Easter Island is the most remote place humans have ever
colonized, and the fact we got there at all is a miracle. Now it
looks like this island was colonized not once, not twice, but
three entirely separate times. The first and most important wave
of colonization was by Polynesians, who probably reached the
island sometime between 700 and 1,100 C.E. The third and final
wave were the Europeans, who first encountered the island in
1722 and returned in the 1860s for a series of devastating raids
that sold much of the indigenous population into slavery.
There's now genetic evidence to suggest another colonization of
Easter Island in between these two: specifically, by the peoples
of South America. The idea that ancient Americans had a hand in
colonizing Easter Island is not new. The legendary (and
controversial) adventurer archaeologist Thor Heyerdahl was
convinced that the roots of Easter Island were in South America,
not Polynesia, a conclusion he reached based on supposed
similarities between the famous head s