Note: Jacobs will be presenting via Zoom as part of the Smithsonian Associates program.

The instantly recognizable moai statues of remote Easter Island pay silent tribute to the extraordinary seafaring skills of Polynesian migrants and their inventive stewardship of an ecologically fragile island. The rediscovery of Easter Island by Western explorers in the modern era has given rise to spirited debates about how its original settlers reached such a distant location, how they were able to carve such large, mysterious statues, and how the statues were transported. Historian Justin M. Jacobs draws on the latest scholarship and theories to explain how these giant statues came to dominate the most remote inhabited island in the world.

Justin M. Jacobs is a professor of history at American University.