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Contributions of paleoecology to Easter Island’s prehistory: A thorough review
Quaternary Science Reviews ( IF 4 ) Pub Date : 2020-12-22 , DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106751
Valentí Rull

Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is well known for the enigmas surrounding its unique megalithic statues, the moai, and the prehistoric (i.e., pre-European contact) Rapanui society that built them. These enigmas include, among others, the time of the island’s settlement, the geographical origin of the first settlers, the technology associated with moai transportation and emplacement, the occurrence (or not) of an ecological and cultural collapse linked to the island’s deforestation, and the potential influence of climatic shifts on ecological and cultural changes. Until recently, most explanations for prehistoric developments invoked anthropogenic causes, but the progressive development of paleoecological studies has incorporated a new perspective in which climate change and climate-human synergies have gained momentum. This paper reviews all paleoecological studies published to date and their contribution to a better understanding of Easter Island’s prehistory, with a focus on four main aspects: (i) the discovery and settlement of the island, (ii) the eventual occurrence of climatic changes and its potential influence on landscape changes, (iii) spatiotemporal deforestation patterns, and (iv) the relationship between environmental, ecological and cultural shifts. Paleoecological research on Easter Island has proceeded through three main phases: a pioneer phase (1977–1992), a transitional phase (1993–2004) and a revival phase (2005–2020). During the pioneer and transitional phases, the paradigm of a self-induced prehistoric socioecological collapse known as the “ecocidal” hypothesis dominated the scene. However, new empirical evidence obtained during the revival phase highlighted the potential importance of climate change in prehistoric ecological and cultural developments. In addition, paleoecological records have provided novel insights into the initial discovery and occupation of Easter Island before Polynesian settlement. Paleoecological evidence has suggested or supported that (i) the island would have been discovered and sporadically/intermittently settled, possibly by Amerindian cultures, long before Polynesian colonization; (ii) climatic changes, especially centennial-scale droughts that occurred during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and the Little Ice Age (LIA), would have influenced ecological trends and cultural developments; (iii) deforestation was not a synchronous island-wide process but occurred at different times and at different rates according to the catchment considered; and (iv) both climatic and anthropogenic drivers, along with feedbacks between them, would have been responsible for the prehistoric socioecological developments on Easter Island. A general conclusion is that Easter Island’s prehistory is complex and cannot be resolved using simplistic and deterministic approaches from isolated disciplines. Rather, uncovering this prehistory requires an integrated framework with contributions from complementary research fields such as anthropology, archaeology, ethnography, history and paleoecology, among others. This paper explains the potential contributions of paleoecology, in the hope that researchers in other disciplines will be able to incorporate the available paleoecological knowledge into their own studies. From a paleoecological point of view, further coring is needed and the use of novel biomarkers is highly recommended. General recommendations are to increase the amount of raw data available in public repositories, to develop a multidisciplinary database for Easter Island and to adopt a problem-solving attitude focused on the main topics of interest.



中文翻译:

古生态对复活节岛史前史的贡献:全面回顾

复活节岛(Rapa Nui)以其独特的巨石雕像,moai和建造它们的史前(即欧洲前接触)拉帕努伊社会的谜团而闻名。这些谜题包括:岛屿定居的时间,第一批定居者的地理来源,与moai运输和安置有关的技术,与岛屿森林砍伐相关的生态和文化崩溃的发生(或不发生),以及气候变化对生态和文化变化的潜在影响。直到最近,对史前发展的大多数解释都提到了人为原因,但是古生态学研究的不断发展已经纳入了一种新的观点,在这一观点中,气候变化和气候-人类协同作用得到了发展。本文回顾了迄今为止发表的所有古生态学研究及其对更好地了解复活节岛史前史的贡献,并着重于四个主要方面:(i)岛屿的发现和定居;(ii)气候变化的最终发生;以及其对景观变化的潜在影响,(iii)时空森林砍伐模式以及(iv)环境,生态和文化转变之间的关系。复活节岛的古生态研究已经经历了三个主要阶段:先驱阶段(1977-1992),过渡阶段(1993-2004)和复兴阶段(2005-2020)。在先驱阶段和过渡阶段,被称为“杀灭性”假说的自我史前社会生态崩溃的范式主导了整个场景。然而,复兴阶段获得的新的经验证据强调了气候变化在史前生态和文化发展中的潜在重要性。此外,古生态记录为波利尼西亚人定居之前的复活节岛的最初发现和占领提供了新颖的见解。古生态学证据表明或支持:(i)早在波利尼西亚殖民之前,该岛可能已经被发现并偶而/间断地定居,很可能是由美洲印第安人文化定居的;(ii)气候变化,特别是在中世纪气候异常(MCA)和小冰期(LIA)期间发生的百年干旱,将影响生态趋势和文化发展;(iii)毁林不是全岛范围的同步过程,而是根据所考虑的流域在不同的时间以不同的速度发生;(iv)气候和人为驱动因素,以及他们之间的反馈,都将是复活节岛史前社会生态发展的原因。一个普遍的结论是,复活节岛的史前历史很复杂,无法使用孤立学科中的简单和确定性方法来解决。相反,要发现这种史前史,就需要一个综合的框架,其中包括人类学,考古学,人种学,历史和古生态等互补研究领域的贡献。本文解释了古生态学的潜在贡献,希望其他学科的研究人员能够将可用的古生态知识纳入自己的研究中。从古生态学的角度来看,还需要进一步取样,强烈建议使用新型生物标记。一般建议是增加公共存储库中可用的原始数据量,为复活节岛开发一个多学科的数据库,并采取针对感兴趣的主要主题的解决问题的态度。

更新日期:2020-12-22
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