For generations, the massive moai of Easter Island, called Rapa Nui by the locals, have stood in quiet testimony to one of archaeology’s longest-standing mysteries. How did an island society, remote ...

The indigenous people of Easter Island, the Rapa Nui, experienced a societal collapse after the 17th century because they stripped the island clean of its natural resources. Or at least, that’s the ...

A researcher has offered a new theory for the mystery of Easter Island’s stone heads, arguing in a recent study that carvers believed they helped the growth of crops. Soil tests of the Rano Raraku ...

For centuries, Western scholars have touted the fate of the native population on Easter Island (Rapa Nui) as a case study in the devastating cost of environmentally unsustainable living. The story ...

Moai statues near Rano Raraku volcano, Rapa-Nui National Park, Chile. Easter Island's famous moai, monumental human figures carved from the local quarried volcanic rocks, have long puzzled visitors ...

One of the most remote inhabited locations on Earth, Easter Island is famous for the thousand or so enigmatic, towering statues that dot its landscape, called moai. Earlier this month, a fire caused ...

The hillside of Rano Raraku volcano on Rapa Nui feels like a place that froze in time. Embedded in grass and volcanic rock, almost 400 moai – the monolithic human figures carved centuries ago by this ...

Unless you count the heat, the streets of Tullahoma, Tenn., have very little in common with Easter Island, a tiny spit of land off the coast of Chile. But local artist Steve Smith is doing his part to ...