Study of Human Remains Discovered in 2001 at Ahu 'O Rongo, Rapa Nui Caroline Polet Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation Volume 17 Article 6 Issue 2 October

2003 Study of Human Remains Discovered in 2001 at Ahu 'O Rongo, Rapa Nui Caroline Polet Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

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Recommended Citation Polet, Caroline (2003) "Study of Human Remains Discovered in 2001 at Ahu 'O Rongo, Rapa Nui," Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation: Vol. 17 : Iss. 2 , Article 6. Available at: https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/rnj/vol17/iss2/6

This Research Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Hawai`i Press at Kahualike. It has been accepted for inclusion in Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation by an authorized editor of Kahualike. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Polet: Study of Human Remains Discovered in 2001 at Ahu 'O Rongo, Rapa Nui STUDY OF HUMAN REMAINS DISCOVERED IN 2001 AT AHU '0 RONGO, RAPANUI

Caroline Polet, Ph.D. Laboratory ofNatural Science, Royal Belgian Institute ofNatural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium

INTRODUCTION

rom July 1934 to April 1935 a Franco-Belgian expedition F to Rapa Nui was led by archaeologist Henri Lavachery of the Royal Museums of Art and History (RMAH) and the Swiss ethnographer Alfred Metraux (Lavachery 1935). This team un o 5m dertook the first extensive ethnographic study (Metraux 1971), -=-=- o Skin started a petroglyph survey (Lavachery 1935b), and excavated some funerary monuments. They also brought back to Europe a moai representing the god Pou Hakanononga which joined the collections of the RMAH (Lavachery 1938). In March 2001, a new Belgian expedition (Archaeological Investigations on Rapa Nui) took place. It was supported by the National Geographic Society and directed by Nicolas Cauwe N and Dirk Huyge of the RMAH. unexcavated In order to better define the chronological context of the moai Pou Hakanononga, Cauwe and Huyge undertook excava i tions at the site from which tills statue was removed. The site, trench dug to remove called Abu '0 Rongo, is a large ceremonial center on the south the moa; In 1934-35 west coast of Rapa Nui (Figure I) near Hangaroa village. Sev eral platforms were uncovered in the excavations and these cor respond to various phases of use. West of the monument, in a structure delimited by un-hewn stone blocks and the seaside wall, charcoal and many fragments of human bones were dis covered. The radiocarbon dating allocates the deposit to the later part of the 13 th century or to the 14'h century, which makes these human remains the oldest dated so far (Huyge et aI., 2002). Their anthropological study is presented here.

INVENTORY OF THE SKELETAL REMAJNS

The material recovered is incomplete and fragmentary (Figure 2). Only teeth and small bones such as metacarpals were intact. After reconstitution and assembling, the total number of re mains amounts to 440. Two thirds of these had been submitted _.1.2 3 Qx4 to beat in the process of cremation. The adult bones that were not burnt are the most brittle. 5 ~6 §:I 7 ~8

Minimum number ofindividuals Figure 1. Location of Abu '0 Rongo on Rapa Nui and plan of the The adults represent 63 % of the determined remains. The excavation in 2001 (from Huyge et at., 2002). 1 : Abu I walls; 2: Abu presence of two different unheated upper lateral incisors indi I platform cobbles; 3: indurated surface initially covered by Abu I cates that there were at least two individuals. Two heated right pavement; 4: 'cremation' area; 5: Abu II walls; 6: stone filling; 7: second upper premolars indicate that two adults were cremated. displaced stones ofahu walls; 8: bedrock outcrop. One cannot however be sure if the total number of adults amounts to four or to two with, in tills case, partially burnt indi Sex determination and estimations ofage at death viduals. Unfortunately, the coxal bones and the skulls are too frag To estimate the number of children, the individualization mentary for any observation in relation to sex determination. of the skeletal remains was made on the basis of their stages of The age of the four children ha been estimated by means of development. A minimum of four juveniles were counted. several methods (Table 1). The youngest was a newborn, one was about 3.5 years of age, another had reached the age of six years and the oldest was about ten years old.

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Published by Kahualike, 2003 1 Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation, Vol. 17 [2003], Iss. 2, Art. 6 A if the cremations took place a long 9~r time after death, i.e. on dry bone , .. Guillon's method (Guillon, 1986) was used. This method can only be applied on bones that were heated at high temperature. We are, therefore, unable to give any information con cerning the treatment of the children. Most of the adult long bones that were heated at more than 500°C dis play only longitudinal splitting, indi cating that they were probably cre mated after decomposition. Only six of them (9 %) present transverse and longitudinal intersecting cracks (Figure 3), which implies that they were incinerated "fresh". Neverthe less, none of them display the warp ing or twisting typically observed when flesh-covered bones are Figure 3. Bone with trans verse and longitudinal inter burned (Ubelaker 1989: 36). These secting cracks. results match with the observations of Routledge (1919) quoted by Metraux (1971:115) according to which the dead were usually ex posed and then transferred to a vault of the ahu once they were decom po ed. It also corroborates the re sults of the anthropological study of Abu Tahai made by Ayres and Saleeby (2000), according to which Figure 2. Some of the human bones and teeth discovered at Abu '0 99.9 % of the remain show cracking Rongo belonging to : A: child 1; B: child 2; C: child 3; D: child 4; E: patterns representative of the crema burnt adults; F: un burnt adults. tion of defleshed bones.

Only i olated teeth were available for the adult (Table 1). Peculiarities, pathologies and cut According to the dental wear of unheated teeth, one adult died ting marks at around twenty years; another reached 24-35. The heated The upper incisor of adults teeth belonged to at least two individuals aged 18-22 and 35 show wear not only on the incisal 40, re pectively. These age estimations are, however, tentative edge but also on the lingual surface becau e dental wear is heavily dependent on diet. (Figure 4). This peculiar type of wear, called "lingual urface attri CREMATIO PRACTICES tion of the upper anterior Figure 4. A permanent up teeth" (LSAMAT), is related to a per inci or howing a lin gual surface attrition In order to obtain information on the temperature of cremation coar e diet (lri h and Turner 1997). (LSAMAn· fire, we u ed the scale of Susioj et at. (1988) ba ed on the Tills type of wear may result from color of the bones. Most of the children's bones were light long-term hredding or sucking of brown and some were black (Figure 2 A-D): they must have raw tuber roots between the upper teeth and the tongue. Obser been heated at temperatures between 300°C and 400°C. On the vations of the flfSt explorers and also etbnograpillc data indi contrary, the adult bones display a wider range of colors: most cate that prior to European contact, the diet of the Rapanui peo of them were white, orne were brown, some gray and a few ple included different tubers (Flenley 1993; Pollock 1993). were black or blue (Figure 2 E). This indicates that they were Mo t of them were usually cooked, uch as weet potato, taro submitted to varying temperatures, rising up to above 700°C. and yam, but sweet potato was ometimes eaten raw in order to Thi temperature might appear to be high but experiment quench the thirst (Metraux 1971:154). The turmeric root have showed that the temperature of a simple campfire can rise (Curcuma longa) was also chewed in order to extract the juice to between 900°C and 1000°C. However, for a corpse to reach for cloth dyeing (Metraux 1971:237). LSAMAT is often associ tbi temperature, it must remain on the fire for at least two ated with high caries rate , as tuber roots are rich in carbohy hours (Shipman et ai., 1984). drates (lri h and Turner 1997). However, no caries were re 10 order to determine if these corpses were incinerated or corded on the twelve teeth that were discovered at Abu '0

Rapa Nui Journal 115 Vol. 17 (2) October 2003

https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/rnj/vol17/iss2/6 2 Polet: Study of Human Remains Discovered in 2001 at Ahu 'O Rongo, Rapa Nui 2 Table 1. Estimations of the age at death of the individual buried in Ahu '0 Rongo (II = lower central incisor, 1 = lateral upper incisor, p4 = second 2 upper premolar, M 2 = first lower molar, M 3 = third lower molar, dc = deciduous canine, drn = deciduou econd upper molar).

Children Method Author Observation Age

child 1 length of the pars lateralis Fazeka and K6 a, 1978 - 25 mrn newborn

child 2 stage ofdevelopment of Ubelaker, 1989, p. 71 3 y ± 12 m teeth & length of the deciduous Liversidge et al., 1998 dc= 19.14mm 3.4 y

child 3 stage of development of Ubelaker, 1989, p. 7l 5 y ± 16 m teeth & length of the permanent Liversidge et al., 1998 12 = ll.46 mrn 6.38y

child 4 stage of development of Ubelaker, 1989, p. 71 9y±24m teeth & length of the permanent Liversidge et al., 1998 M 2 = 10.25 mm 9,8 y

Adults

unheated dental wear Lovejoy 1985 individual A I, : phase C l8-22 Y 2 1 : phase C 18-22 Y individual B 2 1 : phase E 24-30 y

heated dental wear Lovejoy 1985 individual A (or C) p4: phase C 18-22 Y individual B (or D) p4: phase G 35-40 y

Rongo. This absence might be related to the beneficial effect of ond third of the crown, this defect occurred between the first a diet rich in fluorine, such as marine food (Hadjimarkos and and the econd year of life. Bonhorst 1962). Marginal 0 teophyte (bone spurs) can be ob erved on The deciduou teeth (canine and second molar) of the 3.5 one articular facet of a heated adult thoracic vertebra (Figure year-old child present a brown horizontal line on their crown 6). The e indicate a degeneration of the pine and are a com (Figure 5). Thi line probably re ults from a disruption of min mon finding that in eralization at the crea es with age and the maturation stage level of activity (Mann (Hill on 1996:171). et Murphy 1990:47-48) It was probably but can also be related to opaque initially and fluorosis (Rogers and became brown- Waldron 1995: 26). tained later (by tak The urface of ev ing up color from eral fragments of long food, for example). bones belonging to a A mild level of child (probably the 3.5 fluorosis (excessive year-old) shows in fluoride intake) may crea ed porosity, marked have produced these striation and new bone opacities. As the hy Figure 5. Buccal view of the canine and formation (Figure 7). Figure 6. One fragmentary adult tho pocalcification is mesial view of econd deciduou molar of Thi remodeling of the racic vertebra with marginal 0 teo localized on the sec- the child 2 showing a brown horizontal perio turn (ti ue that phytes. band (-+).

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Figure 7. Peno titis on everallong bone probably belonging to Child 2.

urround bone) probably reflects an inflammation (periostitis). It can re ult from trauma, non pecific or specific infections such a yphili, scurvy, and a ho t of other factors (Mann and Mur phy 1990: I09; Ortner and Putschar 1981: 129-138). As several bone of thi Rapanui individual were affected, the cause of this perio titis would rather be an infection. However, care must be taken concerning the aetiology; in the case of children, normally remodeling bone may imulate a pathologic condition (Mann and Murphy 1990: 135-138). The proximal fragment of the left ulna belonging to the ten year-old individual displayed two eries of tran ver e cutting marks that were located at the level of the insertion of the flexor Figure 9. Gnawing marks on femur of Chi Id 2. digitorum profundus (a muscle that flexes the medial four digits and as ist with flexion of hand and wrist (Figure 8). These cut ting mark can clearly be distingui hed from rodent gnawing might result from a ritual treatment of the decea ed before marks that are present, for example, on the femur of the 3.5 transfer from the original burial location to the ahu. On the year-old child (Figure 9). other hand, they could also point to cannibalistic or sacrificial These cut marks sugge t that the corpse was defleshed practices. Both are mentioned in oral tradition for recent periods with a sharp object prior to cremation and interment. They (Metraux 1971:151,329-330), but it is po sible that they could th th al 0 date back to the later part of the 13 or the 14 century.

Co CLUSIO

A minimum of two adults and four children ranging from new born to about ten year of age were buried on the seaward side of Abu '0 Rongo. Most of the adult bones and teeth and all the children's remains were cremated. Only adults were heated at high temperature (>700°C) and probably a long time after the death, i.e. on dry bones. No evere pathology or trauma that could indicate the cau e of death of the adult ha been ob erved. In children, the 3.5-year-old individual might have died from an infectiou di ea e. The peculiar wear of the incisor indicate the con ump tion of a coarse diet such as one including raw tuber roots. A this wear is not associated with a high rate of carie , it might be Figure 8. Cutting marks on the ulna of Child 4.

Rapa Nui Journal 117 Vol. 17 (2) October 2003 https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/rnj/vol17/iss2/6 4 Polet: Study of Human Remains Discovered in 2001 at Ahu 'O Rongo, Rapa Nui due to the beneficial effect of a diet rich in fluorine uch as ma Liversidge, H. M., B. Herdberg and F. W. Ro ing. 1998. Dental rine food. This hypothesis is corroborated by two pathologies Age Estimation of Non-adults. A Review of Method and possibly related to fluorosi : the hypocalcification on the teeth Principles. Dental Anthropology, Fundamentals, Limits and of the 3.5-year-old child and the marginal osteophytes on an Prospects. K. W. Alt, F. W. Rosing and M. TescWer adult heated thoracic vertebra. Nicola, eds. :419-442. Vienna: Springer. Even though till tudy wa achieved on a mall quantity Lovejoy, C. 0., 1985. Dental Wear in the Libben Population: of cremated bone, it allow us to make statements concerning its Functional Pattern and Role in the Determination of the minimum number of individuals, along with the general age Adult Skeletal Age at Death. American Journal ofphysical range of the e individual, their pathologies and the probable Anthropology 68:47-56. cause ofdeath, a well as the cremation practices. Mann, R. W. and S. P. Murphy, 1990. Regional Atlas of Bone Disease. A Guide to Pathologic and Normal Variation in ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS the Human Skeleton. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas Metraux, A., 1971. Ethnology of Easter Island. Honolulu: Ber My thanks go to Nicolas Cauwe and Dirk Huyge (Royal Muse nice P. Bi hop Musem, econd edition. um of Art and Hi tory) for giving me the opportunity to study Ortner, D. J. and W. F. J. Putschar. 1981. Identification of the human keleton from the excavation at Abu '0 Rongo. I am Pathological Conditions in Human Skeletal Remains. most indebted to Rosine Orban (Royal Belgian Institute of Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology 28. Wa hing Natural Sciences) for helpful comments during the preparation ton DC: Smithsonian In titution Press. of this manuscript. I very much appreciate the help of Vero Pollock, N. J., 1993. Traditional Foods of Rapanui. Easter Is nique Arko i (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences) for land Studies. S. R. Fischer, ed. :153-157. Oxbow Mono the correction of the English. graph 32. Oxford: Oxbow Books. Rogers, J. and T. Waldron. 1995. A Field Guide to Joint Dis REFERE CES ease in Archaeology. Chiche ter, UK: John Wiley & Son. Routledge, K. 1919. The Mystery of Easter Island. London: Ayre , W. S. and Saleeby, B., 2000. Analysis of Cremations Hazell, Watson and Viney. from Abu Ko Te Riku. Easter Island Archaeology: Re Susini, A., C.-A. Baud, and H.-J. Tochon-Danguy, 1988. Identi search on Early Rapanui Culture. C. M. Steven on and W. fication d'un Traitement Thermique de 0 Prehi toriques S. Ayres, eds. :125-131. Los Oso : Easter Island Founda Humains. Anthropologie et Histoire ou Anthropologie His tion. torique? L. Buchet,. ed. :43-67. Note et Monographies Flenley, J. R. 1993. The Present Flora of Easter Island and its Techniques 24. Editions du CNRS, Paris. Origins. Easter Island Studies. S. R. Fischer, ed. :7-15. Ox Ubelaker, D. H., 1989. Human Skeletal Remains. Excavation, bow Monograph 32. Oxford: Oxbow Books. Analysis, Interpretation. Wa hington: Taraxacum, second Fazekas, 1. G. and F. K6sa, 1978. Forensic Fetal Osteology. edition. Budapest: Akademiai Kiad6. Guilion, F., 1986. Briile Frais ou BriBes Sees? Anthropologie Physique et Archiologie, Methodes d'Etudes des Sepul tures. Duday, H. and C. Ma set, eds :191-194. Paris: Edi tion du CNRS. Hadjirnarkos, D. M. and C. W Bonhorst. 1962. Fluoride and Selenium Levels in Contemporary and Ancient Greek Teeth in Relation to Dental Caries. Nature 193: 177-178. Hill on, S., 1996. Dental Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Pre s. Huyge, D., N. Cauwe, F. Forment and S. Haoa. 2002. The Abu '0 Rongo Project: Archaeological Research on Rapa Nui. Rapa Nui Journal 16 (1):11-16. Iri h, J. D. and C. G. Turner, 1987. More Lingual Surface Attri tion of the Maxillary Anterior Teeth in American Indians: Prehi toric Panamanians. American Journal of physical Anthropology 73:209-213. Irish, J. D. and C. G. Turner, 1997. Brief communication: First Evidence of LSAMAT in Non-native Americans: Historic Senegalese from West Africa. American Journal ofphysi cal Anthropology 102:141-146. Lavachery, H. 1935. La Mission Franco-Beige dans I'De de Paque (juillet 1934 - avril 1935). Bulletin de la Societe Royale Belge d'Anthropologie et de Prehistoire 50:228-64. Lavachery, H. 1938. Une Figure en Pierre de l'ne de paques. Bulletin des Musees royaux d'Art et d'Histoire 3:55-61.

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