I think that the popular theory might still be that they warred themselves away, but my understanding (probably absorbed from Natural Geographic or something) w

I think that the popular theory might still be that they warred themselves away, but my understanding (probably absorbed from Natural Geographic or something) was that, while they did have a period of overpopulation that seems to have resulted in a fair bit of famine and the consequent social upheaval, there's no evidence for any outright war. e.g., from the Source of All Truth: A study headed by Douglas Owsley published in 1994 asserted that there is little archaeological evidence of pre-European societal collapse. Bone pathology and osteometric data from islanders of that period clearly suggest few fatalities can be attributed directly to violence. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island#Discussion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island#Discussion)