Writing has only been invented very rarely in human history. Now a new study shows that this may have even happened in an unexpected place: Easter Island in the Pacific. The writing system, called Rongorongo, has not yet been deciphered and is different from all known scripts.
The research teams led by Prof. Dr. Silvia Ferrara and Prof. Dr. Sahra Talamo from the University of Bologna, in collaboration with Dr. Michael Friedrich from the University of Hohenheim found that the writing may have originated before the first European ships arrived on the island in the 1720s. That would be an indication of an independent invention of writing.
Determination of the age and type of wood provide an indication of the early date of creation
The panels with the inscriptions are made of wood. The researchers in Bologna took wood samples from four tablets that are kept in a museum in Rome and carried out precise radiocarbon dating for the first time. They also attracted the botanist Dr. Michael Friedrich from the University of Hohenheim joined us to analyze the tree species and determine the individual age of the wood.
One of the tablets, the so-called Échancrée tablet, surprised the researchers: it is significantly older than the arrival of the Europeans. The remaining three were set in the 19th century, when Europeans had already reached the island. “The Échancrée tablet,” explains Dr. Friedrich, “also consists of a type of wood from the stone yew family, which is not native to Easter Island. It could therefore have been driftwood that was used intensively on the largely deforested island.
The Italian researchers admit that the dating of the older tablet does not necessarily provide information about the time at which the inscription was carved. However, given the state of preservation of the panel, it cannot be assumed that this happened significantly after the date when the wood for the panel was prepared.
Despite the fact that it is still somewhat unclear when the glyphs were carved into the wood, the results of the new study provide further evidence of the enormous importance of the glyphs used: They differ from all known writings and have no parallels in terms of inventory on. “Rongorongo may represent one of the few independent inventions of writing in human history, adding another level to the cultural developments of the people of Easter Island,” the authors conclude.