Atlantis Online
March 28, 2024, 02:42:17 pm
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Were seafarers living here 16,000 years ago?
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=34805893-6a53-46f5-a864-a96d53991051&k=39922
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

Easter Island not destroyed by war, new analysis shows

Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Easter Island not destroyed by war, new analysis shows  (Read 423 times)
0 Members and 73 Guests are viewing this topic.
Martinex
Full Member
***
Posts: 35



« on: August 22, 2016, 10:42:15 pm »


Easter Island not destroyed by war, new analysis shows
August 18, 2016 by John Brhel



Easter Island not destroyed by war, new analysis shows
Credit: Binghamton University

A new study led by a Binghamton University archaeologist contradicts the belief that the ancient civilization of Rapa Nui, Chile, was destroyed by warfare.

An analysis of artifacts found on what was previously called Easter Island revealed that these objects were likely general purpose tools and not spear points, says Carl Lipo, professor of anthropology at Binghamton and lead author on the study, published this month in the journal Antiquity.

People have long believed that the island civilization ran out of resources and, as a result, engaged in massive in-fighting, which led to its collapse. Thousands of obsidian, triangular objects found on the surface, known as mata'a, seemed to support this theory. Because of their large numbers and because they're made of sharp glass, many believed the mata'a were weapons of war.

Lipo and his team analyzed the shape variability of a photo set of 400-plus mata'a collected from the island using a technique known as morphometrics, which allowed them to characterize the shapes in a quantitative manner. Based on the wide variability in shape and their difference from other traditional weapons, the team determined that the mata'a were not used in warfare after all.

"We found that when you look at the shape of these things, they just don't look like weapons at all," Lipo says. "When you can compare them to European weapons or weapons found anywhere around the world when there are actually objects used for warfare, they're very systematic in their shape. They have to do their job really well. Not doing well is risking death."

He says the mata'a wouldn't be lethal. "You can always use something as a spear," Lipo says. "Anything that you have can be a weapon. But under the conditions of warfare, weapons are going to have performance characteristics. And they're going to be very carefully fashioned for that purpose because it matters."

Lipo's study suggests that the ancient civilization never experienced the oft-theorized warfare. Instead, the belief that the mata'a were weapons used in the collapse of the civilization is likely a late-European interpretation of the record.

"What people traditionally think about the island is being this island of catastrophe and collapse just isn't true in a pre-historic sense," Lipo says. "Populations were successful and lived sustainably on the island up until European contact."

Lipo and his team believe that the mata'a are found all over the landscape because they were cultivation tools used in ritual tasks like tattooing or domestic activities such as plant processing.

"We've been trying to focus on individual bits of evidence that support the collapse narrative to demonstrate that really there's no support whatsoever for that story," he says. "Sort of a pillar of the broader study is the fact that this is an amazing society that really was successful. It just doesn't look like success to us because we see fields that are rock, we think catastrophe, and in fact it's actually productivity."

Explore further: Study suggests history of Rapa Nui on Easter Island far more complex than thought

Journal reference: Antiquity search and more info website

Provided by: Binghamton University search and more info website


http://phys.org/news/2016-08-easter-island-war-analysis.html
Report Spam   Logged

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Martinex
Full Member
***
Posts: 35



« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2016, 10:49:44 pm »



Did the people of Easter Island really wipe themselves out ? Image Credit: CC BY 2.5 Honey Hooper
A new study has suggested that the inhabitants of Easter Island were not destroyed by warfare.
One of the most popular theories concerning the decline of the Easter Islanders suggests that, having exhausted the island's natural resources, the people fought amongst themselves over dwindling food supplies until the eventual collapse of their civilization.

Thousands of small obsidian spear points found scattered across the island were thought to point to this particular version of events, but now researchers led by Carl Lipo of Binghamton University have called in to question whether these objects were even weapons at all.
Report Spam   Logged
Martinex
Full Member
***
Posts: 35



« Reply #2 on: August 22, 2016, 10:50:15 pm »

"We found that when you look at the shape of these things, they just don't look like weapons," he said. "When you can compare them to European weapons or weapons found anywhere around the world when there are actually objects used for warfare, they're very systematic in their shape."

Instead, he argues, these 'spear points' were more likely to be general purpose tools.

"What people traditionally think about the island is being this island of catastrophe and collapse just isn't true in a pre-historic sense," he said.

"Populations were successful and lived sustainably on the island up until European contact."
Report Spam   Logged
Martinex
Full Member
***
Posts: 35



« Reply #3 on: August 22, 2016, 10:50:49 pm »

http://phys.org/news/2016-08-easter-island-war-analysis.html
Report Spam   Logged
Martinex
Full Member
***
Posts: 35



« Reply #4 on: August 22, 2016, 10:52:17 pm »

From the article: "People have long believed that the island civilization ran out of resources and, as a result, engaged in massive in-fighting, which led to its collapse." Let me correct that statement: "People Archaeologists have long believed that the island civilization ran out of resources and, as a result, engaged in massive in-fighting, which led to its collapse." What a silly statement in an otherwise good piece which I agree with wholeheartedly.
Report Spam   Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy