Rapa Nui (Easter Island) is often used as an example of how overexploitation of limited resources can result in a catastrophic societal collapse. But new research from the Columbia Center for Archaeology is challenging the long-held idea that islanders chopped down palm trees at an unsustainable rate leading to an 'ecocide'.
Dr Dylan S. Davis is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Columbia Center for Archaeology; he shares his research findings with Susie.