ABSTRACT
Archaeological, archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, geoarchaeological, and ethnographic studies conducted on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) over the past century have helped establish the island's prehistoric subsistence patterns and especially the nature of various gardening strategies used over the past millennium. This chapter summarizes the archaeological and environmental evidence for gardening methods used for food production on Rapa Nui during the prehistoric and protohistoric periods, that is, over much of the past thousand years. It describes the ethnohistoric and ethnographic observations describing traditional cultivation techniques on this particular island. The chapter discusses how the ancient gardening techniques are currently being used as farming practices on the island. The use of lithic mulch in places such as Rapa Nui may have been implemented because there was a ubiquitous supply of vesicular (porous) lava rocks, and because the hot summer climate resulted in low crop production after shade producing trees had been removed from garden areas.
