EditorialFILE -- Tourists photograph the unfinished moai statues at Rano Raraku, the vast quarry on Easter Island, on Dec. 16, 2017. (Josh Haner/The New York Times)
EditorialMai or Omai, young Ra'iatean man, Society Islands, in turban and cape. The second Pacific Islander to visit Europe after Ahu-toru. Lithograph by Karl Joseph Brodtmann from Heinrich Rudolf Schinz's Illustrated Natural History of Men and Animals, 1836.
EditorialAhu Tahiri, an " ahu" or ceremonial platform for moais, the Easter Island statues. The perfectly fitted stones, some weighing 7 tons, led Thor Heyerdahl to believe the original settlers were South American Indians. Today scientists say Easter...