When the Dutch arrived on Easter Island in 1722, they estimated a population size of 1,500 to 3,000 people. Even then, they expressed bewilderment at how such a tiny population could create the giant stone statues that the island is famous for.
But current ethnographic and archeological evidence suggests the population wasn't always as small as it was when the Europeans found it, and just last week a group of academics gave us the best estimate so far. Based on the island's farming potential, they calculated a peak population size of 17,500. The results were published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. [...]
The team discovered that 19 percent of the island could have been used to grow sweet potatoes, the Islanders' primary food crop. By looking at birth and death rates and how they are affected by food availability, the researchers worked out how many people could have survived on the island.
No comments:
Post a Comment