Lemuria and Easter island

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[edit] Easter Island As A Supposed Remnant of A Lost Continent and Lost Civilization

Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as its native population knows it, has been the subject of many centuries of “fantastic” archaeology, cult archaeology, or pseudoarchaeology. This type of science puts a great emphasis on and also manipulates the evidence that is deemed “mysterious.” This is a simple task for pseudoscientists when it comes to Easter Island due to the long history of isolation of the island and varying degrees of quality in which the research has been conducted. The tendency for pseudoscientists to manipulate evidence in order to make it more interesting and marketable is directly linked with the tendency for academia to view these interpretations as explanations for histories and pre-histories that are extremely ethnocentric and widely discredited, especially due to lack of solid scientific evidence. This is definitely the case concerning theories of Easter Island being the remnant of a lost continent.

There are many writers - some claiming to be scientists and some that haven’t - who have written on this subject, and their attempts at providing evidence for their theory are considered futile according to academia. James Bramwell described Lemuria in his book, Lost Atlantis, as “a continent that occupied a large part of what is now the South Pacific Ocean.”^[1] Quoting Story of Atlantis, by William Scott-Elliott; “Atlantis, according to Scott-Elliott’s first map, which shows it 1,000,000 years ago, extended ‘from a point a few degrees east of Iceland to about the site now occupied by Rio de Janeiro in South America. Embracing Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, the Southern and Eastern states of America, up to and including Labrador, it stretched across the ocean to our own islands, - Scotland and Ireland… embraced Brazil and the whole stretch of ocean across to the African Gold Coast.”^[1] Bramwell described the people of Lemuria in detail and attributed them with being one of the “root-races of humanity.” According to Bramwell, Lemurians are the ascendants of the Altlanteans, who survived the period “of the general racial decadence which affected the Lemurians in the last stages of their evolution.” From “a select division of” the Atlanteans - after their promotion to decadence - Bramwell claims the Aryan race arose. “Lemurians, Atlanteans, and Aryans are root-races of humanity,” according to Bramwell.^[1]

One of the earliest writers to claim Easter Island’s connection with the “lost” continent of Lemuria, or Mu, was Sir James Churchward. Churchward began his book with his claim that, “All matter of science in this work are based on translations of two sets of ancient tablets,”^[2] which apparently he and a colleague were the only ones who knew how to translate. Churchward’s theory, especially what it would imply, is a complex one that would require more evidence than two texts found out of archaeological context to warrant any merit. In his attempt to create a vivid description of an ancient yet lost civilization capable of explaining the greatness of the “white” race, Churchward connects several civilizations. He includes Egypt, Greece, Central America, India, Burma and others, as well as Easter Island. These are all cultures that are known for their megalithic art and architecture and have been a topic of interest for scholars for centuries. Churchward and others made comparisons of these different cultures in an extremely vague fashion, and his facts were definitely biased according to current knowledge and research of Easter Island.

Churchward claims that the origin of these ancient peoples is the lost continent of Mu. This lost civilization “flourished in the mid-Pacific and then was completely obliterated in almost a single night.”^[3] Symbols from throughout the world are used as proof of this lost continent in Churchward’s argument. There is a common theme of birds, the relation of the earth and the sky and especially the sun. Churchward claims the king of Mu was Ra and he relates this to the Egyptian god of the sun, Ra, and the Rapanui word for sun, ra’a, which he incorrectly spells ‘raa.’^[4] These symbols of the sun which, according to Churchward, prove the existence of Mu, are also found in “Egypt, Babylonia, Peru and all ancient lands and countries – it was a universal symbol.”^[5]

Citing W.J. Johnson as his opinion of the best authority on Easter Island at the time, Churchward notes the pukau found on top of the monolithic statues of Easter Island, and incorrectly describes these cylindrical stones as “spheres” that “show red in the distance.” Churchward claims that the symbols of the sun are found “depicted on stones of Polynesian ruins” as well as on top of the giant statues of Easter Island. He asserts that the pukau “represent the Sun as Ra.”^[6] Pukau, however, are widely accepted to be a representation of a ceremonial headdress. He is also incorrect in his identification of the material these parts of the statues are made of; he claims some are made of red igneous rocks, and some are red sandstone.^[7] All current research shows that the pukau are made from red scoria, a volcanic stone.

The ahu of Easter Island are described by Churchward as being “platform-like accumulations of cut and dressed stone,” and were left in their current positions “awaiting shipment to some other part of the continent for the building of temples and palaces.” ^[8] Interestingly, in Churchward’s discussion of other architectural evidence of the great civilization of Mu, he cites the pillars “erected by the Maoris of New Zealand” as an example of this lost civilization’s handiwork.^[9] Churchward accredited all megalithic art in Polynesia to the people of Mu. He also stated that any Polynesians left there after the cataclysm were merely the survivors of Mu that adopted “the first cannibalism and savagery” in the world, and were not the original members of the lost civilization of Mu, responsible for these great works.^[10] Churchward and Graham Hancock both date this cataclysm to have occurred around 10,000 B.C., and authors such as Bramwell and Scott-Elliott claim the cataclysmic events began 800,000 years ago^[11] and persisted until the last catastrophe dating to precisely 9564 B.C.^[12] However, most scholars agree that humans did not inhabit Easter Island until much later.

Contemporary to the arrival of the first settlers of Hawaii, AD 300-400 was published as a date for initial settlement of Easter Island. Although some scholars argue for initial settlement of AD 700-800, there is an on-going study by archaeologists Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo that states: “Radiocarbon dates for the earliest stratigraphic layers at Anakena, Easter Island, and analysis of previous radiocarbon dates imply that the island was colonized late, about 1200 AD. Significant ecological impacts and major cultural investments in monumental architecture and statuary thus began soon after initial settlement.”^[13] A linguist and translator of ancient glyphs; Stephen Fischer asserts that the Rapanui of Easter Island are of “one unbroken lineage… their origin lay in south China.” Fischer also argues that the westward migration of Polynesian ancestors began around 2000 B.C., and by AD 1000 settlers had probably reached Easter Island.^[14] The current research on Easter Island displays an argument that is difficult to refute: the Rapanui people traveled into Polynesia from East Asia and discovered Easter Island sometime around the first century AD. The contradiction is apparent between the argument from current research and that of lost continent theorists such as Hancock and Churchward. The lack of evidence for a cataclysm resulting in the Rapanui being stranded on Easter Island, rather than traveling there by sea, indicates a theory that is arguably in need of redress.

Graham Hancock is another proponent of the theory that a lost civilization left traces in the Pacific and around the world. He uses very similar comparisons of evidence to Churchward: He cites only his own comparative analysis of “local traditions” and art from around the world. He claims that “all local traditions” of Easter Island describe it as once being part of a much larger country: He agrees with most scholars, however, that these traditions have many “confusing and contradictory elements.”^[15] Hancock also compares what he calls “god-kings” of Pohnpei and Angkor to what he claims is the god-king of Easter Island: Hotu Matua.^[16] According to legend, Hotu Matua sent seven men to pave the way and “prepare the island for settlement” after the destruction of the larger country, previously mentioned.^[17] Hancock compares this Easter Island tradition with Egypt’s story of the Seven Sages who fled to the Nile Valley when the “Homeland of the Primeval One was destroyed by a flood.”^[18] He concludes that these similarities make the two cultures inseparable in their history.

It is a reoccurring trend to use traditions from many ancient civilizations of the world to prove their origin in a first great, now lost civilization. However, not only are their comparisons vague and over-generalized, their theories lack any geological evidence - none of them fully explain or provide physical evidence for the theory of the ability for a continent to be swallowed up into the sea. In addition to this, geologists and volcanologists agree that Easter Island was formed by the eruptions and activities of three volcanoes.^[19] Churchward proposed his own theory to explain the concept of a sunken continent – a word that implies a large, continuous body of land. According to this theory, there were gaseous pockets under the surface of the continent that allowed the landmass to cave in during the supposed cataclysm. This is not a possibility in the widely accepted theory of plate tectonics.

1. ^ ^{a b c} Bramwell, James. Lost Atlantis. (Hollywood: Newcastle, 1974), 193.
2. ^ James Churchward. The Lost Continent of Mu. (New York: Ives Washburn, 1931), 7.
3. ^ Churchward, 44.
4. ^ Churchward, 48.
5. ^ Churchward, 138.
6. ^ Churchward, 138.
7. ^ Churchward, 89.
8. ^ Churchward, 89.
9. ^ Churchward, 158.
10. ^ Churchward, 54.
11. ^ Bramwell, 194.
12. ^ Bramwell, 195.
13. ^ Hunt, T. L., Lipo, C. P., 2006. Science, 1121879. URL “Late Colonization of Easter Island”
14. ^ Fischer, Stephen Roger. Island at the End of the World. (London: Reaktion, 2005), 15-17
15. ^ Graham Hancock. Heaven’s Mirror: Quest for the Lost Civilization. (New York: Crown, 1998), 13.
16. ^ Hancock, 224.
17. ^ Hancock, 224.
18. ^ Hancock, 225.
19. ^ Flenley, John and Paul Bahn. The Enigmas of Easter Island. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 11.