As with the peopling of the Pacific Islands, the monumental ritual architecture of East Polynesia is presumed to have spread from West Polynesia. By re-examining the wealth of absolute dates available from ritual contexts across these diverse islands, the authors challenge this generalisation in Polynesian ideological materialisation, identifying three phases of development. They argue that initial west-to-east migration spread the concept of ritual spaces marked by stone uprights c. AD 1000–1300, then the formalisation of monuments diffused in the opposite direction c. AD 1300–1600, before megastructures emerged from localised hierarchisation, perhaps earliest on Rapa Nui c. AD 1350–1500.
