Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Evolution of Energy Investment in Monumental Statuary of Prehistoric Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

University Of Hawaii, Honolulu

Investigators

Abstract

Under the supervision of Dr. Michael W. Graves, Britton Shepardson will investigate the history of construction of the monumental statues of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile. Rapa Nui is Polynesia's easternmost landmass in the Pacific and has been continuously inhabited for more than one thousand years. The island hosts a dense array of artifacts ranging from small obsidian spear points to massive stone platforms (ahu) and more than 700 megalithic statues (moai). Research and analyses will be based primarily on data already collected by Shepardson for 708 statues. For each statue, Shepardson recorded measurements for as many as twenty-five formal features (e.g., eye width, nose width, ear length, etc.). Additionally, the database includes digital photographs, geographic provenience, and qualitative descriptions of each statue. Rapa Nui has long served as a prototype in Polynesia, and for the entire world, for having an overwhelmingly high per capita investment of energy in ceremonial architecture and statuary. Given the relatively impoverished environment and limited natural resource base of Rapa Nui, the achievements in monumental construction offer an anthropological and evolutionary mystery. The proposed project focuses on the statues as well-preserved and highly detailed representatives of monumental construction on the island. Specifically, the proposed research aims to better understand how such a tremendous investment of energy in an activity seemingly unrelated to daily survival may have impacted the stability of the island culture historically. While traditional accounts depict statue construction as a wasteful and expensive utilization of resources, the proposed research also considers the possibility that complex social organization and careful management of resources required to carve, transport, and erect hundreds of giant stone statues may have helped to decelerate overexploitation of natural resources in the long run. Computer modeling of paleoenvironmental resources and simulation of consumption of those resources through statue manufacturing will generate expectations for when statues were constructed and moved to different locations on the island. In turn, detailed chronological analyses (through chemical dating of artifacts in the context of statues and through stylistic variation) of the statues will test those expectations and traditional assumptions. Beyond scientific investigation of interest to anthropologists, the proposed research will have a broader impact in the Rapa Nui community and the way their ancestors are perceived in today's world. A volunteer high school education program already established by Shepardson and the Padre Sebastian Englert Anthropological Museum of Rapa Nui ensures that local youths are involved in future research programs on the island (http://www.terevaka.net/apo.html). This outreach program has already instituted opportunities for graduate students from around the world to conduct long-term research projects in exchange for fieldwork and classroom instruction for Rapa Nui high school students.