Bentz and Dutkiewicz analyze the statistical properties of geometric signs on Central European artifacts. They find the complexity of the signs to be similar to that on the earliest protocuneiform tablets, but tens of thousands of years earlier.
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The authors show that the Easter Island statues were moved by rocking them in the vertical position. Here is a video of researchers moving a mockup.
They also showed that deforestation had to do with the invasive rat population introduced by the Polynesian colonists. The rats ate seeds and kept trees from growing back after they were cut down by the colonists.
For early Israelites and Muslims, the pork taboo seems to be a way to identify with their ancestral origin as herders, where pigs weren't practical.
Beause pigs didn't need a bunch of graising land, government officials couldn't track them. They could live their entire lives in a backyard. This, combined with nice secondary products of ruminants like milk and wool, lead to pigs being a lower-class thing, while ruminants were prized by the wealthy and religious/social elite.