Some elements help with assembly human historyand writing is certainly part of it.
Not only does it serve as a record and reveal the way ancestors organized themselves, it also says a lot about the evolution of society.
According to historians, writing emerged independently in countries such as Egypt, China, Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica. What few people know is that this may have happened to the famous too Easter Islandin Chile.
The island, also called Rapa Nui, is located in a remote area of the Pacific Ocean about 3,800 kilometers from the Chilean coast and developed its own writing system called Rongorongo.
Known for its large Moai statues, the place has a lot to offer. Written records survive to this day on wooden objects collected and found in the region.
Easter Island is located in a remote area in the Pacific Ocean Photo: Reproduction
The texts date from before colonization
The discovery was reported in a scientific study published in the journal Scientific Reports. The texts are considered long and consist of pictorial symbols depicting images of bodies, animals, plants, tools and others, making them illegible.
The identification of a new writing system is considered surprising. The symbols used by the people of Easter Island are different from any other writing cataloged throughout history.
Radiocarbon dating of four wooden objects at the site concluded that one of them dated from the 15th or early 16th century. The others probably date from the 19th century.
However, specialist Silvia Ferrara from the University of Bologna in Italy clarifies that dating the wood is not enough to determine the exact date of the inscription.
How something happens very oldthis data was the most the researchers were able to collect.
Nevertheless, it can now be confirmed that these are writings that were written before the arrival of Europeans on Easter Island.
The oldest record dates from between 1493 and 1509. colonizers arrived at the site around 1720.
Find
This finding alone proves that the islanders developed their own writing, without the influence of European knowledge.
This novelty thus becomes the final document of an independent invention that writes the history of the planet.
Now it is time to understand the meaning of Rongorongo and proceed with a content analysis that aims to reveal important details about the way of life and events of the time.