Manavai gardens and lithic mulch of Rapa Nui
Jardines de manavai y acolchado de roca de Rapa Nui
- Date
- c. 1200-1700 · confidence medium
- Place
- Easter Island, Valparaíso, Chile
- Credited to
- Rapa Nui people
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Stone enclosures (manavai) that shelter plants from the wind, and layers of rock spread over the soil (lithic mulch) that retain moisture and release nutrients. They allowed sweet potato, taro and yam to be grown on an island of poor soils with no surface water.
Studies by Ladefoged and colleagues show that rock mulching covered a considerable part of the island; its chronology rests on obsidian hydration dating.
What it led to
- an agricultural basis for a population of thousands on a small island
- an example of sustainable agriculture studied in the island's ecology
- reinterpretation of Rapa Nui's ecological history