Q: Couldn’t it be argued that the decentralisation was inefficient? A: Yes!—this is the crucial paradox that reveals the entire system's logic. The "inefficiency" wasn't a bug but the essential feature that made the monuments meaningful. The inefficiency IS the signal. Costly signaling theory requires genuine waste. If monument construction were efficient, it wouldn't demonstrate anything meaningful about community capacity. Building separate roads when sharing would be easier, maintaining distinct quarrying traditions when standardization would be faster, using quarries long distances for…

Q: Does your evidence for decentralisation help us understand the spirituality behind the moai? A: The decentralized production model offers valuable insights into the spiritual framework behind moai construction, suggesting that ancestor veneration operated at the community-level lineage rather than through an island-wide religious hierarchy. Moai likely represented lineage-specific ancestors rather than universal deities. If each community maintained autonomous production zones and transport routes, they were probably creating monuments to their own ancestral figures.

If you haven’t seen the link in the recent publications, it’s worth checking out the 3D model of the moai quarry:

Q: If it was decentralised then do you think the moai manufacture was competitive? A: Yes, I think the evidence strongly suggests competitive dynamics, but competition operating through heterarchical rather than hierarchical organization. Essentially, we see the record as showing peer communities competing through monumental display rather than elite-driven rivalry. The spatial segregation at Rano Raraku implies competitive rather than cooperative production.

Q: Does your finding help understand other contested issues on Rapa Nui, such as we have discussed before about the widely held misconception that there was a population collapse on the island? A: Absolutely. Our findings about decentralized production at Rano Raraku directly undermine key pillars of the collapse narrative and help reframe the island's demographic history. The collapse narrative requires centralized mismanagement.

When archaeologists raise the idea that "sleds" or "rollers" or "rafts" were used to transport moai, they are simply asserting notions and then looking for reasons to claim they are right. The sad thing is that these "notions" are not creative enough and don't really explore the world of possibilities of the fanciful and exciting means by which moai…

Q: Why is it important for us to understand that the monumentality was decentralised, other than the fact that it is interesting? A: As Terry and I have recognized through our extensive fieldwork, understanding that Rapa Nui's monumentality was decentralized carries significant implications beyond mere archaeological curiosity, particularly for how we conceptualize social organization, environmental adaptation, and collective action. This evidence of monumentality fundamentally challenges evolutionary assumptions about social complexity.

Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.

Q: It’s stated that Rapa Nui society consisted of small and independent family groups. To what extent did these groups interact, share cultural information, and collaborate on projects? And was constructing moai akin to a kind of family bonding tradition, with information passed down to each new generation? A: Archaeological and ethnohistoric evidence indicates that Rapa Nui communities did not interact panmictically across the island despite its small size.

As a result of the recent article in PLOS One, I have been asked a bunch of questions by reporters about our research. I thought it might be useful to share these questions and our responses. I'll do this as a series of posts. Now for our first question... Q: How would you describe in lay terms the threads of evidence that convinced the team that monumentality was decentralised on Rapa Nui?

The mysteries of Easter Island, subjects of speculation for centuries, yield to scientific inquiry.

Ethnohistoric and recent archaeological evidence suggest that Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) was a politically decentralized society organized into small, relatively autonomous kin-based communities ...

New archaeological analysis reveals the underestimated role of rats in the deforestation of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Dr. Terry Hunt from the University of Arizona and Dr. Carl Lipo from the University of Birmingham have published a study in the Journal of Archaeological Sciences, reassessing the role of Polynesian r...

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