Figure 1 | Rapa Nui genetic ancestry and population dynamics. a , Moreno-Mayar et al . 1 examined the genomes of 15 ancient individuals from Rapa Nui, a remote island in the Pacific Ocean.

The Rapa Nui survived that bottleneck by reinventing their agricultural system. Nahoe’s ancestors were among those survivors. When Peruvian raiders kidnapped at least 1,700 Rapa Nui into slavery in ...

Rapa Nui is 1,900 kilometers (1,180 miles) from the nearest inhabited island and almost 3,800 kilometers from the Chilean mainland. Early theories assumed that the population grew rapidly.

Rapa Nui has long stood as a symbol of ecocide — an act of deliberate, environmental destruction by humans. But new studies suggests the theory is wrong. There are hundreds of huge stone statues ...

More than 800 years ago, Polynesians sailed thousands of kilometres across the Pacific Ocean to one of the most remote islands on Earth, Rapa Nui. Now, a study of ancient genomes from descendants ...

While Europeans eventually discovered the impressive moai statues for which the Rapa Nui are best known, they also stumbled upon a yet-undeciphered script known as Rongorongo—a three-dimensional ...

Cooke's Smithsonian report repeatedly mentions Pakomio Mā'ori, a Rapa Nui survivor of the Peruvian slave raids of 1862. That man's great-great-grandson, Francisco Nahoe, a Catholic priest and ...

Mahani Teave grew up on one of the most remote islands on Earth, but the 38-year-old pianist still found a way to bring her music to the world — and music education to Rapa Nui. Jeffrey Brown ...

Rapa Nui’s mysterious moai statues stand in silence but speak volumes about the achievements of their creators. The stone blocks, carved into head-and-torso figures, average 13 feet (4 meters ...

How Rapa Nui Lost a Tree, Only to Have It Sprout Up Elsewhere. Before the toromiro disappeared from the island, at least two men grabbed seeds from the last remaining plant and brought them home.

Researchers have long puzzled over why the huge Easter Island statues were placed where they are. However, a new study says the people of Rapa Nui, as the island is called in the local language ...