{"id":67282,"date":"2026-05-01T11:18:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T05:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=67282"},"modified":"2026-05-01T14:31:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:01:33","slug":"easter-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/easter-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Easter Island"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Easter Island Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A groundbreaking study suggests that the ancient Rongorongo script of Easter Island could be independently developed and predates the arrival of Europeans on the island.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Easter Island<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>Chilean dependency<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the eastern<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/pacific-ocean\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b> Pacific Ocean<\/b><\/a>.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the<\/span><b> easternmost outpost <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the <\/span><b>Polynesian island world.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Named Rapa Nui by its earliest residents<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it is one of the <\/span><b>most isolated inhabited islands<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was <\/span><b>discovered by Europeans<\/b> <b>on Easter Sunday (1722<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) by Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen. Hence the name \u201cEaster Island\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In between Roggeveen\u2019s arrival and its annexation to Chile, the <\/span><b>Rapanui population declined drastically<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> due to their <\/span><b>enslavement <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on the South American mainland <\/span><b>by the Peruvians<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and from the <\/span><b>smallpox and tuberculosis epidemics<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on the island.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Covering a total area of 163.6 sq.km, it is situated about 3,540 km to the west of Chile and about 1,900 km to the east of Pitcairn Island.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a<\/span><b> small, triangular-shaped volcanic island.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It faces a <\/span><b>tropical rainforest climate.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The island comprises t<\/span><b>hree extinct volcanoes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, namely Terevaka, Poike, and Rano Kau.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The island has <\/span><b>no permanent rivers <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">but <\/span><b>contains three crater lakes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, namely Rano Aroi, Rano Raraku, and Rano Kau.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is<\/span><b> known for its iconic Moai statues<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, carved by the indigenous Rapa Nui people.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>UNESCO <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">named Easter Island a <\/span><b>World Heritage Site <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on March 22, 1996, and major parts of the island have been protected under the <\/span><b>Rapa Nui National Park.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What are Moai Statues?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rapa Nui is famous for its <\/span><b>large statues <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">called moai.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are <\/span><b>shaped like large human heads<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>erected on stone pedestals.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are famous for their<\/span><b> carved heads and \u201cPukao,\u201d <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a <\/span><b>hat-like covering made from a soft red stone.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some moai stand 40 feet tall and weigh 75 tonnes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They were <\/span><b>carved in volcanic stone <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">at quarries and then moved to their current locations across the island.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scholars believe the<\/span><b> Rapa Nui people built<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the moai between the<\/span><b> 13th and the 16th centuries a<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nd represented their revered ancestors.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Over 900 moai <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">have been found on the island to date.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What is Rongorongo?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rongorongo is a<\/span><b> writing system<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that comprises <\/span><b>carved symbols, known as glyphs,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on <\/span><b>wooden tablets and artefacts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> discovered in <\/span><b>Easter Island.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rongorongo differs from other scripts in that it has <\/span><b>not yet been deciphered.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rongorongo was <\/span><b>noted for the first time<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in <\/span><b>1864 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">when it was observed by <\/span><b>Europeans<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rongorongo looks <\/span><b>very different from the European writing <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">systems. This has led some experts to believe it <\/span><b>may have developed locally by the inhabitants.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><strong>:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/science\/a-mysterious-easter-island-script-may-be-older-than-european-contact-suggesting-they-invented-writing-independently\/articleshow\/130627736.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>TOI<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Easter Island is a Chilean dependency in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Read more about Easter Island, Location, Total Area, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":67459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3135,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-67282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-easter-island","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67282"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101282,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67282\/revisions\/101282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}