Study shines a light on what happened on Easter Island slashgear.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from slashgear.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
E-Mail
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. New research from Binghamton University, State University of New York suggests that the demographic collapse at the core of the Easter Island myth didn t really happen.
You probably know this story, or a version of it: On Easter Island, the people cut down every tree, perhaps to make fields for agriculture or to erect giant statues to honor their clans. This foolish decision led to a catastrophic collapse, with only a few thousand remaining to witness the first European boats landing on their remote shores in 1722.
But did the demographic collapse at the core of the Easter Island myth really happen? The answer, according to new research by Binghamton University anthropologists Robert DiNapoli and Carl Lipo, is no.