Returning to the hypothesis of Amerindian settlement on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Abstract

The hypothesis of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) colonisation by Amerindian voyagers has been largely dismissed archaeologically since the mid-twentieth-century controversy generated by Thor Heyerdahl’s American Indians in the Pacific. The orthodox hypothesis today is that Rapa Nui was settled exclusively by Polynesians who, however, brought the sweet potato and a few other items from South America by return voyaging. This view is challenged by recent evidence that widespread admixture of Amerindian and East Polynesian DNA in East Polynesia, dated to the twelfth to fourteenth century AD, could represent Amerindian landfalls. Reconsideration, here, of putative Amerindian archaeological remains on Rapa Nui—notably the façade of the ceremonial platform known as Ahu Tahiri, circular stone structures known as tupa, and birdman motifs—in the light of recent, largely contextual, research also appears to offer more support for the hypothesis than hitherto. However, the argument is heavily constrained by the long absence of systematic analytical research designed to test such indications, perhaps because marginalising the Amerindian hypothesis suits archaeological perspectives on both sides of the southeast Pacific. The purpose of this review is to encourage new research on the archaeological material in question.