The renowned scholar and researcher of Rapa Nui Dr. Georgia Lee passed away in 2016. She received her Ph.D. in Archaeology from the University of California at Los Angeles, based upon six years of fieldwork on Easter Island. Support for the fieldwork came from the University Research Expeditions Program, University of California, Berkeley. Her Masters degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, was in the field of Primitive Art.

Aside from her work on Easter Island, Lee had done extensive archaeological work in Hawaii, documenting the rock art and petroglyphs in those islands. California research areas included Chumash rock art sites and those of the Modoc at Lava Beds National Monument. One of her particular interests was conservation and preservation of archaeological sites.

Georgia Lee published several books on Easter Island, including 'The Uncommon Guide to Easter Island and Rapa Nui - Island of Memory'.

Extract: 'Georgia Lee is a natural story-teller with an eye for detail and an ear for nuance. Above all, there is her capacity for shared intimacy. Lee began her fieldwork on Easter Island in 1981, entering into close relationships with the islanders, both men and women. She describes her relationships with the Rapanui people, weaving strands of communal tales together, achieving a tapestry of the island unlike anything else'.

Doctor Georgia Lee was editor of the Rapa Nui Journal and The Journal of the Easter Island Foundation.

The giant stone statues of Easter Island, called moai, have brought Rapa Nui renown and have fasinated generations of travelers, scholars, and armchair adventurers. Less monumental but just as spectacular as the moai, the rock art of this remote island is thoroughly and beautifully - in exquisite line drawings and full-color plates - presented in this publication. This volume presents the first island-wide comprehensive documentation of Easter Island's 4,000 petroglyphs and rock art paintings.

Under the auspices of the University Research Expeditions Program, University of California, Berkeley, Georgia Lee used an exhaustive methodology to note manufacturing methods, associations, superimposition, placement and spacial relationships of the prehistoric carvings and paintings. The data collected made possible major conclusions concerning the design motifs and their relationship to ancient Easter Island society.

→  Subscribe free to the Bradshaw Foundation YouTube Channel

→ Easter Island / Rapa Nui Index
→ Easter Island / Rapa Nui Introduction
→ Sentinels in Stone
→ The Birdman Motif
→ The Geography of Rapa Nui
→ Sea Creatures
→ Designs Motifs
→ Dr Georgia Lee
→ iLecture
→ Thor Heyerdahl

→ Bradshaw Foundation
→ Rock Art Network