By the Quebrada of Ava Ranga Uka A Toroke Hau – about landscape transformation and the significance of water and trees

Abstract

When Easter Island was settled by the end of the 1st millennium AD the Rapanui started to transform their island to a large extent by introducing new plant and animal species, building settlements and ceremonial centers, exploiting quarries and installing vast rock gardens. Traces of ancient hydraulic architecture and water management are omnipresent on many of the Pacific islands. The cultural deposits with their temporal depth and stratigraphic detail are one of the features that make Ava Ranga Uka A Toroke Hau a unique site on Easter Island. The geomorphological analysis of the profiles demonstrates that most strata owe their formation not to alluvial transport but to anthropogenic intervention creating even use-surfaces. Outstanding features amid the upper pavement were circular stone-rimmed planting pits that showed the typical traces of palm root channels, as they are exclusively known on Easter Island for the now-extinct endemic Jubea sp .

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