Weren t there originally two waves of settlers who landed on Easter Island, the first of whom carved the moai (and from whom the current islanders are descended)?
A. No. Current archaeological, ethnological, linguistic, genetic, and other evidence supports a single group of Polynesian settlers from the west (Marquesas Islands via Mangareva) somewhere around 400 ce and no subsequent contact from either the east or west. The Rapanui today are descendants of the first and only settlers (and, of course, those Europeans and other visitors who arrived on the island after its re-discovery in 1722). The idea of two groups of migrations derives from island legend and poorly substantiated theory.
