Undeciphered Script From Easter Island May Predate European Colonization

The return of Columbus in 1493 also precipitated the culmination of one of the most fateful but unacknowledged theological developments in the history of the western Christian Church: the Doctrine of Discovery.

would decline, and in a hurry. Spanish colonization was a schizophrenic enterprise, driven first by the search for treasure, then in a quest for slaves, and later taking on a missionary cast.

Outside of the settler population, though, enforcing English as a national language proved to be a more violent undertaking. Slave owners made a point of separating African slaves who spoke the same language. Those caught speaking their home languages could face serious punishment; there are reports of some having their tongues cut out. The result

‘Prehistory’ refers to the story of human cultural and economic life before the introduction of writing, and with it written records. It varies across the globe. In Australia, for example, prehistory ends with the arrival of Captain Cook in the eighteenth century. In Britain, the Romans introduced writing when they invaded in AD 43.

Plato told the story of the invention of writing, which was handed to an Egyptian pharaoh by an entity named Thoth. The pharaoh was horrified and lamented that this invention would be the death of human memory, but Thoth insisted and the demise of oral tradition began.

History before the emergence of writing around 3,000 B.C. also receives brief treatment, although it constitutes 99.9% of the five-million-year history of the human species.