The Rongorongo Tablets
Easter Island's wooden tablets carry rows of tiny carved symbols that may be a writing system no one can read.
What was reported
In 1864 a missionary on Rapa Nui reported wooden tablets in islanders' houses carved with rows of small glyphs: people, animals, plants and shapes. The script, called rongorongo, is written in lines that alternate direction and turn upside down, so the reader rotates the tablet.
Only about two dozen objects carrying it survive, scattered among museums around the world. By the time outsiders took an interest, few islanders could read them, after slave raids and disease devastated the population in the 1860s.
Explanations offered
No one has deciphered rongorongo. Scholars debate whether it's true writing or a set of memory aids for chants, and whether it was invented before or after Europeans arrived. A radiocarbon study published in 2024 suggested the wood of one tablet dates from the 1400s, before contact.
- When
- First noted in 1864
- Where
- Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile
- Witnesses
- Missionaries and islanders
- Status
- Unread
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