# Rongorongo > Rongorongo is the glyph system of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), carved on about 26 surviving wooden objects that hold some 15,000 glyphs in all. No text can… Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo Publisher: Mysteries Department Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page) Updated: 2026-10-27T17:48:12+00:00 --- **MYS** 0D4CC6RM5DJH·Mystery · script # Rongorongo **0** [Follow][Ask a question](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions/key-questions?mystery=rongorongo) Rongorongo ![A replica of a rongorongo tablet in the Museo de la Moneda, Santiago.](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/folio/rongorongo-lead) Jean-Paul Corlin · CC BY-SA 4.0 Where Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile⁠[[1]] Corpus 26 lettered texts (A to Z), over 15,000 glyphs; one (E Keiti) destroyed in 1914⁠[[1]] Longest text The Santiago Staff (I), over 2,000 glyphs⁠[[3]] Direction Reverse boustrophedon: lines alternate and are rotated 180 degrees⁠[[2]] Sign inventory About 600 Barthel numbers; about 52 basic glyphs cover 99.7 per cent of the corpus⁠[[8]] Oldest direct date 1493 to 1509 cal AD on one Rome tablet (wood date)⁠[[11]] Standard edition Barthel 1958; new tracings in Horley 2021⁠[[9]] Readable passages The Mamari lunar calendar (function only); a possible genealogy on text G⁠[[6]] Status Unexplained Questions 1 of 5 answered People [**Thomas S. Barthel** Ethnologist; first corpus and glyph catalogue](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/people/FIG0D4CC8Q45QVC/thomas-s-barthel)[**Steven Roger Fischer** Linguist; procreation-chant reading](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/people/FIG0D4CC96R25P9/steven-roger-fischer)[**Paul Horley** Physicist; carving technique and new tracings](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/people/FIG0D4CC9PC7DN1/paul-horley)[**Florentin Étienne Jaussen** Bishop of Tahiti; collected tablets and Metoro's readings](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/people/FIG0D4CC8FA4498/florentin-etienne-jaussen)[**Jacques B. M. Guy** Linguist; Mamari calendar structure](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/people/FIG0D4CC8YY4BY4/jacques-b-m-guy) All 9 people › [**Rafał Wieczorek** Chemist (Warsaw); Berlin tablet dating and glyph statistics](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/people/FIG0D4CCA606WSJ/rafa-wieczorek)[**Konstantin Pozdniakov** Linguist; reduced sign inventory and statistics](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/people/FIG0D4CC9EJ586T/konstantin-pozdniakov)[**Metoro Tau'a Ure** Rapanui informant who chanted over tablets for Jaussen](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/people/FIG0D4CC87G36AG/metoro-taua-ure)[**Silvia Ferrara** Philologist (Bologna); radiocarbon and 3D work](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/people/FIG0D4CC9Y60C69/silvia-ferrara) Catalog key**MYS** 0D4CC6RM5DJH Rongorongo is a system of glyphs carved into wood on Rapa Nui. The glyphs are stylised outlines of people, birds, fish, plants and geometric forms, cut in lines that alternate direction and orientation so that the reader turns the tablet after each line (reverse boustrophedon). About 26 inscribed objects survive, scattered among museums in Rome, Santiago, London, Vienna, Berlin, St Petersburg, Washington, Honolulu, New York and Paris; one, the Keiti tablet, burned in Louvain in 1914 and is known only from rubbings and photographs⁠[[1]]⁠[[2]]. The texts range from a couple of glyphs to over 2,000 on the Santiago Staff, and total more than 15,000 glyphs⁠[[3]]⁠[[1]]. None of it has been read. The island's missionaries first noticed the tablets in 1864, when the population had collapsed through slave raids and epidemics, and no islander who could demonstrate reading was ever found. Bishop Jaussen's informant Metoro, in Tahiti in the 1870s, chanted over four tablets, but his "readings" name the glyphs one by one and do not form a text; he read lines in the wrong direction and missed the one passage whose content is now agreed⁠[[4]]⁠[[5]]. Since then the field has produced two secure results and a long list of rejected claims. The secure results are Barthel's 1958 corpus and catalogue, which gave every object a letter and every glyph a number, and the identification of a lunar calendar on the Mamari tablet, whose structure Guy worked out in 1990⁠[[2]]⁠[[6]]. The best-known claim, Fischer's 1995 reading of the Santiago Staff as a procreation chant, failed statistical tests⁠[[7]]⁠[[8]]. Two things have changed since 2020. New tracings of the whole corpus by Horley, and 3D models of individual tablets, give sign shapes that can be compared without relying on Barthel's drawings⁠[[9]]⁠[[10]]. And radiocarbon dating has started to address the oldest question about the script, whether it existed before Europeans arrived in 1722 or was inspired by the sight of Spanish writing in 1770. Four tablets in Rome were dated in 2024; three are nineteenth century and one gives wood of 1493 to 1509⁠[[11]]. The Berlin tablet, dated separately, is nineteenth century and made from a tree that grew on the island⁠[[12]]. Of the 5 questions on this site, 1 are answered. The most likely answer to “Did rongorongo exist before European contact in 1722?”, not yet confirmed: rongorongo was invented on Rapa Nui before 1722. ### Key questionsset by the editors [**Did rongorongo exist before European contact in 1722?** ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/questions/QST0D4CCDBJ4KJW/did-rongorongo-exist-before-european-contact-in-1722)Most likely: rongorongo was invented on Rapa Nui before 1722 [**Does rongorongo record language?** ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/questions/QST0D4CCD3R70F2/does-rongorongo-record-language)Most likely: rongorongo is proto-writing or a mnemonic system that cued recited texts without encoding them phonetically [All 5 questions ](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions/key-questions?mystery=rongorongo) ## The object The corpus is a set of wooden objects: flat tablets, a staff, two reimiro pectorals, a birdman figure, a snuff box made from a cut-up tablet, and a few fragments. Barthel lettered 24 of them A to X in 1958; the Paris snuff box (Y) and the Poike palimpsest (Z) were added later⁠[[2]]⁠[[3]]. The holders are the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts in Rome (A Tahua, B Aruku Kurenga, C Mamari, D Échancrée), the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural in Santiago (G, H, I the Staff, Z), the British Museum (J, K, L), the Weltmuseum Wien (M, N), the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin (O), the Kunstkamera in St Petersburg (P, Q), the Smithsonian (R, S), the Bishop Museum in Honolulu (T, U, V, W), the American Museum of Natural History (X), a private collection (F) and a Paris museum (Y)⁠[[1]]. The Keiti tablet (E) was destroyed in 1914⁠[[1]]. [Photo] [(reproduced)'s drawing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rongorongo_text_I) [![The Santiago texts: G Small Santiago, H Large Santiago, I Santiago Staff, Z Poike palimpsest: photo](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/folio/rongorongo-a-santiago-c1)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/artifacts/ART0D4CCRB41PHT/the-santiago-texts-g-small-santiago-h-large-santiago-i) The Santiago texts: G Small Santiago, H Large Santiago, I Santiago Staff, Z Poike palimpsestUnknown author, 1870. Public domain[Artifact ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/artifacts/ART0D4CCRB41PHT/the-santiago-texts-g-small-santiago-h-large-santiago-i) Wood identifications by Orliac found most tablets to be Thespesia populnea (Pacific rosewood), a tree that grew on the island, rather than the toromiro of island tradition; a few are of Podocarpus (yellowwood), ash or driftwood⁠[[13]]⁠[[1]]. The Berlin tablet is Thespesia and so was not driftwood⁠[[12]]. The glyphs were cut with sharp points, probably obsidian flakes and shark teeth, after sketching, and show scribal corrections⁠[[14]]. Lines run in reverse boustrophedon: the reader begins at the bottom left, reads left to right, then turns the tablet to read the next line⁠[[2]]. Three editions matter. Barthel's 1958 Grundlagen published drawings and the glyph catalogue; Fischer's 1997 book redrew the corpus; Horley's 2021 volume gives new tracings from the originals, casts and photographs⁠[[2]]⁠[[15]]⁠[[9]]. A web viewer at kohaumotu.org places Barthel's and Fischer's transcriptions side by side in Barthel's number encoding, and is the only machine-readable version of the texts that exists⁠[[16]]. A 3D model of the Échancrée tablet, from photogrammetry and structured-light scanning, is in a public viewer⁠[[10]]. **Map of the world** [Open the full map](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/map) [+][−] 1 **Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Santiago** Museum Within 1 km 2 **Rapa Nui (Easter Island)** Island A region 3 **Tahiti** Island A region 4 **British Museum, London** Museum Mapped 5 **Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (SS.CC.), Rome** Religious congregation and museum Within 10 km 6 **Leuven (Louvain), Belgium** City Within 1 km 7 **Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin** Museum Within 1 km MappedWithin 1 kmA regionNatural Earth ### Timeline **Timeline** Squeezed where little happened. Each mark is a published claim, by how it stands:AcceptedMost likelyStill possibleDisputedRuled out ## What is known The glyphs are a system, not decoration. The same compound glyphs recur across tablets held on different continents, repeated phrases appear in several texts, and the glyphs are cut in a consistent direction and orientation⁠[[17]]⁠[[2]]. Pozdniakov's reanalysis of the best-preserved texts merged Barthel's variants and ligatures and found that 52 basic glyphs account for 99.7 per cent of all glyph occurrences, and that the frequency distribution of these glyphs resembles that of syllables in the Rapanui language, which he took as evidence that the script could be syllabic⁠[[8]]. Barthel's own catalogue, with about 600 numbers, is regarded as imprecise, with inconsistencies in what counts as a variant⁠[[3]]. One passage has an agreed function. On side a of the Mamari tablet a sequence of 29 or so crescent glyphs with attached signs was recognised by Barthel as a lunar calendar; Guy showed its structure, with groups of nights marked by "heralding" sequences and a rule that could insert intercalary nights to keep the 28-night month in step with the moon⁠[[6]]⁠[[18]]. The calendar can be described but not read, and no other passage has been matched to any known content. A repetitive run on the Small Santiago tablet has been read since 1957 as a genealogy, a plausible but unconfirmed suggestion⁠[[19]]. The dating is now partly empirical. Four tablets in Rome were radiocarbon dated in 2024 on cellulose from the wood: three fall in the 1800s, one in 1493 to 1509⁠[[11]]. The Berlin tablet dates to about 1830 to 1870 after adjusting for the ethnographic record of its use⁠[[12]]. Every direct date is a date for the wood, not the carving. ## What has been tested Metoro's chants for Jaussen were the first thing tested. Barthel showed in 1958 that Metoro read the lines of Keiti in the wrong direction on alternating sides, and Guy found that he read the Mamari calendar backwards and missed its full-moon glyph; the "Jaussen list" of glosses is a list of what the glyphs look like, not a key⁠[[4]]⁠[[5]]⁠[[6]]. Butinov and Knorozov's statistics in the 1950s suggested the language was either not Polynesian or written telegraphically, a result later blamed on Barthel's encoding, which gave separate codes to allographs and ligatures⁠[[19]]⁠[[8]]. [![Text E, Keiti (destroyed)](https://mysteriesdept.com/media/folio/rongorongo-a-keiti-m1)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/artifacts/ART0D4CCT1T1CVR/text-e-keiti-destroyed) Text E, Keiti (destroyed)Unknown author, 1914. CC BY-SA 3.0[Artifact ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/artifacts/ART0D4CCT1T1CVR/text-e-keiti-destroyed) Fischer's procreation-chant reading was tested on several fronts. Only about 63 of the sequences on the Santiago Staff fit his triad structure even generously; the four glyphs in his key example are so common that they make up a fifth of the corpus, which makes the reading unfalsifiable; the Rapanui plural marker it relies on is disputed; and the staff remains a statistical outlier in string-matching against the other texts even with the "phallus" glyph removed⁠[[5]]⁠[[8]]⁠[[15]]. The field has not accepted it. Palaeographic and imaging work has tested the drawings themselves. Horley's study of tool marks corrected glyph identifications in Barthel, and the 2021 3D model of the Échancrée produced a new transcription that differs from earlier ones at several points⁠[[14]]⁠[[10]]. Wieczorek's group has run glyph-occurrence statistics across the corpus looking for a second calendar-like text and has proposed a duplicator glyph; these are reported in interviews and await full publication⁠[[20]]. ## The readings Four positions are live on what rongorongo is. The first is that it is glottographic writing, probably logosyllabic or syllabic, recording the Rapanui language; the evidence is the structured repetition, the 52-glyph inventory and its syllable-like frequency profile, and the genealogy and calendar passages⁠[[8]]⁠[[19]]. The second is that it is proto-writing or a mnemonic system that cued chants without encoding them phonetically, a view that fits the failure of every phonetic reading and the stylised pictorial glyphs⁠[[5]]. The third is Fischer's specific reading as procreation chants, which has failed its tests⁠[[15]]⁠[[8]]. The fourth is a set of outsider proposals linking the glyphs to the Indus script or other distant systems, which no specialist accepts⁠[[5]]. On origin, two readings compete. One holds that the system was invented on the island before 1722, which the 1493 to 1509 wood date supports if the wood was carved soon after it grew⁠[[11]]. The other holds that it was inspired by the Spanish annexation ceremony of 1770, at which islanders "signed" a document, and so is an eighteenth-century invention; this fits the nineteenth-century dates of every other dated tablet and leaves the early date to be explained as old wood or driftwood carved later⁠[[11]]⁠[[12]]. ### Published claims **Published claims and their status** | Year | Who | Claimed | Status | Reason | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1932 | Guillaume de Hevesy (reported in Nature)⁠[21] | Several rongorongo signs also occur on the Indus seals of Mohenjo-daro, and others in proto-Elamite, so the scripts are related. | Disputed | No specialist accepts it, and every dated tablet is from the last six centuries⁠[5]⁠[11] | | 1957 | Nikolai Butinov and Yuri Knorozov⁠[19] | A repeated run of about fifteen glyphs on the Small Santiago tablet is a genealogy, with one glyph marking a title. | Still possible | It is still regarded as plausible, but no reading of the names has been confirmed⁠[5] | | 1958 | Thomas Barthel⁠[2] | The corpus uses several hundred distinct signs, catalogued in a numbering that runs to 700. | Disputed | Later analysis merged most of his numbers as variants and ligatures of about 52 basic glyphs, and his inventory is criticised as too fine⁠[8]⁠[3] | | 1990 | Jacques Guy⁠[6] | The crescent sequence on the Mamari tablet is a lunar calendar with a rule for inserting one or two intercalary nights. | Most likely | The passage is generally accepted as lunar, but the intercalation rule has not been independently confirmed⁠[5] | | 1995 | Steven Roger Fischer⁠[7] | The Santiago Staff and most other texts are procreation chants of the form X copulated with Y and there issued forth Z, marked by glyph 76. | Disputed | Statistical tests found that glyph 76 and the other glyphs in his key example are common signs, together about a fifth of the corpus, with no fixed role⁠[8] | | 1996 | Konstantin Pozdniakov⁠[17] | About a hundred phrases shared between texts show that many of Barthel's signs are variants or ligatures of a much smaller set of basic glyphs. | Most likely | The reduced inventory has held in later statistical work, though the corpus is too small to fix the exact count⁠[8] | | 2005 | Catherine Orliac⁠[13] | Most tablets are carved on Pacific rosewood (Thespesia populnea), not the toromiro of tradition. | Accepted | Later wood identifications on the Berlin tablet found the same species⁠[12] | | 2006 | Gordon and Michael Berthin⁠[18] | The text after the Mamari calendar shows where the intercalary nights fall. | Still possible | It builds on Guy's reading, which itself awaits independent confirmation⁠[6] | | 2007 | Konstantin and Igor Pozdniakov⁠[8] | 52 basic glyphs make up 99.7 per cent of the corpus, and their frequencies resemble Rapanui syllables, so the script could be syllabic. | Still possible | The inventory count is widely used, but the syllabic reading has produced no confirmed reading of a text⁠[5] | | 2021 | Rafał Wieczorek, Paul Horley and colleagues⁠[12] | The Berlin tablet is Rapa Nui Thespesia wood, not driftwood, dated to about 1830 to 1870, and once held over 5,000 glyphs. | Accepted | No later study disputes the identification or the date, which match the nineteenth-century dates on other tablets⁠[11] | | 2024 | Silvia Ferrara, Sahra Talamo and colleagues⁠[11] | The wood of one Rome tablet dates to 1493 to 1509, so rongorongo was in use before Europeans reached the island. | Most likely | The date is secure for the wood, but old or salvaged wood could have been carved later, and the other dated tablets are nineteenth century⁠[11]⁠[12] | ## What would settle it The origin question needs direct dates on more tablets, ideally with the carving dated rather than the wood, which would mean dating the outermost rings or any organic residue in the cuts; Wieczorek has called for all tablets to be dated⁠[[11]]⁠[[12]]. The writing question needs an open, sign-level corpus built on Horley's tracings and the 3D models rather than on Barthel's codes, so that inventory, positional statistics and repeated-phrase alignment can be re-run and compared with Rapanui chants and with null corpora⁠[[9]]⁠[[10]]⁠[[8]]. A reading would be settled only by a proposal that reads every attested variant of the Mamari calendar and the genealogy run in Rapanui, with sign values that hold across the whole corpus, and that predicts the content of a passage before it is checked⁠[[6]]⁠[[19]]. ## Questions 1 of 5 questions are answered. **Key questions** [All 5](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions/key-questions?mystery=rongorongo) **0** [Did rongorongo exist before European contact in 1722?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/questions/QST0D4CCDBJ4KJW/did-rongorongo-exist-before-european-contact-in-1722) 0 of 0 sub-questions answered·0 Most likely: rongorongo was invented on Rapa Nui before 1722 **0** [Does rongorongo record language?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/questions/QST0D4CCD3R70F2/does-rongorongo-record-language) 1 of 3 sub-questions answered·0 Most likely: rongorongo is proto-writing or a mnemonic system that cued recited texts without encoding them phonetically ## Evidence 18 findings [Does rongorongo record language?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/questions/QST0D4CCD3R70F2/does-rongorongo-record-language)6 findings [Rongorongo is glottographic writing (logosyllabic or syllabic) recording the Rapanui language.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/answers/ANS0D4CCEAT3KX6/rongorongo-is-glottographic-writing-logosyllabic-or-syllabic)Most likely +[52 basic glyphs account for 99.7 per cent of the corpus and their frequency distribution resembles that of Rapanui syllables.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCEJM1R27/52-basic-glyphs-account-for-99-7-per-cent-of-the-corpus-and)Suggestive +[The same compound glyphs and repeated phrases occur on tablets held on different continents.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCETE4XYF/the-same-compound-glyphs-and-repeated-phrases-occur-on)Supported +[A repetitive run on text G with a recurring marker glyph is structured like a genealogy.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCF287Q1K/a-repetitive-run-on-text-g-with-a-recurring-marker-glyph-is)Suggestive −[No phonetic reading of any passage has survived testing in 150 years.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCFA21BZA/no-phonetic-reading-of-any-passage-has-survived-testing-in)Supported [Rongorongo is proto-writing or a mnemonic system that cued recited texts without encoding them phonetically.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/answers/ANS0D4CCFHW6WKQ/rongorongo-is-proto-writing-or-a-mnemonic-system-that-cued)Most likely +[The Mamari calendar's function can be described from its crescents and counts without reading any word.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCFSP4Q1R/the-mamari-calendars-function-can-be-described-from-its)Supported +[Metoro, the only informant, named the glyphs one at a time rather than reading a text.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCG1G698M/metoro-the-only-informant-named-the-glyphs-one-at-a-time)Suggestive [Did rongorongo exist before European contact in 1722?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/questions/QST0D4CCDBJ4KJW/did-rongorongo-exist-before-european-contact-in-1722)4 findings [Rongorongo was invented on Rapa Nui before 1722.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/answers/ANS0D4CCGH40QH4/rongorongo-was-invented-on-rapa-nui-before-1722)Most likely +[One of four Rome tablets gives a secure radiocarbon date of 1493 to 1509 cal AD.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCGRY5PZS/one-of-four-rome-tablets-gives-a-secure-radiocarbon-date-of)Supported +[Barthel's glyph catalogue was built from texts carved in alternating orientation with developed ligatures, a mature system by the 1860s.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCH0R5BB3/barthels-glyph-catalogue-was-built-from-texts-carved-in)Suggestive [Rongorongo was invented after the 1770 Spanish annexation ceremony, inspired by the sight of writing.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/answers/ANS0D4CCH8J4VA8/rongorongo-was-invented-after-the-1770-spanish-annexation)Still possible +[Three of the four Rome tablets and the Berlin tablet date to the 1800s.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCHGC1V1Y/three-of-the-four-rome-tablets-and-the-berlin-tablet-date-to)Supported +[The single pre-contact date is on wood of a non-native species, consistent with driftwood carved later.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCHR67KFV/the-single-pre-contact-date-is-on-wood-of-a-non-native)Suggestive [How many distinct glyphs does rongorongo have?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/questions/QST0D4CCDKC5T7B/how-many-distinct-glyphs-does-rongorongo-have)2 findings [About 50 to 60 basic glyphs, combined into ligatures, account for nearly the whole corpus.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/answers/ANS0D4CCJ7T32A2/about-50-to-60-basic-glyphs-combined-into-ligatures-account)Most likely +[52 glyphs cover 99.7 per cent of occurrences after merging allographs and ligatures.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCJFM6545/52-glyphs-cover-99-7-per-cent-of-occurrences-after-merging)Suggestive [The inventory is several hundred signs, closer to Barthel's catalogue, which would point to a logographic…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/answers/ANS0D4CCJQE4CE6/the-inventory-is-several-hundred-signs-closer-to-barthels)Disputed −[Barthel's catalogue is inconsistent in what it treats as a variant, so its count overstates the inventory.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCJZ876RX/barthels-catalogue-is-inconsistent-in-what-it-treats-as-a)Supported [What does the Mamari calendar passage record?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/questions/QST0D4CCDV63S88/what-does-the-mamari-calendar-passage-record)2 findings [The passage is a lunar calendar with a rule for inserting one or two intercalary nights into the 28-night…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/answers/ANS0D4CCKEW6QDH/the-passage-is-a-lunar-calendar-with-a-rule-for-inserting)Most likely +[Guy's analysis finds 29 crescents in eight groups marked by heralding sequences, consistent with a lunar month plus intercalation.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCKPP152A/guys-analysis-finds-29-crescents-in-eight-groups-marked-by)Supported +[Berthin and Berthin argue the following text shows where the intercalary nights belong.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCKYG7AJ9/berthin-and-berthin-argue-the-following-text-shows-where-the)Suggestive [Is Fischer's procreation-chant reading of the Santiago Staff correct?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/questions/QST0D4CCE30644S/is-fischers-procreation-chant-reading-of-the-santiago-staff)4 findings [The Staff and most other texts are chants of the form "X copulated with Y, there issued forth Z", marked by…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/answers/ANS0D4CCMNY2AHD/the-staff-and-most-other-texts-are-chants-of-the-form-x)Disputed −[Only about 63 sequences on the Staff fit the triad structure even generously.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCMXR5D8H/only-about-63-sequences-on-the-staff-fit-the-triad-structure)Supported −[The four glyphs in Fischer's key example make up about a fifth of the corpus, so the reading would produce absurd combinations elsewhere.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCN5J6W0Z/the-four-glyphs-in-fischers-key-example-make-up-about-a)Supported −[The Staff remains a statistical outlier against the other texts even with glyph 76 removed.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCNDC4G85/the-staff-remains-a-statistical-outlier-against-the-other)Suggestive [The reading is not valid; glyph 76 is a common sign with no fixed role.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/answers/ANS0D4CCNN67Q2X/the-reading-is-not-valid-glyph-76-is-a-common-sign-with-no)Most likely +[The field has not adopted the reading; later surveys list it with the rejected attempts.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/evidence/EVD0D4CCNX03BH8/the-field-has-not-adopted-the-reading-later-surveys-list-it)Supported ## Artifacts The films, photos, papers and objects this mystery rests on, each with its own key and its distance from the original. **Artifacts** [See all 14](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/artifacts) Photo2 steps from object [The Rome tablets: A Tahua, B Aruku Kurenga, C Mamari, D Échancrée](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/artifacts/ART0D4CCQKP0X8T/the-rome-tablets-a-tahua-b-aruku-kurenga-c-mamari-d) Widow Hoare, Papeete (as reproduced by Chauvet 1935) · GFDL (as tagged on Commons) Photo1 step from object [The Santiago texts: G Small Santiago, H Large Santiago, I Santiago Staff, Z Poike palimpsest](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/artifacts/ART0D4CCRB41PHT/the-santiago-texts-g-small-santiago-h-large-santiago-i) Unknown author · Public domain (as tagged on Commons) Document1 step from object [Text O, the Berlin tablet](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/artifacts/ART0D4CCRTR21QQ/text-o-the-berlin-tablet) Wieczorek et al. · publisher Photo1 step from object [Texts J Large reimiro, K London tablet, L Small reimiro](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/artifacts/ART0D4CCSAC04C9/texts-j-large-reimiro-k-london-tablet-l-small-reimiro) Unknown author · Public domain (as tagged on Commons) Document1 step from object [Texts in Vienna (M, N), St Petersburg (P, Q), Washington (R, S), Honolulu (T, U, V, W), New York (X, F), Paris (Y)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/artifacts/ART0D4CCST014RA/texts-in-vienna-m-n-st-petersburg-p-q-washington-r-s) Weltmuseum Wien; Kunstkamera (MAE), St Petersburg; Smithsonian NMNH; Bishop Museum; American Museum of Natural History; private; Paris Photo1 step from object [Text E, Keiti (destroyed)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/artifacts/ART0D4CCT1T1CVR/text-e-keiti-destroyed) Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0 [See all 14 artifacts](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/rongorongo/artifacts) ## See also [ **Easter Island moai** Nearly a thousand stone figures carved on Rapa Nui and moved to coastal platforms. ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/easter-island-moai) [ **Cypro-Minoan** The undeciphered script of Late Bronze Age Cyprus, used from about 1550 to 1050 BC. ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/cypro-minoan) [ **Proto-Elamite and Linear Elamite** Two scripts of south-western Iran, 3100 to 1880 BC, one claimed deciphered in 2022. ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-elamite) [ **Indus script** About 4,000 short inscriptions of the Indus civilisation, 2600 to 1900 BC, unread. ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/indus-script) ## References 1. 1.[Wikipedia contributors n.d.. Rongorongo. Wikipedia.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D4CC5SC1JNY/rongorongo)cited 7 times here**SRC** 0D4CC5SC1JNY 1. 2.[Barthel, T. 1958. Grundlagen zur Entzifferung der Osterinselschrift. Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiet der Auslandskunde 64. Cram, de Gruyter, Hamburg.](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D4CC1MJ1XYS/grundlagen-zur-entzifferung-der-osterinselschrift)[doi](https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111641256)cited 5 times here**SRC** 0D4CC1MJ1XYS 1. 3.[Melka, T., Schoch, R. 2021. The Quest for Information Retrieval: An Inscribed Relic from Ancient Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Part I. Asian and African Studies 30(1).](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D4CC4T46KK6/the-quest-for-information-retrieval-an-inscribed-relic-from)[doi](https://doi.org/10.31577/aassav.2021.30.1.07)cited 3 times here**SRC** 0D4CC4T46KK6 1. 4.[Jaussen, F. 1893. L'île de Pâques. Historique, écriture et répertoire des signes des tablettes ou bois d'hibiscus intelligents. 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