Recently published research refutes the common myth that the ancient rock garden practices of Easter Islanders were responsible for their downfall.
The paper, titled “Island-wide agricultural production characteristics call into question the Rapa Nui population collapse hypothesis,” was published Friday in the journal Science Advances. The study explains that Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, is “often used as an example of how overexploitation of limited resources led to a catastrophic population collapse.”
Centuries ago, farmers on this South Pacific island practiced “slash-and-burn” agriculture, cutting down palm trees and setting them on fire, before cultivating rock gardens to enrich the soil.
According to a popular legend, the islanders became so absorbed in mining rocks and building hundreds of giant stone statues that their civilization collapsed. When Europeans discovered Easter Island in 1722, the population was smaller than it had been before.
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“A key element of this story is that the rapid rise and fall in pre-contact Rapanui population growth rates was driven by the construction and overexploitation of once-extensive rock gardens,” the article’s abstract section explains. “However, the extent of rock gardens across the island, although important for understanding food systems and population dynamics, needs to be better understood.”
Contrary to the common belief that rock gardening is bad for the soil, the study states that the practice “increases soil available nutrients and enhances plant productivity by maintaining soil moisture.”
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“Because rock gardening has the advantage of increasing soil productivity and stimulating plant growth, the practice was an important part of the Rapanui’s pre-contact life,” the article states. “Nearly half of the Rapanui’s diet consisted of land-based foods.”
This photo taken on April 5, 2024 shows the Moai stone statues on Easter Island, Chile. Known for its giant stone statues carved into the sea, Easter Island is located at the southernmost tip of the Polynesian Triangle in the South Pacific and is considered one of the most remote inhabited areas in the world. (Zhu Yubo/Xinhua via Getty Images)
“In this respect, measuring the extent of rock gardens is crucial for understanding the pre-contact carrying capacity of the islands.”
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Using shortwave infrared (SWIR) satellite imagery and machine learning, the researchers also found that Easter Island’s population was likely smaller than previously claimed, refuting the myth that the island’s population in 1722 was significantly smaller than it had been hundreds of years earlier.
“Based on our estimates, the maximum population that rock gardening could support is likely not to be the 17,000 people claimed by Radefoged. etc“Only 3,901 calculations for rock gardening were found, and only 3,901 used our measurements,” the study states.
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Despite research suggesting otherwise, the study authors acknowledge that this myth remains widely believed outside of academia.
A Moai statue seen on the outer slope of the Rano Raraku volcano crater. (John Milner/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“Despite recent archaeological evidence refuting Malthus’ overpopulation theory, it is a widely held assumption that Rapa Nui society caused its own demise through unsustainable resource use and uncontrolled population growth,” the article states.
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“Many researchers working on the island have shifted the narrative away from the assumption of a pre-European collapse, but the story still has an important place in fields such as ecology, paleoecology and mathematics.”
