In about A.D. 400, a group of seafarers reached a small, isolated island in Polynesia and founded a new settlement. They developed a rich and complex culture that lasted more than a thousand years. The population eventually declined, and soon all that remained were a few inhabitants and hundreds of mysterious giant stone statues in varying stages of disrepair. Caroline Arnold explains how archeologists and other scientists and scholars have pieced together a history of Easter Island by studying its natural resources, listening to family stories and Polynesian legends, and examining the statues and other clues the people left behind. Photographs, taken by the author, provide a stunning visual accompaniment to this clear and concise account of one of the most remote--and fascinating--places on earth. GLOSSARY, BIBLIOGRAPHY, INDEX.