Up to half a century ago, researchers established that writing originated in Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium B.C., and spread to the rest of the world, adapting to different languages. Since the 1970s, however, the decipherment of Maya and further discoveries has suggested that humans invented writing not once, but four separate times: in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Mesoamerica.
In a recent study published in Nature, researchers at the University of Bologna in Italy have dated the wood of an ancient tablet from the isolated island of Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island) to before the arrival of Europeans, providing indirect evidence of a possible fifth independent invention of human writing.
“This would be a preliminary but fundamental step in understanding how many times human beings reached the revolutionary invention of writing,” says Silvia Ferrara, co-author of the study and philology professor at the University of Bologna.
The Easter Island Rongorongo Tablets
The tablets of Rongorongo, which have yet to be deciphered, have attracted scholarly interest since the arrival of Europeans in Rapa Nui because of its seemingly isolated development. Its symbols represent human figures, body parts, tools, plants, animals, and celestial bodies. Though it’s not similar to any other known script, several elements, including linear sequences, ligatures, and evidence of corrections would suggest that it is a proper language.
