Online Program
Adventures Online: Easter Island & the Mystery of Rapa Nui
Program No. 24215RJ
Join an archaeologist for an immersive look into the fascinating history of Easter Island and its people, the Rapa Nui, on this online learning adventure, live from Chile!
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Protecting the Environment
We offset a portion of the emissions created by your travel. Learn more
3 days
1
Orientation, Rapa Nui Origin & Evolution, Archaeology
From the comfort of your own home.
2
Megalithic Culture, Archaeological Sites, Collapse & Change
From the comfort of your own home.
3
Birdman Village, Contact Since 1722, Restoration & Crisis
From the comfort of your own home.
At a Glance
Experience the wonders of Easter Island and learn about the fascinating Rapa Nui people with an expert archaeologist to answer all of your questions — all without leaving the comfort of your home! On this online educational adventure live from Chile, join archaeologists as they share their first-hand knowledge and research of this remote island. Go on online field trips to learn about the famous moai statues at Rano Raraku, Tongarik, Tepito Kura and Moai Quarry. Learn about Rapa Nui society and the eventual collapse of the old culture, and gain insight into how they have been influenced by the Western world. Take part in Q&A sessions and enjoy an opportunity to share your interest in the history and people of Easter Island with other Road Scholars like you.
What You'll Learn
- Join Chilean archaeologists for an expert-led look into the lives of the Rapa Nui people and their society.
- Thrill in online field trips to important archaeological sites like Rano Raraku, Tongarik, Tepito Kura and Moai Quarry to see the megalithic development of the original moai.
- Take an online field trip to the unique Birdman Village in Orongo where the Birdman Festival was held until 1835.
General Notes
You’ll enjoy 2-3 hours of daily instruction, discussion and/or field trips, which includes sufficient breaks throughout the program. This online program is through Zoom, an easy-to-use web video service that includes closed captioning. All you need is an Internet connection and your computer. We’ll provide a how-to guide to make sure you’ll have a hassle-free experience. In keeping with our Traditional On-Site programs, ALL ADVENTURES ONLINE MULTI-DAY PROGRAMS (INCLUDING THIS PROGRAM) ARE PRESENTED LIVE; THESE PROGRAMS ARE NOT RECORDED. Please review the daily itinerary for start and end times to ensure you won’t miss a minute of this live experience. All times are listed in the EASTERN time zone. If you live in a different time zone, please adjust your schedule accordingly.
Suggested Reading List
(16 books)
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
Adventures Online: Easter Island & the Mystery of Rapa Nui
Program Number: 24215
We, the Navigators, The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific
This engaging classic examines how Stone Age Polynesians may have navigated the Pacific. The scholarly volume will appeal to seafarers and modern Pacific travelers.
The Happy Isles of Oceania
The peripatetic author flies off to Australia and New Zealand with a kayak and ends up exploring much of Melanesia and Polynesia, including Tonga, Fiji and the Marquesas, in this wickedly funny, wide-ranging tale.
The Statues That Walked, Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island
Drawing on archaeological evidence and their own work, Hunt and Lip challenge Jared Diamond's view of eco-catastrophe in this convincing new history of Rapa Nui.
Island at the End of the World
Fischer's cultural and political history takes in the full sweep of Easter Island from prehistory through civil rights protests of the 1960s.
Easter Island's Silent Sentinels, The Sculpture and Architecture of Rapa Nui
This richly illustrated survey of the history, culture and art of Easter Island includes the island's vernacular architecture.
Kon-Tiki, Across the Pacific by Raft
The hugely popular account of a daring 1947 voyage that sailed along the Humboldt and Equatorial currents from Peru to Tahiti. Apart from the sheer adventure, Heyerdahl wanted to show the world that Polynesians could have settled the region. With photographs.
Insight Guide Chile
This glossy guide provides a full-color introduction by a team of experts to the land, people, history and attractions of Chile. Brief background essays highlight important topics. With many local and regional maps.
Easter Island, Island of Enigmas
An amateur archaeologist, novelist Dos Passos mixes travel and observation with the history of exploration of Rapa Nui in this brief, engaging book.
Easter Island, the Essential Guide
An archaeologist who has worked on Rapa Nui since the 1980s and past president of the Easter Island Foundation, Sanger covers the history, archaeology, people and practicalities of Easter Island in this authoritative guide.
Easter Island Sketchbook
This treasure trove of whimsical watercolor and ink paintings brings Easter Island's mysterious relics to life. Sternau is particularly adept at rendering the mystical moai -- the large stone statues of the ancient Rapa Nui civilization, but she also captures the island's landscape: from its idyllic beaches to dramatic cliffs.
Pacific Journeys
A striking portfolio of 330 color photographs of the people, nature and landscape of the region, Hendrie's gorgeous book includes images from his many journeys to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, to Tahiti and the Marquesas, Tonga, Fiji, Easter Island and Hawaii over the last 20 years.
On the Road of the Winds
An excellent scholarly review of the prehistory and archaeology of Pacific civilizations before European contact.
Easter Island
In this mesmerizing novel, Vanderbes spins parallel stories of two young women on Easter Island, one an archaeologist with a 1913 expedition and the other an American botanist who visits 60 years later.
Collapse, How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Diamond tackles nothing less than the history and fate of civilization in this compelling book in which he offers case studies, present and past, of societies that work and societies that do not, devoting 100 carefully reasoned pages, for example, to the fate of the Norse settlements in Greenland (climatic change, Inuit) and another big section on Easter Island (deforestation, hubris). This revised edition includes a new afterword.
Rapa Nui, Island of Memory
Full of anecdote and incident, Lee's lively memoir of fieldwork on Rapa Nui celebrates the people and life on the island since the 1980s.
Easter Island Map
A colorful topographic map (1:30,000).
