New DNA evidence traces Native Hawaiians back to Easter Island voyagers, and reveals hidden health risks hiding in that ancestry.

Archaeologists have analyzed ritual spaces and monumental structures across Polynesia, questioning the idea that Rapa Nui (Easter Island) developed in isolation following its initial settlement. The ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: A new study suggests that the island of Rapa Nui, otherwise known as Easter Island, didn’t develop in the extreme manner of isolation that we thought ...

Hawaiʻi and Rapa Nui, the island also known as Easter Island, are two of the farthest-flung places Polynesian voyagers ever settled. Yet their people are each other’s closest genetic relatives among ...