June 24, 2024 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlightedthe following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact-checked peer-reviewed publication trusted source written by researcher(s) proofread by Carl Lipo, The Conversation Conventional wisdom holds that the island of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, once had a large population that crashed after living beyond its means and stripping the island of resources. A new research study my colleagues and I conducted has struck another blow to this notion by using artificial intelligence to analyze satellite data about piles of rocks on this tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Our study looked at rock gardens , a form of subsistence farming, and determined that the island—just 15.3 miles (24.6 km) long by 7.
6 miles (12.3 km) at its widest point—likely never held many more than the 3,000 or so people European explorers encountered in 1722. The conventional wisdom grew out of speculation about another set of stone structures on the island: the iconic massive statues, called moai , that ancestors of Rapanui people carved.
The statues tower as high as a three-story building and weigh up to 70 tons. There are nearly 1,000 of them across the island. For an archaeologist , the mystery of what led people to invest so much time and energy in building these colossal figures begs for an explanation.
For the past 24 years, my colleagues.
