Text F of the rongorongo

Rongorongo

Rongorongo is a system of glyphs discovered in the 19th century on Easter Island that appears to be writing or proto-writing. It cannot be read despite numerous attempts at decipherment. Although some calendrical and what might prove to be genealogical information has been identified, not even...

corpus, also known as the (Stephen) Chauvet tablet, is one of two dozen surviving rongorongo texts.

Other names

F is the standard designation, from Barthel

Thomas Barthel

Thomas Sylvester Barthel was a German ethnologist and epigrapher who is best known for cataloguing the undeciphered rongorongo script of Easter Island....

 (1958). Fischer (1997) refers to it as RR7.

Location

Sold from the Merton D. Simpson Gallery It is now located in a private collection.

There are no reproductions.

Physical description

A fragment of a rotted tablet of unknown wood, 11.5 × 8 cm.

There is a label on side b that reads: fragment d'une tablette de l'Ile de Pâques Souvenir de Mgr d'Axiéri, reçu en 1892 (a fragment of a tablet from Easter Island. In memory of Msgr. d'Axiéri

Florentin-Étienne Jaussen

Monsignor Florentin-Étienne Jaussen was the first bishop of Tahiti and the man who brought the rongorongo script of Easter Island to the world's attention. In the 1860s Bishop Jaussen was responsible for ending the slave raids on Easter Island.Jaussen was born in Rocles, France...

, received in 1892).

Provenance

The condition of the wood suggests it was found in a cave or other moist environment. Although Jaussen

Florentin-Étienne Jaussen

Monsignor Florentin-Étienne Jaussen was the first bishop of Tahiti and the man who brought the rongorongo script of Easter Island to the world's attention. In the 1860s Bishop Jaussen was responsible for ending the slave raids on Easter Island.Jaussen was born in Rocles, France...

 ("Msgr. d'Axiéri") never mentioned this tablet, and it is not known how or where he acquired it, Thomson noted it during a visit in 1886. Fischer states that it was included in the shipment of Jaussen's effects to the SSCC

Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary

The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and of the Perpetual Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is a Roman Catholic religious order of brothers, priests, and nuns...

 in Paris in 1892, after his death. In 1930 it was traded to Stéphen Chauvet

Stéphen Chauvet

Stéphen-Charles Chauvet , more commonly known as Dr Stéphen Chauvet, was the author of the first illustrated compendium of information about Easter Island, L'Île de Pâques et ses mystères, published in Paris in 1935....

. Chauvet died in 1950; its location until Arman

Arman

Arman was a French-born American artist. Born Armand Pierre Fernandez in Nice, France, Arman is a painter who moved from using the objects as paintbrushes to using them as the painting itself...

 acquired it c. 1990 is unknown. After Arman's death in 2005 it passed to the private Merton Simpson gallery.

Several scholars, such as Guy, have doubts as to the authenticity of this tablet. However, Fischer believes it to be authentic based on "its provenance, glyphic morphology, and sequences shared with other tablets".

Text

There are six lines of glyphs on each side, though two of those on side b are effaced. Of the ~ 55 glyphs, many are only partly preserved. The label on side b covers a part of the inscription which has never been transcribed. The crude quality of the carving is similar to that of tablet Y

Rongorongo text Y

Text Y of the rongorongo corpus, known as the Paris Snuff Box, is one of two dozen surviving rongorongo texts.-Other names:Y is the standard designation, continuing from Barthel...

.

Barthel

Side a, as traced by Barthel. The lines have been rearranged to reflect English reading order: Fa1 at top, Fa5 at bottom.

Fischer