MYSTERY ISLE

Hokitika Guardian, 17 November 1932, Page 8

MYSTERY ISLE

THEORY OF A VANISHED RACE

One of the strangest mysteries of the world—the origin of the vanished inhabitants of Easter Island, situated iir the South Pacific, where the only sign of past occupation is a number of colossal carved stcine heads—may be solved by discoveries made by a French archaeologist. A monograph has just been read before members of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, where it was stated that M. Guillaume de Hevesy, in the course of an archaeological expedition, had "made the discovery at Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, in India, of inscriptions similar to those found some sixty years ago on Easter Island; 5030 miles aun, In his researches M. de Hevesy had availed himself of the work of Sir John Marshall, the British scholar, who for the past thirty years has been directorgeneral of archaeology in Tndia. He found at least 130 characters which were similar, ana some which were identical, and he hopes to be able to solve the age-old mysteries they at present bide. If be succeeds in deciphering one set of inscriptions he will have the key to the other. M. de Hevesy thinks tliat there was a time when the peoples of the Pacific I Ocean settled in some parts of Tndia. He said that he-also believed that the Aryans were not the first stock in India, but that* a more ancient race peopled that country be/ore them.