An island in the SE Pacific west of Chile; pop. (Est. 1988) 2,000. It was named by the Dutch navigator Roggeveen, who visited it on Easter Day, 1722. It has been administered by Chile since 1888. The island, first settled by Polynesians in about AD 400, is famous for its large monolithic statues of human heads, believed to date from the period 1000-1600.