A new discovery on Easter Island could rewrite history as we know it

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• For decades, archaeologists have debated whether the writing system of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), known as Rongorongo, was independently invented or influenced by Europeans.

• A new study using radiocarbon dating to assess the age of four Rongorongo tablets shows that one of the tablets predates the arrival of Europeans in the 1720s.

• However, the date only reflects when the wood was cut, and the sample size of one is not large enough to be completely certain.

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Today, humans inhabit—or at least, have explored—every corner of the planet. But that vast spread House sapiens It was a slow process around the world. The first human race left Africa 60,000 to 90,000 years ago and gradually spread across the Earth over several millennia. And one of the last places these ancient people made their way to was the southeastern Pacific island of Rapa Nui, widely known as Easter Island.

Located 2,360 miles off the coast of Chile—which joined the country in 1888—Rapa Nui is one of the most isolated places in the world. Its native people, also known as Rapa Nui, first arrived on the island’s shores between 1150 and 1280 CE, and remained isolated until the arrival of Dutch navigator Jacob Rogwen in 1722.

While Europeans eventually discovered the impressive moai sculptures for which Rapa Nui is best known, they stumbled upon a still-unknown script known as Rongorongo—a three-dimensional writing system that uses pictorial symbols known as glyphs.

But because the script was not first described until 1864, archaeologists and historians have pondered an enduring question: Did the Rapa Nui independently invent the language, or were they influenced by Europeans?

Now, a study is attempting to resolve this linguistic conundrum by using radiocarbon dating to suggest that the rongorongo is one of 27 wooden objects with inscriptions, dating from 1493 to 1509, before the arrival of Europeans. This finding suggests that Rapa Nui may be dependent on human history. And one is usually associated with complex situations.

Another strong piece of evidence for this indigenous language theory is the Rongorongo works a lot Unlike European languages, which suggest incomprehensible outside influence. Lead author Silvia Ferrara, an archaeologist and linguist at the University of Bologna in Italy, and her team published In conclusion Scientific reports In early February.

“The question is of vital importance, as it implies the possibility of an independent invention of writing, as happened in other parts of the world where writing was an original creation, for example, in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica,” the paper reads. “If Rongorongo predates the arrival of extraterrestrial travelers, it may represent the next, and latest, discovery in human history.”

While one of the four wooden tablets provides pre-European evidence for the language, the discovery also comes with some caveats. For one, radiocarbon dating can only detect when a tree has been cut down, not inscribed—However, Ferrara suggests Centuries old wood would be unsuitable for such work. But, more importantly, the wooden tablet provides only one sample size, as the other tablets examined all fell into the tablet. other Aspects of the European divide.

To gather more evidence, Ferrara would have to examine other surviving tablets, the remains of a long-forgotten language. But they are scattered all over the world, and are not easy to access. For now, the search continues in an effort to place the contributions of these natives in the correct historical context.

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