Rapa Nui: The Mysteries of Easter Island

The discovery and colonization of Rapa Nui represents the final chapter in humanity's greatest migration story, as Polynesian navigators, following ancestral traditions of oceanic exploration that had already populated islands across the Pacific, accomplished the seemingly impossible feat of finding and settling this isolated speck of land in the world's largest ocean. The arrival of the first Polynesian settlers, likely between 700 and 1200 CE, marked the completion of the human colonization of the Pacific and demonstrated seafaring skills and navigational knowledge that enabled the traversal of oceanic distances that would challenge even modern vessels with sophisticated instrumentation.