Rapa Nui: The influence of Freshwater sources on Prehistoric Settlement distribution

Summary

One of the many mysteries of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) is how the ancient inhabitants survived with so few sources of freshwater. The scarcity of freshwater suggests that water resources may have been a constraining factor in settlement growth, patterning, and distribution. As a first step of addressing this hypothesis, we conducted field work to identify classes of terrestrial sources of freshwater and compared them to early settlement distribution. From May-June, 2014, we generated field data on the prehistoric hydrology of Rapa Nui. These data consist of images and GPS locations for observable surface water features and field measurements of temperature and electrical conductivity to identify fresh versus saline water sources. Each identified water source was described in terms of source type, location, persistence, and accessibility. Using these water resource data and archaeological settlement evidence, we created a map to examine whether settlement patterns are spatially autocorrelated to island hydrology. Preliminary analysis suggests that coastal seeps and springs were a vital resource for ancient peoples as evidenced by the systematic co-occurrence of archaeological features such as statue platforms (ahu) with active groundwater seeps.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage