Polynesian Navigators Settle Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
c. 1100–1200 CE · Medieval
Between approximately 1100 and 1200 CE, Polynesian voyagers from Mangareva in the Gambier Islands settled Rapa Nui. The island lies over 3,500 kilometers from the South American coast and 2,000 kilometers from the nearest Polynesian island. The settlers, ancestors of the Rapanui people, developed a culture that included construction of monumental moai stone figures. DNA evidence indicates contact between Rapanui people and indigenous South Americans occurred around 1380 CE. Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen became the first known European to reach the island on April 5, 1722.
Locations
Rapa Nui
Topics
pacificarchaeologynavigationmigrationPolynesiaRapa Nui
Connected Events — 3 Connections
Rapa Nui settlers were the easternmost branch of Polynesian expansion, tracing their ancestry through 2,000 years of seafaring back to the Lapita culture of western Melanesia Lapita People Expand Across the Western Pacific
The Polynesian settlers who arrived around 1150 CE developed the moai carving tradition within generations of settlement Easter Island Moai Statues Erected
Contact traced through population of Polynesians Make Contact with South America
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