East of Easter: Traces of human impact in the far-eastern Pacific

Abstract

Building on the work of Atholl Anderson and other Pacific archaeologists, this paper describes the methodologies employed and some preliminary results in an ongoing investigation of preEuropean human impact on far-eastern Pacific Islands. Which islands in the far-eastern Pacific would Polynesian sailors have encountered if they ventured east of Easter Island? And if preColumbian South American explorers travelled west into the Pacific, would they have managed to reach the same islands? How would signals of human impact on these islands differ from signs of natural environmental variability? These questions form the basis of an investigation of the role played by the far-eastern Pacific Islands in the prehistoric trans-Pacific movement of people.