Middle AgesExploration Rapa Nui (Easter Island) settled c. 1200Notable Polynesian voyagers reach one of the remotest inhabited islands and carve the moai. ▲ MattersSaveShareTrace roots Longest chain: The Big Bang → First stars ignite → Supernovae seed heavy elements → The Sun forms → Earth forms → First oceans → First life → Photosynthesis evolves → Great Oxidation Event → Complex cells (eukaryotes) → Multicellular life → First animals → Cambrian Explosion → First vertebrates → Jawed fish → Fish walk onto land → The amniotic egg → The Great Dying → Dinosaurs appear → Asteroid ends the dinosaurs → Early primates → Apes split from monkeys → Human line splits from chimpanzees → Walking upright → First stone tools → Genus Homo appears → Homo erectus → Control of fire → Habitual fire and cooking → Homo sapiens appears → First seagoing watercraft → Sailing boats → Austronesian expansion from Taiwan → Lapita voyagers enter the Pacific → Rapa Nui (Easter Island) settled Community notesLoading notes… Learn more ranked by votesBookTerry Hunt and Carl LipoThe Statues That Walked: Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island ↗Editor's pickVideoSearch on YouTubeRapa Nui Easter Island settlement history ↗Editor's pick