One of the isolated islands of eastern Polynesia, settled by Polynesians c 1100 AD, but abandoned when mutineers from HMS Bounty arrived in 1790. Pitcairn is one of many isolated Polynesian islands with a 'lost' population. Their is evidence of occupation in stone platforms with anthropomorphous statues, petroglyphs, and stone fishhooks and adzes - resembling New Zealand Archaic assemblages. Its current population is descended from the mutineers of the British ship HMS Bounty and their Tahitian Polynesian consorts