Rongo Rongo

Rongo rongo, the hieroglyphic script of Easter Island has remained a mystery since its discovery. It has not been deciphered, despite attempts by many linguists, and claims of success by some of them which invariably resulted in ridicule by peer scientists. Just 21 wooden tablets remain of it.

A Hungarian scholar and author of several books, Wilhelm or Guillaume de Hevesy[?], in 1932 called attention to the apparent similarities between some of the rongo-rongo characters of Easter Island and a script from the Indus Valley Civilisation, collating dozens (at least 40) of them with the corresponding signs of the prehistoric script on seals from Mohenjo-daro. This comparison was re-published in later books, for example by Z.A. Simon[?] (1984: 95). The rongo-rongo may mean peace-peace, and their texts may record peace treaty documents, possibly between the long ears and the conquering short ears.

It has also been suggested that rongo-rongo is not a writing system proper but is a genealogical record[?], a calendar, a mnemonic system[?] or a choreography.

External link

• DMoz category (http://dmoz.org/Science/Social_Sciences/Archaeology/Topics/Epigraphy/Rongorongo/)