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Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Monument (Ahu) Locations Explained By Freshwater Sources, Robert J. Dinapoli, Carl P. Lipo, Tanya Brosnan, Terry L. Hunt, Sean W. Hixon, Alex E. Morrison, Matthew Becker

Carl Lipo

Explaining the processes underlying the emergence of monument construction is a major theme in contemporary anthropological archaeology, and recent studies have employed spatially-explicit modeling to explain these patterns. Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) is famous for its elaborate ritual architecture, particularly numerous monumental platforms (ahu) and statuary (moai). To date, however, we lack explicit modeling to explain spatial and temporal aspects of monument construction. Here, we use spatially-explicit point-process modeling to explore the potential relations between ahu construction locations and subsis- tence resources, namely, rock mulch agricultural gardens, marine resources, and freshwa- ter sources—the three most critical resources on Rapa …