In Scandinavia the general idea of the Bronze Age society is that it was organised as chiefdoms. The model for what they looked like is taken from the anthropological studies of the Polynesian chiefdoms. The aim of my study is to investigate a Scandinavian Bronze Age feature, known as cairns mainly containing fire-cracked stone. This is compared with how people in different Polynesian chiefdoms, looked at similar remain. This is done to get a background for new ways of interpretation of such remains.

This essay will examine the historical picture of the island Rapa Nui as it is portrayed in popular science and in ecohistorical literature of the university of Gothenburg. This historical picture states that the inhabitants of the island cut down a lot of trees in the process of transporting the big and heavy statues, moai, from the quarry to the platforms along the coastline of the island. During this process all trees disappeared and resulted in soil erosion. The cultivation was destroyed and brought hunger to Rapa Nui. The following rivalry for food led to a situation of war followed by a cultural collapse.