Has anyone done any lichenometric studies to determine the age of island artefacts like the moai?
A. Yes, and lichenometry is an interesting phenomenon, to be sure, but proximate to Easter Island there hasn’t been a lot of research done on the subject. At least not for the last 40 years or so. And this early research was undertaken only 16 years after the “discovery” of lichenometry by Roland Beschel, at a time when the methodology was evolving. The World Wide Web is full of information on Easter Island and a few references exist regarding lichenometry on Easter Island as well. For example, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (www.dcnr.state.pa.us/wrcf/keynotes/winter00/lichen.html) [1] refers to the growth rate of most species of lichen as “only about a millimeter per year or less” and that “Lichens with known, slow growth rates are used to estimate the dates of geological events such as the retreat of glaciers. Lichen were also used to help age the stone heads found on Easter Island”. There is no reference provided for this information, however. Nor
