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The existence of Rongorongo, the complex writing system used by the historic inhabitants of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), was first documented by Europeans in 1864, but by the end of the 19th century the script had fallen out of use, and today it remains undeciphered. Questions exist about its origins, too: was Rongorongo influenced by European writing systems or was it an independent creation? Hoping to shed more light on this subject, a recent study by the ERC INSCRIBE and ERC Resolution projects analysed four wooden tablets with Rongorongo inscriptions from a collection in Rome. They were taken from Rapa Nui in the 19th century.
Radiocarbon dating revealed that, while the wood used to make three of these four objects was felled in the 18th-19th centuries, the fourth tablet dates to the mid-15th century, pre-dating the earliest European arrivals on Rapa Nui in the 1720s by several hundred years. Interestingly, the researchers identified the wood used to make this tablet as Podocarpus latifolius, a species native to south-eastern Africa and South America, which has never grown on Rapa Nui. They therefore suggest that it may have reached the island as driftwood.
It is possible that the wood was already several centuries old when the inscription was carved into it. Nonetheless, the researchers believe that it is more likely that the engraving and the wood are of a similar age. Currently, the results of this research do not represent conclusive evidence that Rongorongo developed before the arrival of Europeans on Rapa Nui. However, it does provide important support for this argument, particularly when considered in conjunction with the fact that Rongorongo bears no resemblance to European letters; the closest known parallels to the Rongorongo glyphs are found in motifs in ancient rock art on the island.
Further analysis of other Rongorongo tablets is still needed, but if the script’s existence before Europeans arrived is confirmed, it would join the ranks of just a handful of writing systems known to have developed entirely from scratch, including Sumerian, Egyptian, and Chinese. The research has been published in Scientific Reports (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-53063-7).
Text: Amy Brunskill / Image: ERC INSCRIBE project, https://site.unibo.it/inscribe/en
