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Uncovering Pacific Pasts
Objects have many stories to tell. The stories of their makers and their uses. Stories of exchange, acquisition, display and interpretation. This book is a collection of essays highlighting some of the collections, and their object biographies, that were displayed in the Uncovering Pacific Pasts: Histories of Archaeology in Oceania (UPP) exhibition. The exhibition, which opened on 1 March 2020, sought to bring together both notable and relatively unknown Pacific material culture and archival collections from around the globe, displaying them simultaneously in their home institutions and linked online at www.uncoveringpacificpasts.org. Thirty‑eight collecting institutions participated in UPP, including major collecting institutions in the United Kingdom, continental Europe and the Americas, as well as collecting institutions from across the Pacific.
Uncovering Pacific Pasts is available for free download, including Jo Anne Van Tilburg’s chapter, “Intelligent Eyes: Visualising Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Archaeology“.
Radiolab: The Dirty Drug and the Ice Cream Tub
Radiolab tells the surprising story behind rapamycin in the latest episode The Dirty Drug and the Ice Cream Tub.
2021 Lectures
UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
April 9, 2021
Ritualized Stone and Public Art on Easter Island: Highlights and Insights of Recent Excavations in the Statue Quarry – Jo Anne Van Tilburg
Watch the recording on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vFc6MASfFNA
University of Tennessee McClung Museum
February 4, 2021
“Ritualized Stone and Craft Specialization: Recent Excavation in Easter Island’s Statue Quarry” presented by Dr. Jo Anne Van Tilburg
Westwood Women’s Bruin Club
March 18, 2021
“The Iconic Tattooed Man of Easter Island”
UCLA Newsroom
Unearthing the mystery of the meaning of Easter Island’s Moai
Rapanui people likely believed the ancient monoliths helped food grow on the Polynesian island, study reveals
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/moai-easter-island-meaning-food
Rock Art Network
www.rockartnetwork.net
The Rock Art Network, established by the Getty Conservation Institute and the Bradshaw Foundation, comprises individuals and institutions committed to the promotion, protection, and conservation of rock art globally.
Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!
Jo Anne nose the answer on NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me! Bluff the Listener segment, May 4, 2019.
BYU Radio, Top of Mind with Juile Rose
BYU Radio, Top of Mind with Juile Rose, July 1, 2019
Listen to the interview with Jo Anne Van Tiburg here.
Explorer’s Club 2019 Summer Video Report
President's Video Report – Summer 2019 from The Explorers Club on Vimeo.
Flag# 50 – 7/10/2011 to 8/10/2011
Easter Island Statue Project, Jo Anne Van Tilburg, Ph.D., FN ‘09
Download the 2011 Flag #50 Report Here
CBS 60 Minutes Interview
Jo Anne was interviewed by Anderson Cooper for CBS 60 Minutes, airing Easter Sunday April 21, 2019. Watch the video and read the transcript online!
Preview teaser:
Full segment: “Easter Island’s famous moai statues slowly fading away”, CBS 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper, April 21, 2019.
Online extra: “Why did people stop building statues on Easter Island?”, CBS 60 Minutes Overtime, April 21, 2019.
UCLA Newsroom article:
The stone faces and human problems on Easter Island
Archaeologist Jo Anne Van Tilburg continues to seek insight from the statues and for the living descendants of their makers
“Eating Up Easter” Film by Sergio M. Rapu
Today Rapa Nui is a major tourist destination fully linked into the digital world and facing all of its many challenges. We are very excited about a new documentary Eating Up Easter made by Sergio Rapu, a young Rapanui filmmaker and good friend. His film tells a harrowing tale of important conservation problems but also points the way forward to the future for the island and for all of us.
Film trailer:
Twin Cities Public TV interviews Rapanui filmmaker Sergio M. Rapu about his film Eating Up Easter, addressing the impact of rapid growth in tourism on Rapa Nui. Watch the Almanac segment online.
Dr. Matisoo-Smith lecture at Brown University
Recent Advances in Understanding the Human Settlement of the Pacific
Dr. Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith (University of Otago)
February 20, 2019, Brown University
AIA’s Jo Anne Van Tilburg Lecture Series
Watch a video of the lecture here: Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith – Recent Advances in Understanding the Human Settlement of the Pacific
Dr. Van Tilburg presents at University of St. Thomas, April 5, 2019
2018-2019 Department of Art History Speaker Series
O’Shaughnessy Educational Center (OEC) Auditorium
University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota
BBC Up All Night
Jo Anne Van Tilburg was interviewed by Rhod Sharp for BBC’s Up All Night on November 27, 2018. Listen here, interview starts at timecode 3:25:00.
PBS Newshour “Can Easter Island’s treasures withstand storms of climate change?”
EISP was featured on PBS NewsHour Cultures At Risk segment “Can Easter Island’s treasures withstand storms of climate change?” on June 26, 2018. Watch the video on the PBS site.
PBS Newshour, June 26, 2018
The Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage
Visit the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s website to learn more about their worldwide voyage.
UCLA Newsroom – “Archaeologist digs deep to reveal Easter Island torsos”
Jo Anne Van Tilburg with two workers from her Rapa Nui team of diggers. © Easter Island Statue Project.
Read an article about Dr. Van Tilburg and her team archived from UCLA Today.
Upcoming Events
North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) 2016 Annual Meeting
October 20, 2016
Alice Hom will present “Mapping the Monolithic Statue Quarries of Easter Island (Rapa Nui)”
The Australian National University, Canberra
October 26, 2016, 6pm
Easter Island (Rapa Nui) Identity and Katherine Routledge’s Fieldnotes: Reading Between the Lines
Jo Anne Van Tilburg
Interview on WGN Radio
Listen to Dr. Van Tilburg talk with David Hoekstra about Easter Island culture, the expanding tourism industry, her recent journey to the island with Jimmy Buffett, and the importance of statue preservation.
UCLA College Report
Read about Dr. Van Tilburg and EISP in UCLA’s College Report Alumni Spotlight.
Interviewed by ABC News
Dr. Van Tilburg and the EISP field team discuss their work and recent excavations here.
Interviewed in Aftenposten
See Dr. Van Tilburg discuss Thor Heyerdahl here.
Featured in Archaeology
Read AIA President Elizabeth Bartman’s letter in the most recent issue of Archaeology here.
Featured in Daily Bruin
Read about Dr. Van Tilburg and EISP in UCLA’s Daily Bruin here.
Featured on msnbc.com
Dr. Jo Anne Van Tilburg was interviewed for a segment on the project’s recent discoveries. Watch the full video here.
Featured on TV Globo
Dr. Jo Anne Van Tilburg helps the Detetive Virtual spread the truth about the statue’s bodies. Watch the full video here.
Featured in UCLA Today
EISP’s Dr. Jo Anne Van Tilburg was interviewed for an article on the project’s excavation in UCLA Today. Read the full article here.
Featured in The Explorers Club
The EISP team proudly carried The Explorers Club Flag #50 to the field in July 2011. Read the full report here.
Featured in Revista de Arqueología
The EISP Conservation Initiative and excavation of two statues in Rano Raraku is featured in the cover story of Revista de Arqueología, No 368. Read the full text at Revista de Arqueología.
Featured in Américas Magazine
The conservation efforts surrounding the world famous monuments of Easter Island are featured in the Américas, Nov/Dec 2011 issue. Read the full text at Saving the Moai by Chris Hardman (pdf).
Featured in Smithsonian magazine
The more we learn about the remote island from archaeologists and researchers, the more intriguing it becomes
By Paul Trachtman
Smithsonian magazine, March 2002
Feature in Archaeology Magazine
The laser scanning of Hoa Hakananai’a is featured in the cover story of Archaeology, May/June 2009 issue. Read the full text on the magazine website.
Easter Island: Archaeology, Ecology, and Culture
by Jo Anne Van Tilburg
Foreword by John Mack
Hardcover, 232 pages
30 color and 124 B&W illustrations
Smithsonian Press (October 1995)
Order a signed copy from EISP: $80
Among Stone Giants: The Life of Katherine Routledge and Her Remarkable Expedition to Easter Island
Jo Anne Van Tilburg
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Recording, Documentation, and Information Management for the Conservation of Heritage Places
Volume II: Illustrated Examples
Edited by Rand Eppich and Amel Chabbi
Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute, 2007.
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