Portal:Oceania/Selected article/June, 2008

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Rongorongo is a system of glyphs discovered in the nineteenth century on Easter Island that appears to be writing or proto-writing. It has not been deciphered despite numerous attempts. If rongorongo does prove to be writing, it would be one of only three or four known independent inventions of writing in human history.

Some two dozen wooden objects bearing rongorongo inscriptions, some heavily weathered, burned, or otherwise damaged, were collected in the late 19th century and are now scattered in museums and private collections. None remain on Easter Island.

The objects are mostly tablets made from irregular pieces of wood, sometimes driftwood, but also include a chieftain's staff, a bird-man statuette, and two reimiro ornaments. There are a few very short petroglyphs which may also be rongorongo. Oral history suggests that only a small elite were ever literate, and that the tablets were sacred.