Case file · Folklore / legend
Rongorongo tablets found
In 1864 the missionary Eugène Eyraud first reported wooden tablets carved with glyphs on Rapa Nui; the rongorongo script has never been deciphered.
1864 CE · -27.15, -109.43 · status: unexplained
The account
Only about two dozen objects survive, scattered in museums worldwide. Whether rongorongo is true writing, and whether it was invented before or after European contact, is still debated.
The sceptical view
Its undeciphered status invites fringe theories, but specialists treat it as an Indigenous Rapa Nui invention.