Easter Island and the Pacific Polynesians - Part 2 - Easter Origins
According
to legend, the first settlers of the island were the family members of
a chief, Hotu Matu'a (The Great Parent), who sailed with them to the island
on a double canoe. Oral tradition attributes the cultural development
of the island and the written script to Hotu Matu'a. With regards to the
time of this event, the archaeological record of the island suggests the
island was first settled around AD 700 and 800. The people of Easter Island
have clear cultural, linguistic and anatomical similarities to those of
the other Pacific Islands. In 1994 DNA from 12 Easter Island skeletons
was found to be Polynesian.
In
a letter dated December 1864, Brother Eugene Eyraud mentioned the existence
of hundreds of wooden tablets covered in hieroglyphics on Easter Island.
Timber resources on the island had run out by then, and only a few tablets
were found after the letter. One, however, was documented. With elaborate
scripting comprising 1 cm high glyphs running the length of the tablet,
it was identified by Thomas Barthel in his "Grundlagen zur Entzifferung
der Osterinselschrift" to contain a sequence of hieroglyphs which
had all the characteristics of a lunar calender. According to oral tradition,
the glyphs were carved by scribes with obsidian flakes and shark teeth.
The tablet is known today as The Lunar Calendar of Tablet Mamari, and
more information on it can be found here.