Weapons of war? Rapa Nui mata'a morphometric analyses

Weapons of war? Rapa Nui mata'a morphometric analyses

Traditional explanations of Rapa Nui history invoke environmental degradation and warfare to explain the ‘collapse’ of the island's social and economic structure. One element in these reconstructions are the stemmed obsidian points known as mata'a, which some have envisaged as spearheads p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Antiquity Vol. 90; no. 349; pp. 172 - 187
Main Authors: Lipo, Carl P., Hunt, Terry L., Horneman, Rene, Bonhomme, Vincent
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01-02-2016
Antiquity Publications/Cambridge University Press
Subjects:
Analysis
Ancient warfare
Archaeology
Archaeology and Prehistory
Discovery
Economic structure
Environmental degradation
Historic artifacts
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hypotheses
Islands
Polynesian languages
Prehistoric era
Prehistoric tools
Principal components analysis
Researchers
Social Anthropology and ethnology
Social interaction
Social science research
Society
Tools, Prehistoric
Violence
War
Weapons
Chile
Easter Island
morphometric analyses
Easter Island
mata'a
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Summary:Traditional explanations of Rapa Nui history invoke environmental degradation and warfare to explain the ‘collapse’ of the island's social and economic structure. One element in these reconstructions are the stemmed obsidian points known as mata'a, which some have envisaged as spearheads produced in the context of endemic warfare. Morphometric analysis shows, however, that mata'a were not specifically designed for interpersonal violence but were general purpose tools that may have been used for peaceful tasks such as ritual scarification. This discovery provides further evidence against the theory of the violent collapse of Rapa Nui society.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0003-598X
1745-1744
DOI:10.15184/aqy.2015.189