Ferrara et al. report on the results of a study of several specimens of kohau rongorongo, the enigmatic, undeciphered texts of Easter Island (also known as Rapa Nui). These texts, inscribed on wood—mostly driftwood that washed ashore on the island—may have numbered in the hundreds during the mid 19th century, when the system is known to have been in use. Roughly two dozen inscribed artifacts survive today. Ferrara et al. claim, on the basis of carbon dating, that one of these was inscribed before European contact in the 18th century, and thus represent "one of the few independent inventions of writing in human history". We argue that there is not yet sufficient evidence to regard rongorongo as an invention of writing.