Whatever the case, the language was used until the 1860s, when most of the Rapanui died of European illnesses, and knowledge of the script went with them. Some believe it developed long before the first Europeans arrived in the 1700s though others argue it emerged after the Rapanui people first saw European writing. It’s not clear when the writing system appeared. ( Easter Islanders’ weapons were deliberately not lethal.) The glyphs themselves portray outlines of animals, plants, humans, and artifacts. They contain an undeciphered rongorongo script, running left to right, then right to left when the tablet is upended. The answer may lie in two dozen wooden tablets (and objects, including a chieftain’s staff) found at the site where they’re located. Like other remnants of the enigmatic early Minoan culture, it continues to hold its secrets.Įaster Island-Rapa Nui in the language of its people-in the South Pacific is well known for its mysterious, multi-ton monolithic statues, known as moai, but no one knows their purpose. The fact that symbols are stamped may suggest a capacity for mass production, although no other discovery supports that.Ī few experts believe the disk is a hoax or forgery, but most accept it as genuine. Attempts to unravel its mystery-Cretan? Foreign? Syllabic reading inward? Alphabetic reading outward?-are as varied as its interpreters. No other artifact has ever been found with the same symbols. They may represent phonetic groups or syllables, but there are too few of them to be deciphered. Many have recognizable shapes, such as a tattooed head, an arrow, a plane tree, a cat, and a beehive. Dating from perhaps 1700 B.C., this amazing find bears a spiral of 242 stamped symbols. They also may have left behind a mysterious six-inch, fired-clay disk, which Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier discovered in 1908 in the ruins of the ancient palace of Phaistos. One of the earliest urban societies, they built elaborate palaces and used sophisticated plumbing, heating, and sewage systems. The Minoan kingdom flourished on the Greek island of Crete between 3000 B.C.
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