According to multiple online and literary sources, the Rongorongo tablets are the only trace
of written language left on Easter Island from before the downfall of the civilization. Only
twentyone have survived the years, and those few have been scattered in museums and private
collections across the world. The hieroglyphics on them are tiny ,about one centimeter high.
Tradition has it that scribes used obsidian flakes or shark teeth to cut the symbols into the
wood or rock surface that would be the final resting place of the forgotten language.
There have, of course, been many attempts to decipher the glyphs. An uninformed individual might suggest that scientists decipher the Rongorongo tables the same way theu deciphered the Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Unfortunatly, the Rosetta Stones made the Egyptian translation much simpler by placing it beside two more common languages with the same text. No such hint exists for the Rongorongo tablets. This means the ideograms must be deciphered the old- fashioned way; stare at them for days until a pattern is realized.
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