New book on Easter Island’s prehistory

The book “The Prehistory of Rapa Nui (Easter Island): Towards an Integrative Interdisciplinary Framework” (Springer Nature), edited by V. Rull and C.M. Stevenson, has been sent to the press and will be issued early next year

This book addresses the main enigmas of Easter Island’s prehistory – i.e., the time from the initial settlement to European contact – from a multidisciplinary and unbiased perspective.

The main topics include:

• the timing of settlement and the origin of the first settlers
• the main traits of the prehistoric Rapanui culture and its changes
• the total deforestation of the island, its timing and causes
• the extinction of the original and the prehistoric biota
• the occurrence of climatic shifts and their potential effects on socioecological trends
• the occurrence or not of a Rapanui cultural and demographic collapse before European contact
• the influence of Europeans on the prehistoric Rapanui society

The book is subdivided into thematic sections and each chapter is written by renowned specialists in disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology, paleoecology, ethnography, linguistics, ethnobotany, phylogenetics/phylogeography and history.

Contributors have been invited regardless their personal approaches and perspectives, to provide an open and objective vision that includes as many views as possible on the topics considered. In this way, the readers may be able to compare different of points of view and make their own interpretations on each subject.

The book is intended for a wide audience including graduate students, advanced undergraduate students, university teachers and researchers interested on the subject. Given its multidisciplinary character and the topics included, the book is suitable for students and researchers from a wide range of disciplines and interests.