Editing Rongorongo (section)

==Origin==
Oral tradition holds that either [[Hotu Matu{{saltillo}}a]] or [[Kings of Easter Island#Tu{{saltillo}}u ko Iho|Tu{{saltillo}}u ko Iho]], the legendary founder(s) of Rapa Nui, brought 67{{nbsp}}tablets from their homeland.<ref>Fischer 1997:367</ref> The same founder is also credited with bringing indigenous plants such as the [[toromiro]]. But no homeland is likely to have had a tradition of writing in Polynesia or even in South America. Thus rongorongo appears to have been an internal development. Given that few if any of the Rapanui people remaining on the island in the 1870s could read the glyphs, it is likely that only a small minority were ever literate. Indeed, early visitors were told that literacy was a privilege of the ruling families and priests who were all kidnapped in the [[Blackbirding|Peruvian slaving raids]] or died soon afterward in the resulting epidemics.<ref>Cooke 1899:712, Englert 1970:149–153</ref>

===Dating the tablets===
Little direct dating has been done. The start of forest-clearing for agriculture on Easter Island, and thus presumably the first settlements on the island, has been dated to ''circa'' 1200,<ref>Date ranges are 1200–1250 and 1180–1290. Mann ''et al.'' 2008</ref> implying a date for the invention of rongorongo no earlier than the 13th century. [[Rongorongo text Q|Tablet '''Q''']] (Small Saint Petersburg) is the sole item that has been [[radiocarbon dating|carbon dated]], but the results only constrain the date to sometime after 1680.{{refn|"The conventional radiocarbon age obtained [...] is 80 ±40 BP and the 2-sigma calibration age (95% probability) is Cal AD 1680 to Cal AD 1740 (Cal BP 270 to 200) and Cal AD 1800 to 1930 (Cal BP 150 to 20) and AD 1950 to 1960 (Cal BP 0 to 0); in fact, this rongorongo was collected in 1871 [so the later date cannot be correct]."<ref name="Orliac 2005b"/>|group="note"}} Glyph '''67''' ([[Image:Rongorongo 067.svg|x20px|Rongorongo glyph 67]]) is thought to represent the extinct [[Paschalococos|Easter Island palm]],{{refn|Following the Jaussen list,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.netaxs.com/~trance/frame.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090408075740/http://www.netaxs.com/~trance/frame.html|title=JAUSSEN LIST (see page{{nbsp}}5)|archive-date=April 8, 2009}}</ref> which identified it as the {{wikt-lang|rap|niu}} coconut palm, a species not introduced until after European contact.<ref name="Orliac 2005b"/>|group="note"}} which disappeared from the island's [[Palynology|pollen record]] ''circa'' 1650, suggesting that the script itself is at least that old.<ref name="Orliac 2005b"/>

Texts '''A''', '''P''', and '''V''' can be dated to the 18th or 19th century by virtue of being inscribed on European oars. Orliac (2005) argues that the wood for [[Rongorongo text C|tablet '''C''']] ({{lang|rap|Mamari}}) was cut from the trunk of a tree some {{convert|15|m|ft|-1|sp=us}} tall,{{refn|{{lang|rap|Mamari}} is {{cvt|19.6|cm|in|frac=2}} wide and includes [[sapwood (wood)|sapwood]] along its edges; a trunk of that diameter corresponds to Pacific rosewood's maximum height of 15{{nbsp}}m.<ref name="Orliac 2005b"/>|group="note"}} and Easter Island has long been deforested of trees that size. Analysis of charcoal indicates that the forest disappeared in the first half of the 17th century. [[Jakob Roggeveen]], who discovered Easter Island in 1722, described the island as "destitute of large trees" and in 1770 [[Felipe González de Ahedo]] wrote, "Not a single tree is to be found capable of furnishing a plank so much as six inches [15{{nbsp}}cm] in width." Forster, with [[James Cook]]'s expedition of 1774, reported that "there was not a tree upon the island which exceeded the height of 10{{nbsp}}feet [3{{nbsp}}m]."<ref>Flenley & Bahn 1992:172</ref>

All of these methods date the wood, not the inscriptions themselves. Pacific rosewood is not durable, and is unlikely to survive long in Easter Island's climate.<ref name="Orliac 2005b">Orliac 2005b</ref>

The tablets preserved in Rome were carbon-dated in a study published February 2, 2024 in ''Nature''. Most dated to the 19th century. One was securely dated to the mid-15th century, suggesting that rongorongo may have been in use well before European contact.  It was noted the dating was of the wooden tablet, not of the writing upon it, which could be younger.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://popular-archaeology.com/article/study-suggests-independent-invention-of-writing-on-rapa-nui-easter-island/ | title=Popular Archeology - Study Suggests Independent Invention of Writing on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) }}</ref>

===1770 Spanish expedition===
[[File:Rongo rongo expedición Haedo.jpg|thumb|right|The native signatures on the 1770 Spanish treaty.{{refn|These were traced from the original, which has since been lost, and so may not retain their original orientations. They were published with the long line vertical on the left, and the large glyph upright on the right.<ref>Corney (1903), plate between pp 48 & 49.</ref>|group="note"}} The bottommost resembles a rongorongo glyph also used as a petroglyph, '''400''' {{Roro|400|20}}, or perhaps '''300''' [[Image:RR 300.png|x20px|glyph 300]].]]
In 1770 the Spanish annexed Easter Island under Captain [[González de Ahedo]]. A signing ceremony was held in which a treaty of annexation was signed by an undisclosed number of chiefs "by marking upon it certain characters in their own form of script"<ref>Corney 1903:104</ref> (reproduction at right).

Several scholars have suggested that rongorongo may be an invention inspired by this visit and the signing of the treaty of annexation.<ref>For example, Flenley & Bahn 1992:203–204</ref> As circumstantial evidence, they note that no explorer reported the script until [[Eugène Eyraud]] in 1864,{{refn|This interprets the 1770 reports as not meaning that the Spaniards had seen Easter Island writing prior to the signing of the treaty, but had simply presumed that they ''would'' have had writing: González de Ahedo had given instructions to "procure the attestations of the recognised Chiefs or Caciques of the islanders, signed in their native characters".<ref>Corney 1903:47–48</ref>|group="note"}} and that the marks with which the chiefs signed the Spanish treaty do not resemble rongorongo. These researchers' hypothesis is not that rongorongo was itself a copy of the [[Latin alphabet]], or of any other form of writing, but that the ''concept'' of writing had been conveyed in a process anthropologists term [[trans-cultural diffusion]], which then inspired the islanders to invent their own writing system. If so, rongorongo emerged, flourished, fell into oblivion, and was all but forgotten within a span of less than 100 years.

Known cases of the diffusion of writing, such as [[Sequoyah]]'s invention of the [[Cherokee syllabary]] after observing English-language newspapers, or [[Uyaquk]]'s invention of the [[Yugtun script]] after being inspired by readings from Christian scripture, involved greater contact than the signing of a single treaty. The glyphs could be crudely written rongorongo, as might be expected for Rapa Nui representatives writing with the novel instrument of pen on paper. That the script was not otherwise observed by early explorers, who spent little time on the island, may reflect that it was [[Tapu (Polynesian culture)|taboo]]; such taboos may have lost power along with the {{wikt-lang|rap|tangata rongorongo}} (scribes) by the time Rapa Nui society collapsed following Peruvian slaving raids and the resulting epidemics, so that the tablets had become more widely distributed by Eyraud's day.<ref>Bahn 1996</ref> Orliac points out that Tablet C appears to predate the Spanish visit by at least a century.

===Petroglyphs {{anchor|pertroglyphs}}===
[[Image:Anaokeke.jpg|thumb|right|Petroglyphs in the cave [[Ana o Keke]] resemble the feather-like rongorongo glyph {{nowrap|'''3''' {{Roro|003|20}}}} (left) and a compound glyph {{nowrap|'''211:42''' [[File:RR 211.42.png|x20px|Rongorongo glyph 211:42]]}} (center), a [[hapax legomenon]] found in '''Br1''', followed by a V shape that may be glyph {{nowrap|'''27''' {{Roro|027|20}}}}. A line of divots passes through them.]]
Easter Island has the richest assortment of [[petroglyph]]s in Polynesia.<ref>Lee 1992</ref> Nearly every suitable surface has been carved, including the stone walls of some houses and a few of the famous ''[[mo{{saltillo}}ai]]'' statues and their fallen [[pukao|topknots]]. Around 1,000 sites with over 4,000 glyphs have been catalogued, some in [[bas-relief|bas-]] or [[sunken-relief]], and some painted red and white. Designs include a concentration of [[Chimera (mythology)|chimeric]] bird-man figures at [[Orongo]], a ceremonial center of the ''[[tangata manu]]'' ("bird-man") cult; faces of the creation deity [[Makemake (deity)|Makemake]]; marine animals like turtles, tuna, swordfish, sharks, whales, dolphins, crabs, and octopuses (some with human faces); roosters; canoes, and over 500 {{wikt-lang|rap|komari}} (vulvas). Petroglyphs are often accompanied by carved divots ("cupules") in the rock. Changing traditions are preserved in bas-relief birdmen, which were carved over simpler outline forms and in turn carved over with {{lang|rap|komari}}. Although the petroglyphs cannot be directly dated, some are partially obscured by pre-colonial stone buildings, suggesting they are relatively old.

Several of the anthropomorphic and animal-form petroglyphs have parallels in rongorongo, for instance a double-headed frigatebird [[Image:RR 680.gif|x20px|Rongorongo glyph 680]] (glyph '''680''') on a fallen ''mo{{saltillo}}ai'' topknot, a figure which also appears on a dozen tablets.{{refn|See [https://www.flickr.com/photos/moon_rabbit/2005439344/ image]. Other examples of petroglyphs which resemble rongorongo glyphs can be seen [http://www.saga-photography.de/cei1033-4.php here] and [https://www.flickr.com/photos/8177037@N06/2138358013/sizes/m/ here].|group="note"|name=petroglyph}} McLaughlin (2004) illustrates the most prominent correspondences with the petroglyph corpus of [[Georgia Lee (archaeologist)|Georgia Lee]] (1992).<ref group=note name=petroglyph/> But these are mostly isolated glyphs; few text-like sequences or ligatures have been found among the petroglyphs. This has led to the suggestion that rongorongo must be a recent creation, perhaps inspired by petroglyph designs or retaining individual petroglyphs as [[logogram]]s (Macri 1995), but not old enough to have been incorporated into the petroglyphic tradition. The most complex candidate for petroglyphic rongorongo is what appears to be a short sequence of glyphs, one a ligature, carved on a cave wall. But the sequence does not appear to have been carved in a single hand (see image at right), and the cave is near the house that produced the [[Rongorongo text Z|''Poike'' tablet]], a crude imitation of rongorongo, so the {{lang|rap|Ana o Keke}} petroglyphs may not be authentic.