Mystery of the Rongorongo

Dr. George Carter, geology professor at Johns Hopkins University, shows a "talking board" discovered in 1868 on Easter Island and discusses previous attempts to decipher its symbols, called rongorongo, as writing or decoration. A film clip of Byrd's expedition party visiting the stone statues on Easter Island sets the scene. Bishop Tepano Jaussen of Tahiti was the first person to investigate this mystery, and he ultimately published a dictionary of identified glyphs in 1898. He was followed by Thomas Crafts, who concluded that the symbols were just decorations; William J. Thomson, who attempted unsuccessfully to have a story board translated; Bishop Claessens, who reported that figures on an island in the Seychelles were similar to the rongorongo; Lacouperie, who discovered seals in south India similar to the Easter Island symbols; and, William Hevesy, who pointed out the similarities of seals excavated in the Indus Valley to forms on Easter Island.