New excavations and high tech scans on one of the world’s most remote islands are forcing archaeologists to redraw the story of how complex societies rise, adapt and endure. On Rapa Nui, better known ...

Rapa Nui (Easter Island) with its gigantic statues and treeless landscape has fascinated researchers for centuries. A new genetic study disproves the popular theory that the Rapanui population ...

Easter Island is named for the Sunday in 1722 when Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen landed his crew on the distant Pacific island. It’s been misunderstood by outsiders ever since. In recent decades, ...

A mysterious find on Easter Island, investigated by a team of geologists, suggests that the Earth's mantle seems to behave differently than once thought. Geography textbooks describe the Earth's ...

There is no place in the world like Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui. It feels like it is not even of this world. Located more than 2,000 miles from South America's mainland, it is one of the ...

Scholars have long debated how the massive stone figures of Rapa Nui got to where they stand today. A new study offers one possible explanation. The Rapa Nui moai, the monolithic stone figures of ...

The question “who discovered Easter Island” has two answers, depending on perspective. Long before Europeans arrived, Polynesian voyagers had already settled the island. However, the first recorded ...