When British explorers first encountered Easter Island and the Rapa Nui people, they were struck by the island’s iconic stone heads, known as moai. Yet they were puzzled that such a remote island, more than 1,000 miles off the coast of Chile, was home to only a few thousand inhabitants. From a European perspective, many assumed that the Rapa Nui must once have been a much larger civilization that collapsed after exhausting the island’s resources. This idea became widely known as the theory of the “Easter Island Collapse.”

Today, archaeologists are challenging that narrative. Dr. Carl Lipo of Binghamton University is among the researchers working to reexamine the evidence and provide a more nuanced understanding of Rapa Nui history and how its people adapted to their environment.