A wooden tablet discovered on Easter Island may pre-date European colonization of the region, researchers revealed in early February.
Less than 30 wooden tablets containing an undeciphered script called “Rongorongo” were found on the island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), four of which were removed in 1869 by Catholic Missionaries, according to a study published in the journal Nature. Those wooden tablets were analyzed using radiocarbon dating, and one of them was found to pre-date European settlement on the island, the study said.
Easter Island was “discovered” by Europeans in the 1720s, and absolutely decimated in the years following, the authors described. Though the ancient moai statues are still preserved, much of the island’s ancient writings and culture were lost to the violence of history.
Rongorongo is only known systemized writing in Polynesia. It consists of glyphs carved into wood tablets and artifacts such as rei-miro and tangata manu carved figures.Historians have determined that language predates arrival of Europeans in 1700s.#archaeohistories pic.twitter.com/L0SsdqFolz
— Archaeo – Histories (@archeohistories) July 26, 2021
Here’s the issue: just because the wood pre-dates European exploration of the island doesn’t mean the script engraved into the wood does. But the fact the script can’t be deciphered just yet is significant. “If Rongorongo predates external travelers, it could represent another, and the latest, invention of writing in human history,” the study’s authors argued. (RELATED: Suspected Arsonist Causes ‘Irreparable’ Damage To Easter Island’s Rapa Nui National Park)
“This is a great development,” another Rongorongo researcher not involved in the present study, Rafal Wieczorek, told Live Science.
“I actually believe that rongorongo is one of the very few independent inventions of writing in human history, like the writing of the Sumerians, the Egyptians and the Chinese,” he reportedly added. “But belief is a different thing than hard data … so ideally, we would like to test all the tablets.”
More research is needed to truly determine the age of the writing, as well as the words themselves. But the data thus far seems to suggest there are still hidden secrets within the history of the ancient world, just waiting to be released.