In the 1860s, Eugene Eyraud, the first European missionary to work on Easter Island, noted that every house contained wooden tablets covered in a form of writing or hieroglyphics, yet no islander could (or would) explain the symbols' meaning. Today, only a few of the tablets survive. The script is known as rongo-rongo, and the tidy rows of tiny symbols include birds, animals, plants, celestial objects and geometric forms. It is thought that the tablets were classified according to subjects such as hymns, crimes and deaths on the battlefield.
Theories abound about the tablets and their text. Perhaps it isn't a readable script at all, but rather a series of cues for reciting memorised verse. Some theorists believe that the characters are ideographs like Chinese script. Others have even suggested a connection to a similar script from antiquity found in the Indus River valley, in modern Pakistan.
Back to main text