The rongorongo tablet from Berlin and the time-depth of Easter Island’s writing system (original) (raw)
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The invention of writing on Rapa Nui (Easter Island). New radiocarbon dates on the Rongorongo script
Nature, www.nature.com/scientificreports, 2024
Placing the origin of an undeciphered script in time is crucial to understanding the invention of writing in human history. Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, developed a script, now engraved on fewer than 30 wooden objects, which is still undeciphered. Its origins are also obscure. Central to this issue is whether the script was invented before European travelers reached the island in the eighteenth century AD. Hence direct radiocarbon dating of the wood plays a fundamental role. Until now, only two tablets were directly dated, placing them in the nineteenth c. AD, which does not solve the question of independent invention. Here we radiocarbon-dated four Rongorongo tablets preserved in Rome, Italy. One specimen yielded a unique and secure mid-fifteenth c. date, while the others fall within the nineteenth c. AD. Our results suggest that the use of the script could be placed to a horizon that predates the arrival of external influence. Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, is located in the deepest recesses of the Pacific Ocean, some 3800 km off the coast of Chile. It was one of the latest landmasses to be settled by humans, according to radiocarbon dating, between 1150 and 1280 AD 1. Since then, the island underwent a gradual, if not total, process of deforestation 2. When Rapa Nui was discovered by Europeans seafarers in the 1720s, its soil had been to an extent eroded and depleted, and endemic species, once luxuriant, had disappeared, even though this ecocide picture of total devastation is now under serious scholarly debate 3,4. The arrival of European visitors, in any case, brought upheaval. Sporadic raiding and kidnapping of locals took place in the early 1800s, and later during that century Peruvian slave raids were carried out, while epidemics decimated the population 5. By the end of the century, most of its traditional culture was irretrievably lost. Writing is one of the local phenomena to fall prey to destruction. While the island is famous for its monumental sculptures, called moai and still preserved in situ, its inhabitants also developed a local script, Rongorongo, which was first noticed by outsiders in 1864. The script now survives on twenty-seven wooden objects 6 none of which is now on the island. Most were salvaged by missionaries in the 1860s and 1870s and sent abroad. Not all rescue attempts were successful, and some inscriptions were intentionally destroyed. The extant texts are relatively long and written by means of pictorial signs, often called 'glyphs' (Fig. 1). Discovering a writing system in such a remote recess is surprising, and debate is still ongoing as to its origins. While it is difficult to prove that contact with literate Europeans was not a stimulus for its creation, its pictorial glyphs do not resemble any known script. They, in fact, show their closest parallels in motifs of ancient rockcarved art found on the island 7. The shapes of the Rongorongo signs represent different classes of images, such as human postures and body parts, animals, plants, tools, heavenly bodies, etc. The use of these signs in complex ligatures and long, linear sequences, and evidence of corrections 8 , suggest proper language notation.
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 1998
Book Reviews 253 preliminary analysis of interactions between supervisors and workers on the auto factory floor. The author was denied access to the factory, and she therefore relies on factory workers' reports and data collecting skills. The data illustrated often involve ambiguity, arising from the supervisor's choice of a marked style, which results in miscommunication between supervisor and worker.
Revisiting inscriptions on the Investigator Tree on Sweers Island, Gulf of Carpentaria
Revisiting inscriptions on the Investigator Tree on Sweers Island, Gulf of Carpentaria. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 2020
The Investigator Tree, so named after Matthew Flinders’ ship HMS Investigator, is an inscribed tree currently on display in the Queensland Museum. Before being accessioned into the Queensland Museum’s collection in 1889, the Investigator Tree grew on the western shore of Sweers Island in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria. The tree’s “Investigator” inscription, attributed to Flinders (1802), provided the catalyst for future and varied forms of European inscription making on Sweers Island, including a contentious additional “Investigator” inscription on the Investigator Tree carved by Thomas Baines in 1856. Previous researchers have speculated that Baines’ second “Investigator” inscription has caused the faded original “Investigator” inscription to be misinterpreted as either a Chinese or Dutch inscription predating Flinders’ visit to Sweers Island. For the first time, this study undertakes a physical examination of all markings on the Investigator Tree, including a second portion of the tree located at the Queensland Museum since 2009. In combination with a review of the archival and historical record, findings provide alternative interpretations regarding the (28) inscriptions to address outstanding questions. Archival documents demonstrate that there were at least three inscribed trees on Sweers Island. This paper also revisits the possibility of there once being pre-Flinders inscriptions on the Investigator Tree.
This is an addendum to: Corpus of Rongorongo texts and a compendium of views on links with Indus Script https://tinyurl.com/y8nzcmsk Moai, Ahu, Hotu are evocative words which enthrall a researcher into the human condition wonder how a group of human beings express themselves through 'sculptures' and 'hieroglyphs'. We do not know what the words mean. Could these words be remembered phonemes from antiquity, lost in the mists of time? Maybe, neuroscience researches related to sensory perceptions of vision and hearing -- e.g., 'documenting' meanings by linking 'images' and 'sounds' in the brain neural networks may provide some leads. There are cognate words in ancient languages of India, for e.g. म a magic formula; N. of various gods (of ब्रह्मा , विष्णु , शिव , and यम) मा to measure out , apportion , grant RV. ; to help any one (acc.) to anything (dat.) ib. , i , 120 , 9 ; to prepare , arrange , fashion , form , build , make RV. ; to show , display , exhibit (अमिमीत , " he displayed or developed himself " , iii , 29 , 11) ib. ; to be measured &c RV. &c &c Caus. , मापयति , °ते (aor. अमीमपत् Pa1n2. 7-4 , 93 Va1rtt. 2 Pat. ) , to cause to be measured or built , measure , build , erect Up. Gr2S.MBh. &c : Desid. मित्सति , °ते Pa1n2. 7-4 , 54 ; 58 (cf. निर्- √मा): Intens. मेमीयते Pa1n2. 6-4 , 66. [cf. Zd. ma1 ; Lat. me1tior , mensus , mensura ; Slav. me8ra ; Lith. me3ra4.] hotr̥ होतृ m. (fr. √1. हु) an offerer of an oblation or burnt-offering (with fire) , sacrificer , priest , (esp.) a priest who at a sacrifice invokes the gods or recites the ऋग्-वेद , a ऋग्-वेद priest (one of the 4 kinds of officiating priest » ऋत्विज् , p.224; properly the होतृ priest has 3 assistants , sometimes called पुरुषs , viz. the मैत्रा-वरुण , अच्छा-वाक , and ग्रावस्तुत् ; to these are sometimes added three others , the ब्राह्मणाच्छंसिन् , अग्नीध्र or अग्नीध् , and पोतृ , though these last are properly assigned to the Brahman priest ; sometimes the नेष्टृ is substituted for the ग्राव-स्तुत्) RV. &c. आ- √ हु P. A1. -जुहोति , -जुहुते (p. -ज्/उह्वान) to sacrifice , offer an oblation ; to sprinkle (with butter) RV. AV. TS. Hariv. (Monier-Williams) S. Kalyanaraman, Sarasvati Research Centre Manchester Museum had an exhibition which provides a way to organize and recreate the ancient lives of Moai. See photographs of 2015 exhibition. "Almost a year after it was first mooted and after six months’ hard work Making Monuments on Rapa Nui the Statues from Easter Island opened with a Private View on Tuesday evening. About 300 people attended the official opening to hear speeches from Dr Nick Merriman, Director of Manchester Museum, Prof Colin Richards, from the Department of Archaeology, and Mathias Francke, Chilean Deputy Ambassador, and to see the exhibition for the first time." https://ancientworldsmanchester.wordpress.com/tag/pukao/ " Abstract. This article explores the spatial, architectural and conceptual relationships between landscape places, stone quarrying, and stone moving and building during Rapa Nui’s statue-building period. These are central themes of the ‘Rapa Nui Landscapes of Construction Project’ and are discussed using aspects of the findings of our recent fieldwork. The different scales of expression, from the detail of the domestic sphere to the monumental working of quarries, are considered. It is suggested that the impressiveness of Rapa Nui’s stone architecture is its conceptual coherence at the small scale as much as at the large scale. How to Cite: Hamilton, S., (2013). Rapa Nui (Easter Island)’s Stone Worlds. Archaeology International. 16, pp.96–109. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/ai.1613" https://www.ai-journal.com/articles/10.5334/ai.1613/ (UCL Inst. of Archaeogy, Article by Sue Hamilton of 24 October 2013, embedded for ready reference) Ahu are stone platforms...Of the 313 known ahu, 125 carried moai... Ahu Tongariki, one kilometre (0.62 miles) from Rano Raraku, had the most and tallest moai, 15 in total...A paved plaza before the ahu. This was called marae...When a ceremony took place, "eyes" were placed on the statues. The whites of the eyes were made of coral, the iris was made of obsidian or red scoria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter\_Island#Stone\_platforms Legend of Hotu Matua Hotu Matu'a was the legendary first settler and ariki mau ("supreme chief" or "king") of Easter Island. Hotu Matu'a and his two canoe (or one double hulled canoe) colonising party were Polynesians from the now unknown land of Hiva (probably the Marquesas). They landed at Anakena beach and his people spread out across the island, sub-divided it between clans claiming descent from his sons, and lived for more than a thousand years in their isolated island home at the southeastern tip of the Polynesian Triangle. Polynesians first came to Rapa Nui/Easter Island sometime between 300 CE and 800 CE. These are the common elements of oral history that have been extracted from island legends. Linguistic, DNA and Pollen analysis all point to a Polynesian first settlement of the island at that time, but it is unlikely that other details can be verified. During this era the Polynesians were colonizing islands across a vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Hotu Matua led his people from Hiva; linguistic analysis comparing Rapanui to other Polynesian languages suggests this was the Marquesas Islands. It is said that Hau-Maka had a dream in which his spirit travelled to a far country, to help look for new land for King Hotu Matu'a. In the dream, his spirit travelled to the Mata ki te Rangi (Eyes that look to the Sky). The island has also been called "Te Pito 'o te Kainga", which means "the Center of the Earth." Both islands are commonly said to be Easter Island. When Hau-Maka woke, he told the King. The King then ordered seven men to travel to the island from Hiva (a mythical land) to investigate. After they found the land, they returned to Hiva. The King and many more travelled to this new island. Rapa Nui Mythology The Easter Island Statue Project There are only 21 known tablets in existence, scattered in museums and private collections. Tiny, remarkably regular glyphs, about one centimeter high, highly stylized and formalized, are carved in shallow grooves running the length of the tablets. Oral tradition has it that scribes used obsidian flakes or shark teeth to cut the glyphs and that writing was brought by the first colonists led by Hotu Matua. Last but not least, of the twenty-one surviving tablets three bear the same text in slightly different "spellings", a fact discovered by three schoolboys of St Petersburg (then Leningrad), just before World War II. In 1868 newly converted Easter Islanders send to Tepano Jaussen, Bishop of Tahiti, as a token of respect, a long twine of human hair, wound around an ancient piece of wood. Tepano Jaussen examines the gift, and, lifting the twine, discovers that the small board is covered in hieroglyphs. The bishop, elated at the discovery, writes to Father Hippolyte Roussel on Easter Island, exhorting him to gather all the tablets he can and to seek out natives able to translate them. But only a handful remain of the hundreds of tablets mentioned by Brother Eyraud only a few years earlier in a report to the Father Superior of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart. Some say they were burnt to please the missionaries who saw in them evil relics of pagan times. Some say they were hidden to save them from destruction. Which side should we believe? Brother Eyraud had died in 1868 without having ever mentioned the tablets to anyone else, not even to his friend Father Zumbohm, who is astounded at the bishop's discovery. Monsignor Jaussen soon locates in Tahiti a laborer from Easter Island, Metoro, who claims to be able to read the tablets. He describes in his notes how Metoro turns each tablet around and around to find its beginning, then starts chanting its contents. The direction of writing is unique. Starting from the left-hand bottom corner, you proceed from left to right and, at the end of the line, you turn the tablet around before you start reading the next line. Indeed, the orientation of the hieroglyphs is reversed every other line. Imagine a book in which every other line is printed back-to-front and upside-down. That is how the tablets are written! Jaussen was not able to decipher the tablets. There are also many zoomorphic figures, birds especially, fish and lizards less often. The most frequent figure looks very much like the frigate bird, which happens to have been the object of a cult, as it was associated with Make-Make, the supreme god. When you compare the tablets which bear the same text, when you analyze repeated groups of signs, you realize that writing must have followed rules. The scribe could choose to link a sign to the next, but not in any old way. You could either carve a mannikin standing, arms dangling, followed by some other sign, or the same mannikin holding that sign with one hand. You could either carve a simple sign (a leg, a crescent) separate from the next, or rotate it 90 degrees counterclockwise and carve the next sign on top of it. All we can reasonably hope to decipher some day is some two to three lines of the tablet commonly called Mamari. You can clearly see that they have to do with the moon. There are several versions of the ancient lunar calendar of Easter Island.
Phonetic Values in the Petroglyphs at 'Ana O Keke, Easter Island (2019)
Easter Island and the Pacific. Cultural and Environmental Dynamics. Rapa Nui, pp. 431-443, 2019
One of the walls of ‘Ana O Keke, a deep cave located on the north-eastern coast of Easter Island, is engraved with a 4m long intricate petroglyphic panel featuring sea animals, birds, adzes, canoes, and other images, including a group of more or less abstract figures. A number of these can also be found in the rongorongo inscriptions that were carved on wood. According to tradition, this ‘Cave of the Setting Sun’ was used in pre-missionary times to isolate young girls from society in the advent of puberty. During their prolonged stay underground these so-called neru were fattened by sugarcane juice and lack of exercise and their skin was bleached by protection against the sunlight. This study presents an analysis of the mural in the context of the ritual and mythical aspects of the neru cult and compares individual signs with their equivalent in the rongorongo script. As a result, it proposes phonetic values for some of the most frequently used glyphs of Easter Island’s unique writing system.
The double-body glyphs and palaeographic chronology in the rongorongo script
Rapa Nui Journal, 2011
In the rongorongo script we encounter many anthropomorphic glyphs with an enlarged body and a hole in the belly. Based primarily on structural evidence present in parallel passages, it is argued that hollow-belly glyphs are in fact a compact form of two normal-belly single anthropomorphic glyphs. The scriptural evolution from two single-body glyphs into one double-body glyph was gradual and its various stages can be seen in different rongorongo inscriptions. The presence of these double-body (hollow-belly) glyphs may well be an indicator of the late chronological association of a text. Bearing this in mind, different rongorongo inscriptions can be classified into older and younger forms. Other palaeographic differences can also be employed for similar classifications. The forms of glyphs 099 and 522 also bear evidence for gradual change from more pictorial forms into other, more simplified forms. A reading of the related literature shows more scribal differences in other rongorongo glyphs as well. By combining various scribal differences together with the analysis of hollow-belly and 099/522 glyphs, most of the existing rongorongo inscriptions can be classified into a chronological list of texts based on their apparent palaeographic chronology. Comparing this list to the artifacts of known manufacture date reveals that palaeographic differences were probably developing quite quickly in rongorongo script evolution and that at least half of all known rongorongo artifacts were probably manufactured in the first half of the nineteenth century.