author
Katherine Routledge
1866–1935
Best known for her groundbreaking work on Easter Island, this English archaeologist and anthropologist helped record the island’s sites, stories, and history at a crucial moment. Her travels and writing opened a wider public window onto Rapa Nui and the people who lived there.
1 Audiobook
The mystery of Easter island: the story of an expedition
by Katherine Routledge
About the author
Born Katherine Maria Pease on 11 August 1866, she was an English archaeologist and anthropologist from a prominent Quaker family. She studied at Somerville College, Oxford, and later became known as Katherine Routledge after her marriage to Scoresby Routledge.
She is most closely linked with the Mana Expedition to Easter Island. In 1914, she began what is often described as the first true archaeological survey of the island, combining the study of monuments and sites with careful attention to local traditions and oral history. Her work helped preserve important knowledge about Rapa Nui at a time when much of it was in danger of being lost.
Routledge later wrote The Mystery of Easter Island, published in 1919, which brought her research to a broad readership. She died on 13 December 1935, but she remains an important figure in the early study of Polynesia and in the history of women in archaeology.