What Really Happened on Easter Island? New Evidence Challenges Long-Held Myths

A newly reconstructed rainfall record shows that prolonged drought, not societal collapse, reshaped Rapa Nui’s history. A new study led by scientists at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory provides the strongest evidence so far that a prolonged drought dramatically reshaped life on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) starting around 1550. To uncover this history, the team extracted [...]