The Mystery Of Easter Island The story of an Expedition By Mrs. Scoresby Routledge Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney For the Author Associative Features Signed, inscribed, B+W IllustratIONS, Dust/Jacket. _______________________________________________________________________ Overview Western anthropology's first in-depth look at an isolated culture is also a daring adventure story of around-the-world travel. In February 1913, archaeologist Katherine Routledge recounts her extraordinary expedition to Easter Island in Chile with her husband Scoresby from 1914-15. Together, they built a custom made yacht named Mana, and sailed from Falmouth, England for a sea voyage that lasted over a year. They travelled with a small crew with the support of British Association for the Advancement of Science, the British Museum, and the Royal Geographical Society—for Easter Island, where she embarked up the first effort to catalogue the island's mysterious statues, interview the natives, and document their culture, folklore, and traditions.  The pair would be the first qualified scholars to carry out an anthropological survey of the island, and their visit preserved cultural and historic information that would have otherwise been lost. The story was followed by British media due to a high public interest in the giant statues of the island, the Moai. This 1919 work is still considered foundational—but her lively writing and her practical perspective make this a delightful read that thrill armchair travellers and amateur ethnographers alike. About The Author Katherine Maria Routledge née Pease; 11 August 1866 – 13 December 1935) was an English archaeologist and anthropologist who, in 1914, initiated and carried out much of the first true survey of Easter Island. She was the second child of Kate and Gurney Pease and was born into a wealthy Quaker family in County Durham, northern England. She graduated from Somerville Hall with Honours in Modern History in 1895, and for a while taught courses through the Extension Division and at Darlington Training College.  After the Second Boer War she traveled to South Africa with a committee to investigate the resettlement of single working women from England to South Africa. In 1906 she married William Scoresby Routledge. The couple went to live among the Kikuyu people of what was then British East Africa, and in 1910 jointly published a book of their research entitled With A Prehistoric People. In 1910 the Routledges decided to organise their own expedition to Easter Island/ Rapa Nui. They had a state-of-the-art 90-foot (27m) Schooner built and named it Mana.  They arrived on Easter Island on 29 March 1914. They established two base camps, one in the area of Mataveri and the other at the statue quarry, Rano Raraku and also explored Orongo and Anakena with the help of an islander named Jaun Trepan Routledge proceeded to interview the natives and catalogue the Moai (giant statues) and the Ahus they had once stood on. They excavated over 30 Moai, visited the tribal elders in their Leper colony north of Hanga Roa and recorded various legends and oral histories including that of Hotu Matua the Birdman Cult clan names and territories and data on the enigmatic Rongorongo script; Van Tilburg credits her with a primary role in assisting preservation of Rapa Nui's indigenous Polynesian Culture. One of her findings was the cultural continuity between the statue carvers and the Polynesian Rapa Nui people resident on the island in her time; the designs carved on the backs of the statues she excavated included the same designs tattooed on the backs and posteriors of elderly islanders in the island's leper colony. As the tattooing tradition had been suppressed by missionaries in the 1860s this particular primary evidence was unavailable to later expeditions except through her records. Description 1919 First edition, self published. Well stitched and complete. Where the spine joins the covers signs of wear and splitting are showing, particularly at the crown. A valuable book which any bibliophile would be proud to own. Please check pictures and don't hesitate to ask if you have any queries! 61