In which country is the legendary Easter Island?

The earliest inhabitants of the island called it Rapa Nui or Te Pito te Henua (meaning "the navel of the world"). The first Europeans to land on the island were Dutch. They named the island Paaseiland, which means "Easter Island" to commemorate the day they arrived. Residents of the island are mixed, mainly Polynesian Asians, and almost all of them live in Galoya village on the west coast with barriers, with a population of 3,304 (2002).

April 5, 1722, Dutch Admiral, Dutch West Indies. 19 14 started relevant investigation and research activities on Easter Island. However, most anthropologists today call this island Rapanui according to the local language, which was called by Polynesian laborers from Tahiti in A.D. 1860.

All the discovery history of Easter Island records that a Pacific expedition consisting of three ships of the Dutch West India Company first arrived at the island in 1722. The fleet led by Dutch Admiral Jacob Rogoff found this strange island on April 22nd, 1722, bypassing Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America. Since this day is "the first day of Christian Easter", Rogge named it Easter Island, which means "the place where our Lord was resurrected".

However, the original inhabitants of this island have another name for their hometown. They call it "Ji Bí o Ji Genua", which means "the center of the world", while Polynesians and indigenous people in Pacific islands call it "RaPa Nui", which is even more puzzling and mysterious because it literally means "the navel of the earth".

Easter Island is located in the southeast of the Pacific Ocean, near the intersection of 27 degrees south latitude and 109 degrees west longitude, with an area of about 1 17 square kilometers, and now belongs to Valparaiso, Chile. It is about 3000 kilometers away from Chile in South America and far away from other islands in the Pacific Ocean, so it is an island in the southeast of the Pacific Ocean. Easter Island is one of the most isolated islands, which is 2075 kilometers away from the settled Pitcairn Island. The island is roughly triangular and consists of three volcanoes.

This mountainous island is not a part of the sunken land, but some volcanoes rising from the bottom of the sea.

A typical high island in the ocean. Three extinct volcanoes, mainly composed of tuff (a porous rock formed by solid volcanic fragments) and its lava flow, make the island a unique triangle. There are some parasitic tuff craters and cones scattered in the territory (that is, craters and cones formed on or near the volcano after the earliest crater was blocked), while there are many eroded lava areas in other areas, and obsidian is everywhere. The stone-free surface soil is barren; Suitable places for large-scale farming are mainly distributed in Garroa and Mattavelli in the southwest, the plains in the southwest of Vaihu and La Nuorala Ku volcanoes, and the prehistoric Peuker Peninsula in the eastern corner of the island. Rainwater accumulates in a swamp-covered crater lake, which depends on some volcanoes, such as Rano Kao, Ranolaku and Rano Aroi. An intermittent stream, supplied by the volcanic lake of Ranu Aroi, flows down the slope of Trevaka and pours into the permeable soil. About 9 14 meters (3,000 feet) wide, the Ranuko volcano in the deep crater lake supplies water to Ann Garroa. The coast is composed of soft and eroded gray cliffs, with a vertical steep drop of about 152 ~ 305 meters (500 ~ 1000 feet); Some long, low, hard and rugged lava structures sometimes cut off cliffs. There are no natural ports, but there are anchorages in Garroa in the west bank, Vinapu and Hotu-Iti in the south bank, the sea near Anakena and Bahia la Perouse in the north bank. There are some small islands near the coast, mainly Motunnui and Mo Island. The only real beach is Anakerna, and most other beaches are gravel. There are many caves.

There are many flaming mountains on the island, and the highest point is 60 1 m above sea level. The ground is rugged and covered with thick tuff. Most of the topography on the island is flat hills, grasslands and volcanoes. The beaches on the island are mostly rocky and there are cliffs everywhere. No one is guarding the bay. There are only three beaches on the island and the sand is very clean.

The northeast is higher than the Polynesian islands. The southwest is flat, 3700 kilometers from the west coast of Chile. There is a volcano at each corner of the triangle. The corner on the left is Mount Rannock. On the right is the Ranolaco volcano, with the largest giant stone statue group on the island on its slope. In the north corner is Ranualu volcano, adjacent to Trevaka Mountain.

islander

The inhabitants of the island are the easternmost immigrants in the Polynesian subgroup of the Marguesas race. The original Labonui vocabulary has been lost. Before 1864, missionaries introduced Tahiti dialect to the slaughtered residents, only some mixed Polynesian and non-Polynesian languages were recorded. Fluent in Spanish. Traditionally, islanders consider themselves descendants of two races: long-eared people and short-eared people. Intermarriage is common. More and more people of foreign descent came in.

Climate environment

Tropical maritime climate, no streams on the surface, with crater lake as the drinking water source, and the diameter of Ranoko crater lake is 1.6 km. The climate is warm and humid, with an average annual temperature of 22℃. It is rainy all year round, with annual precipitation 1300mm. The month with the largest rainfall is May, and the rainfall reaches 159mm. Heavy rain can't change the lifestyle of the people on the island, but fishing and agriculture are affected by the moon and the wind.

The climate is subtropical, that is, sunny and dry. /kloc-0 is the hottest in March, with an average temperature of 23℃ (73 ℉); It is coldest from June to August, with an average temperature of 18℃(64℉). The average annual precipitation is about 1, 250 mm (49 inches), but it varies greatly from year to year. September is the driest, and June and July have the most rainfall, which is consistent with the passage time of the southern winter front. The winds in June and August are irregular, and the other times are mainly trade winds from the east and southeast. From September to March of the following year, the Peruvian current (also known as Humboldt current) flows through the island, and the average water temperature is about 265438 0℃ (70 ℉).

Main resources

plant

Easter Island is a grassland, and there are no trees higher than 3 meters. The vegetation is dominated by shrubs and grasses. Botanists have only found 47 species of native higher plants on the island, most of which are herbs and ferns, and only 4 species of shrubs.

The local flora and fauna are very poor. The analysis of pollen deposits shows that there were trees and shrubs, including Jubaia trees, on the island when the local people were farming before the fire broke out. There are only 3 1 flowering wild trees, 14 ferns and 14 mosses. Grass and small ferns grow on the barren land, while the crater lake covered by swamp is densely covered by two imported American plants: Totora reed bush (an important building material) and Polygonum (a plant of Polygonum, a medicinal plant). Before the arrival of Europeans, some cultivated plants were introduced, some from America and some from Polynesia. The main variety is sweet potato, which is widely planted in plantations and is the main food for residents. The earliest introduced varieties are gourd, sugarcane, banana, taro, yam and two useful trees: Broussonetia papyrifera in Asia, whose bark can be used for weaving; Triumfetta semitriloba In America, bark can be made into rope.

animal

Among the wild animals, there are no large insects except exotic mice and a small lizard that may be native to China. It doesn't even have native bats and land birds. As for livestock, there are only chickens.

The isolated environment on the island makes animals have great limitations. Vertebrates only fish or seabirds have the ability to fly long distances. In addition, there are spiders, insects, earthworms, snails, centipedes and so on. 1866, missionaries introduced sheep, horses, cows, pigs and other domestic animals. A large number of wild cats living in wild caves do not know how they were introduced.

Before humans appeared, the only vertebrate that could fly long distances was fish or seabirds. There are only a few kinds of animals on land, such as isopods (an order of Crustacea), spiders, insects, earthworms, snails and millipedes. In modern times, there are a lot of flies, big cockroaches and a little scorpion. The local edible Polynesian mice were later replaced by larger European mice. From 65438 to 0864, the missionaries who settled on the island introduced sheep, horses, cows and pigs. 1870 After foreign ranchers started to operate commercial pastures, sheep were particularly abundant in about 100. In the middle of1980s, the sheep industry came to an end, but the cattle industry flourished. Since 1880, Chilean quail chickens, quails and a kind of baby eagle have been added to the wild animals. Turtles and seals are rare animals, and there are lobsters and various coastal and deep-sea fish around the coast.

Historical change editor

At present, there are about 2000 people living on the island, all of whom belong to Polynesian race. Before westerners came to this island, it was still in the stone age of mankind. They only have language, not words. Because the island is full of stones and no crops, we can only grow some sweet potatoes that are easy to grow. In the past, islanders made a living by fishing, a few kinds of sweet potatoes made a living, and most of them were engaged in tourism services. The indigenous Polynesians on the island call this island "the center of the world".

The first discoverer of this island was the English navigator Edward Davis. When he first landed on the island at 1686, he found it was desolate, but there were many huge stone statues standing there. Davis was so surprised that he called the island "a miserable and strange land".

From 65438 to 0805, western colonists began to capture Rapa Nui as slaves on the island. At first, it was only occasionally. 1862, Peruvian pirates arrived in eight ships and captured 1000 Rapa Nui. The male Rapa Nui was almost caught in the net. These people were transported to Peru and sold to local slave owners. Under the condemnation of international public opinion, the Peruvian government had to order slave traders to put these Rapanui back, but so far only about 100 Rapanui have died. On the way back to Easter Island, they were infected with smallpox and died one after another during the journey. Only 15 people returned to their hometown. This 15 person also brought smallpox to Easter Island. The last descendants of the legendary founding chief Hotu Matu'a died, as did all the chiefs and priests. Only a few hundred people are left on the island.

The following year, French missionaries set foot on Easter Island, and easily pulled this disaster.

World Heritage, one of the most isolated inhabited islands in history.

The Panui people were transformed into Christians, and at the same time, the culture of the island was completely destroyed. They ordered all the boards engraved with Lange to be burned. Twenty-five surviving Lanlange boards were secretly hidden by Rapa Nui people.

The Rapa Nui people who survived in the 1970s moved to Tahiti. At 1877, the population of the island is only11.

1888 is also Easter. The Chilean government announced that it would annex Easter Island and lease most of the land on the island to a sheep company until 1953, which made the land on the island more barren. Today, the population of the island has risen to more than 2,000, but only 5% of school-age children can speak Rapanui.

The first European to land on Easter Island was Jacob Roginin, captain of the Dutch merchant ship, who spent a day on the island on 1722. He and his crew found residents on the island. According to them, these residents have various shapes. They worship the rising sun and worship huge stone statues with fire. Some of them, who are said to be white, hang ornaments on their earlobes to make them fall to their shoulders, which is obviously a custom of non-Polynesians.

Easter Island Statue /moai

An expedition sent by the Spanish governor in Peru rediscovered the island in 1770. They estimate that about 3000 people live on the island. There seems to have been a civil war on the island before the British navigator Colonel james cook arrived in 1774. The British found murdered poor Polynesian residents, only 600-700 men and less than 30 women. They also saw that the huge stone statues were no longer the object of worship, and most of them were knocked down. 1786, the French navigator Jean-Francois de Galap (Earl of Drape Lutz) arrived at the island and found about 2,000 people on the island. His attempt to introduce livestock failed. Since 1792, some sailboats, including whaling ships, have been to this island. To 1860, the population is about 3000. Slave traders from Peru plundered the island in 1862, and smallpox was prevalent since then. In 1877, the population decreased to11. /kloc-the population increased again at the end of 0/9. 1864, French Catholic priest Eugene Eyraud came to the island as the first foreigner to settle on the island. By 1868, the residents believe in Christianity. 1870, Tahiti immigrants began to raise sheep. 1888, the island was incorporated into the territory of Chile, and Chile leased almost all the land to raise sheep. 1954 Chilean naval authorities took over the sheep ranch. 1965 the Chilean government appointed a civilian governor and the islanders became full citizens of Chile. In just 30 years, the resurrected islanders have fully adapted to the cultural standards of the mainland, but they have not forgotten to respect their ancestors and their crafts and customs. Every February, men, women and children take part in competitive activities to relive the past arts and customs of the island, including carving, percussion, weaving reed boats and traditional songs and dances.

Archaeological discovery editor

Easter Island is famous for its huge stone statues. There are more than 600 large stone statues on the island, as well as the bones of Ah Fu facing the land.

Works carved with volcanic rocks on Easter Island.

There are open-air courtyards in the local direction, and some courtyards are cleverly built. Archaeological investigations were conducted in 1886, 19 14 and 1934; Archaeological excavation began at 1955. The results show that there are three distinct cultural periods on the island. In the early days, there were large stone platforms in Tahai, Weinapu and Anakna, and the carbon dating was about 700 ~ 800 AD. Colonel Kirk appreciated the first two large stone platforms and described them. The wall of Anakna stone platform has been buried underground until 1987. From the excavation work of Anakna, it is found that many stone statues were carved in the early stage, among which a smaller prototype of the middle bust is the main difference between it and the middle bust is the round head and the thick body. Another style is a realistic statue, which is a full-length portrait of kneeling, with hips sitting on heels and hands on knees. There is a statue with bare ribs, which has all the features of the pre-Inca monuments in Tiwanaku, South America. Medium term (1050? ~ 1680), deliberately destroyed and discarded stone statues, and all stone platforms were completely rebuilt, regardless of the sun's orientation or the size of the stone structure. It seems that the only wish is to have a solid stone platform that can support a higher and larger bust, which is a typical mid-term "Moai".

In the middle period, a tomb was built in Dashitai. The volume of the stone statue became larger and larger, and later reached an alarming level; The slender head of the tall bust has a large cylindrical "Pukao" (meaning headdress) made of red tuff. Most of the medium-term stone statues are about 3-6 meters (10-20 feet) high, but the largest stone statue standing on the stone platform is about 10 meters (32 feet) high, carved from a stone weighing about 74,500 kilograms (82 tons), and its "average height" at the top is about/kloc-0. The largest stone statue still standing today is partially buried in the deep mud below the quarry, about 1 1 meter (37 feet) high. The largest unfinished stone statue is about 2 1 m (68 feet) high, with its back against the rock. Some traditions confirmed by archaeology show that these stone statues represent some important figures who are regarded as gods after death.

The stone statues in the middle period are all made of yellow-gray tuff peculiar to the crater lake wall of La Nurallah Library. There are many unfinished stone carvings and thousands of rough stone picks scattered inside and outside the bowl-shaped area of the crater, which proves that the carving work was suddenly interrupted.

Experiments in 1955 ~ 1956 show that this stone has remained.

Easter Island

Many stone picks made of basalt in the field can be used to carve hard tuff. The second experiment shows that 12 islanders can lift a 25-ton stone statue about 3 meters (9 feet) off the ground, tilt it vertically and put it on the stone platform: except for two wooden poles used as levers, no tools are needed, and this work takes 18 days. Large and small stones are wedged under the stone statue one by one, forming a cone pile that rises slowly, making this behemoth stand upright. Traditionally, these stone statues were "taken" to far places through this place, but in the experiment, 180 people were able to remove a medium-sized stone statue from the ground. An experiment of 1986 once again found that 15 people can pull a medium-sized stone statue forward with a set of ropes and move it upright on the ground.

The bust of the mid-term stone carving is obviously taken from a local prototype, and there are no similar stone carvings elsewhere. There is also a special phenomenon in the middle period, that is, there is a bird god worship ceremony in which bird catchers follow the etiquette, and this phenomenon continues to the third period, that is, the late period. Its ceremony center is Orongo village on Ranuk Mountain. The village is full of stone houses with roofs like fake arches. These stone houses and connected round brick houses with roof entrances are the characteristics of the island in the early and middle period; Although there are no such houses in other parts of Polynesia, they are common in the neighboring areas of South America.