the island. However, there is little hard archaeological evidence. We hope our readers will enjoy this exhaustive study as much as we did.

Felicia Beardsley, who is at home in the jungles of Kosrae, contributes a paper concerning some enigmatic cupule stones, and she suggests their possible use in the ancient preparation of medicines.

We focus on John Flenley for our "Getting to Know You" feature. John is one of the outstanding researchers in the field of Rapa Nui studies and also our good friend. Co-author, with Paul G. Bahn, of two important and popular books about Easter Island, his research on Rapa Nui continues, and we eagerly await results of his upcoming field season.

A stunning moai, created by gifted Rapanui artist Bene Tuki is now on display in Venice, Italy. The project is described by Francesco di Castri, of Paris. This elongated and stylish statue, carved from Carrera marble, is a knock-out.

The VI International Conference that took place in Viña del Mar, Chile, last September was a huge success and this issue includes a report on the meetings by Ann M. Altman, plus photos of the Usual Suspects. The Conference was co-chaired by Christopher Stevenson and José Miguel Ramírez.

The "Look Back" feature in this issue is from the Journal of Captain Charles Bishop, Captain of the ship Ruby, which stopped at Easter Island in 1792 and then again in 1795. Bishop’s two visits, both before the end of the century, are seldom mentioned in the literary sources which focus on Roggeveen, Gonzalez, Cook, and La Pérouse. But still another ship stopped prior to 1800: this was the Jenny, under a Captain James Baker, in 1792. We have no details about that voyage. How many other ships came to Easter Island in those early days but left no record? Rapa Nui appears to have been less isolated than many realized. And clearly, the admixture of outsider genes into the Rapanui gene pool was going on from these very early dates, as is suggested by Footnote #6 which notes the place where some 20 words were deleted by either Bishop or some early editor.

Architect Vince Lee contributes his thoughts on moving the statues along the ancient moai roads of Easter Island (see Letters to the Editor). Vince is a semi-retired architect from Cortez, Colorado, who became interested in pre-Columbian archaeology some twenty-five years ago. He has been exploring and documenting ruins of sites in the Andes and has published numerous papers and a major book about Inca sites. In 1994 he participated in a NOVA television special about the Incas and, as a result, was asked to provide comment as a "fly on the wall" observer during NOVA’s filming of Van Tilburg's moai-moving and erecting experiments on Easter Island (1998). He has since contributed several articles to RNJ. His most recent book, Forgotten Vilcabamba, Final Stronghold of the Incas, describes his work in Peru.

We are sorry to announce that Rongorongo Studies: A Forum for Polynesian Philology has ceased publication. The announcement was made in the final issue, received in December. Rongorongo Studies comprises 28 individual issues with some 81 articles, plus the sponsored Polynesian Literary Competition. Some better news is that the founder and editor of Rongorongo Studies, Steven Roger Fischer, has a new book in press: Island at the End of the World: The Turbulent History of Easter Island; London: Reaktion Books. This is an excellent book, one that should be in the library of every Rapanuiphile. We look forward to providing a review in our next issue of RNJ.

• • •

Elections took place on Rapa Nui in October. The position of mayor was hotly contested. Once again, Petero Edmunds was elected mayor.

A new "ecological" hotel will be built at Vaihu, on the south coast. It will be a luxury "Explora" hotel, similar to those at Torres del Paine and San Pedro de Atacama on the Chilean mainland. Rooms will be limited (around 20), exclusive, and very expensive, around US$600 per night. It will be called Posada Mike Rapu (after the property owner). Cost is estimated at US$7 million. The hotel will be administered by Explora; after fifteen years, the establishment will revert to Rapu. Some see this as the “camel’s nose under the tent” — that is, once tourist hotels start moving out of the village, more are apt to follow. Easter Island was carefully chosen for this grand resort, said Felipe Cruz, the general manager of the hotel chain. “It was an option we were considering for at least two years”, The hotel will be built on 5.2 hectares of land, located 8 km from the town of Hanga Roa. “The hotel will belong to Rapu. We're going to give him a loan, so that we'll build the hotel and we'll pay him rent to operate it”, Cruz said. Construction will begin in the second quarter of this year, and the inn is expected to open by 2006. The structure will be built of stone and wood, typical elements of the island.

A new building in the village is the office of tourism, located across the road from Playa Pea and next to the soccer field. The architectural plans were drawn by someone on the continent who clearly had never been to the island. The building faces the afternoon sun with no overhang for shade. It stands out like an ugly sore thumb. Government buildings are all planned on the mainland without local input, so islanders have no say about what is built.

A former gift shop on Atamu Tekena street has been converted into a two story building, and now houses a restaurant called Tupuna.

This issue of Rapa Nui Journal has five book reviews:

Easter Island – Rapa Nui. Scientific Pathways to Secrets of the Past, by Andreas Mieth and Hans-Rudolf Bork. 2004. ISBN 3-9809823-0-0. Price is $20. This book is available through the Easter Island Foundation (contact rapanuibooks@att.net). This is an excellent and important book, discussing the results of the authors’ research on Poike Peninsula, where the authors found root molds from a vast forest of giant palm trees, and planting pits distributed amongst the root systems of palms trees. The soil profiles revealed evidence of cutting and burning the trees. The book deals with the collapse of the moai culture and the severe erosion that resulted from the destruction of the original forest. This small book is lavishly illustrated.

Escape from Easter Island (Les Evadés de l’ile de Pâques) by M-F Peteuil, Paris, 2004. In French. ISBN 2-7475-7059-2.

Collapse. How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Jared Diamond, 2005. Viking Press, NY. ISBN 0-670-03337-5. Diamond uses Easter Island as one of his examples for environmental decline.

Motu-Iti. Die Insel der Mowen (Island of Seagulls) by Roberto Piumini. 1997. ISBN 3-423-62103-6. (This is a book for children).

Moon Handbooks: South Pacific, 8th Edition by David Stanley, 2004. Avalon Publishing Group. ISBN 1-56691-411-6. This hefty guide to the South Pacific has it all. Anyone traveling to the far-flung islands of the South Pacific is well advised to pack this book, even though it may cause your luggage to be overweight! Stanley has done his usual excellent job of including every last scrap of information one might possibly need before traveling across this vast ocean. The book contains an amazing 120 maps, a time-line chronology, charts and sidebars on every possible subject with detailed information. There are sections on languages and the natural history of the various island groups. Hi introductory material covers everything form plate tectonics to coral formations, from climate change to flora and fauna. There is considerable information on history, governments, peoples, languages, and the Polynesians themselves. Holidays, arts and festivals, food and drink, email and AIDS, all are covered as are local customs and conduct, toxic fish and time zones, money and vistas, and how to find cheap tickets. He provides tips that won’t be found in most guidebooks, such as how to book into a pension in Tahiti, and why to not say in an over water bungalow in those islands. A separate section is devoted to each island group. I am overawed by the vast amount of knowledge about the islands of the Pacific that is to be found in this one book. Highly recommended for anyone who is headed out into the Pacific.

• • •

All things change with time, and the time is approaching for a change in editorship of Rapa Nui Journal. We expect to soon turn the job of editing over to a new generation. Working on the Journal over the years has been an enormously satisfactory experience. And so today we look hack on the many years of RNJ.

In the Summer of 1986 the first issue of what has become the Rapa Nui Journal appeared. It was a four page flier, called Rapa Nui Notes and it was aimed at those who participated in my Easter Island research projects that lasted over several years’ time. Most of my past participants clambered for news about the island and the sheer number of correspondents was becoming untenable. Thus RNN was born. It contained bits of news about the island, results of my most recent field season on Rapa Nui, some short items such as the new runway that was about to be built, and notices about new publications.

The following year’s issues were up to eight pages. and we were adding special features such as a report on wood carvings by Joan Seaver, and one by Chris Stevenson on his work, a paper on conservation by Monica Bahamóndez of the Conservation Center in Santiago, and one by Claude Vignes, concerning a petroglyph cave in Rano Kau. There was a contribution from William Liller on the archaeo-astronomy of the island, a write-up about the Fonck collection from José Miguel Ramirez, and news of the BBC documentary that was being filmed on the island that year.

By Spring of 1988 we had fourteen pages, and that issue was dedicated to the memory of Bill Mulloy. It included papers by Pat McCoy, Emily Ross Mulloy, Carlyle Smith, Bill Liller, George Gill, and Marie Wormington.

By then Alan Drake was "on board" to help out, and with this stellar bunch of scholars, the name of the publication was officially changed to Rapa Nui Journal. And the rest, as they say, is history. Our most recent issue contains 76 pages.

We could not have compiled and published the Journal without the help of friends and colleagues who were involved in research projects on the island and in other areas of Polynesia, and who generously shared their work, their research results, and their opinions with us. So. from the very beginning, RNJ has been a collaborative effort. Most contributions were given freely, some were coaxed out with a bit of difficulty, but everyone who has been associated with the Journal has been a wonderful source of information, assistance, advice, and (sometimes) frustration.

We thank all of you who have been so generous with your time and support. While not possible to list every person who worked with us through the years. I must acknowledge Frank Morin for his extraordinary assistance since the beginning, and Antoinette Padgett, whose hard work and sharp eye keeps us all honest.

It has been a great honor to work with so many dedicated and gifted people, and we wish the future editors every success.

— Georgia Lee

Rapa Nui, 1981. Two graduate students working on the island in those early days: Chris Stevenson from Penn State University and Georgia Lee, UCLA. Photo by Joan Seaver Kurze.