EASTER ISLAND, POLYNESIA ' 



By Henri Lavachert - 



Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels 



[With 4 plates] 



Few places in the world have given rise to more fantastic specula- 

 tion than this volcanic island, 70 square miles in area, lying in the 

 Pacific Ocean, lat. 2T°10' S., long. 109°20' W. Actually the so-called 

 "mysteries of Easter Island", or rather the explanations which have 

 been offered, are not the work of trained men of science. It is natu- 

 ral that the huge statues, standing erect as they do in a naked land- 

 scape against a background of black and yellow, should have ap- 

 pealed to the poetic imagination. But those who wish to face with 

 candor the problems presented by certain parts of the world may 

 well be annoyed when the poets' lyrical love of mystery becomes the 

 starting point of speculation. The best students of Easter Island 

 have always told us that it was Polynesian and could only be ex- 

 plained by Polynesia.^ The evidence that we have now obtained is 

 merely an addition to what was already a formidable pile. Never- 

 theless we expect that before long others will come forward again 

 with tales of a lost continent of Lemuria, submerged beneath the 

 waters of the Pacific; and that Easter Island is one of its peaks, 

 peopled with Lemurian idols! 



For geologists are in complete agreement upon this point. If a 

 Pacific continent existed, it was long before the advent of man and 



^ Reprinted by permission, with some changes in the illustrations, from Antiquity, vol. 

 10, no. 37, March 1936. 



2 Dr. Henri Lavachery, the writer of this article, was the Belgian member of the Franco- 

 Belgian Expedition which visited Easter Island and remained there from July 29, 1934, to 

 Jan. 3, 1935. It was initiated by Prof. Paul Rivet, of the Ethnographical Museum, Paris, 

 and was actually two expeditions — a French one consisting of M. Watelin (who died before 

 reaching Easter Island) and Dr. A. M^traux (of Swiss nationality), and the Belgian 

 expedition represented by Dr. Lavachery. A joint subsidy was made by the Belgian 

 Government and the National Belgian Fund for Scientific Research. The expedition was 

 transported to the island by a French naval vessel and taken off it by the Belgian training 

 ship Mercator. The visit of the expedition and the formation of its collections were both 

 greatly facilitated by the Government of Chile, to which Easter Island belongs, who gave 

 the most generous instructions to their representative on the island. After the death of 

 M. Watelin, M. Lavachery assumed responsibility for the archeologlcal work, while 

 M. M^traux had charge of the ethnographical and linguistic investigations. A report on 

 the results of the expedition was published in the Bulletin des Musses Royaui, Bruxelles, 

 May-June 1935, no. 3, pp. 50-63 ; July-August, 1935, no. 4, pp. 81-90. 



» Routledge, Mrs. Scoresby, Mystery of Easter Island, 1919. 



391 



