Rongorongo text I
Encyclopedia
Text I of the rongorongo
corpus, also known as the Santiago Staff, is the longest of the two dozen surviving rongorongo texts. Statistical analysis suggests that its contents are distinct.
(1958). Fischer (1997) refers to it as RR10.
There are reproductions at the Institut für Völkerkunde, Tübingen (prior to 1989); Bishop Museum
, Honolulu; Musées Royaux de Bruxelles, Belgium (as of 2008 temporarily housed in the Musée du Malgré Tout in Treignes); and in Steven Fischer's personal collection in Auckland.
This is widely thought to be one of the finest rongorongo inscriptions. Fischer writes The scribe displays the same expertise as the scribe of side a of "Échancrée", and Barthel that The creator must have been a master of his discipline.
(king). At that point it disappeared, but in 1876 it was given to the director of the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Rudolf Philippi.
This is the only incised kouhau (staff
) that remains, the sole remnant of a corpus once as numerous as the tablets.
(king). When Anacleto Goñi, the commander of the O'Higgins, asked the Rapanui people its significance, he reported that he was,
Pozdniakov (1996:290, 299) notes that the Staff shares short phrases with texts Gv
and T
(or at least Ta), but has nothing in common with the rest of the rongorongo corpus.
The Staff provided the basis of Steven Fischer's attempted decipherment, which is widely known through his book, but which has not been accepted by others in the field. Fischer believes the Staff consists exclusively of creation chants in the form of "all the birds copulated with the fish; there issued forth the sun". The sign which Fischer translates as 'copulate', 76
, a putative phallus, occurs 564 times on the Staff.
Guy (1998) argues that this is untenable, and further that if Butinov and Knorozov are correct about a genealogy on Gv
, then Fischer's putative phallus is a patronymic marker, and the Staff would consist almost entirely of personal names. Fischer's creation chant given above might instead "Son of (bird) was killed", since the fish
was used metaphorically for a war victim. (The kohau îka "lines of fish" rongorongo were lists of persons killed in war.) The Staff would more likely be a list of battles and of their heroes and victims.
counted 2208 legible glyphs, 261 indistinct or partially legible glyphs, and estimated that 35 glyphs had been effaced.
Although the direction of reading has been determined, the point where the text starts has not. Philippi's line numbers were arbitrary, but kept by Barthel. The main asymmetry is that line 12 (Fischer's line 1) is 90 cm long, running three quarters the length of the Staff. The space occupied by lines 12 and 13 is 30 mm wide at the thick end of the staff (at the end of line 12 and beginning of line 13), but only 17 mm wide at the tapered end (at the end of line 13). Past the beginning of line 12, the baseline of line 13 shifts upward, and the glyphs widen to fill in the gap. From that point on, 13 is parallel with line 11 rather than antiparallel as is normally the case for adjacent lines. Fischer took the short line to be the beginning of the text, while Barthel took it to be the end. However, for it to be the end, the author would have had to calculate exactly how long the line would be before inscribing, whereas for it to be the beginning, the author would only have had to indent the first line. The way lines 12 and 13 squeeze together (the glyphs are 12–14 mm high at the thick end of the staff, but only 8–10 mm high at the point line 12 terminates and 13 takes over) is also consistent with these being the last lines engraved.
The Staff is the only rongorongo text inscribed with vertical bar
s (|), 103 of them, which Fischer believes divided the text into sections.
Fischer (1997) writes,
Barthel
Fischer
Fischer renumbered the lines, shifting them by upward by a count of three, with Philippi's line 12 as his line 1. He made at least one obvious error in his transcription, with the very first glyph:
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 Santiago Staff, is the longest of the two dozen surviving rongorongo texts. Statistical analysis suggests that its contents are distinct.
Other names
I is the standard designation, from BarthelThomas 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 RR10.
Location
Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Santiago. Catalog # 5.499 (316).There are reproductions at the Institut für Völkerkunde, Tübingen (prior to 1989); Bishop Museum
Bishop Museum
The Bishop Museum , is a museum of history and science in the historic Kalihi district of Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu...
, Honolulu; Musées Royaux de Bruxelles, Belgium (as of 2008 temporarily housed in the Musée du Malgré Tout in Treignes); and in Steven Fischer's personal collection in Auckland.
Physical description
This beautifully carved, 126-cm long staff is entirely covered with glyphs running along its length. It is round in cross-section, 5.7 cm in diameter at one end and 6.4 cm at the other (per Fischer; length 126.6 cm and circumferences at extremities of 17.1 and 20.0 cm per Bettocchi), and made of unknown wood. It is in good condition, but with some splitting, and it is battered on one side of the thick end, evidently from resting diagonally on the ground when held. There is some pitting just below the start of line 12 (Fischer's line 1), which Fischer believes may be due to corrosion from the sebum of the bearer's thumb.This is widely thought to be one of the finest rongorongo inscriptions. Fischer writes The scribe displays the same expertise as the scribe of side a of "Échancrée", and Barthel that The creator must have been a master of his discipline.
Provenance
The Staff was presented to the officers of the Chilean corvette O'Higgins in 1870 by the French colonist Dutrou-Bornier, who claimed that it had belonged to an ‘arikiAli'i
Alii is a word in the Polynesian language denoting chiefly status in ancient Hawaii and the Samoa Islands. A similar word with the same concept is found in other Polynesian societies. In the Cook Islands, an ariki is a high chief and the House of Ariki is a parliamentary house...
(king). At that point it disappeared, but in 1876 it was given to the director of the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Rudolf Philippi.
This is the only incised kouhau (staff
Staff of office
A staff of office is a staff, the carrying of which often denotes an official's position, a social rank or a degree of social prestige.Apart from the ecclesiastical and ceremonial usages mentioned below, there are less formal usages. A gold- or silver-topped cane can express social standing...
) that remains, the sole remnant of a corpus once as numerous as the tablets.
Contents
Dutrou-Bornier thought that the Staff was a weapon and had belonged to an ‘arikiAli'i
Alii is a word in the Polynesian language denoting chiefly status in ancient Hawaii and the Samoa Islands. A similar word with the same concept is found in other Polynesian societies. In the Cook Islands, an ariki is a high chief and the House of Ariki is a parliamentary house...
(king). When Anacleto Goñi, the commander of the O'Higgins, asked the Rapanui people its significance, he reported that he was,
- shown the sky and the hieroglyphs that [the staff] contained with such respect that I was inclined to believe that these hieroglyphs recalled something sacred. (Philippi 1875:676, translation by Fischer 1997)
Pozdniakov (1996:290, 299) notes that the Staff shares short phrases with texts Gv
Rongorongo text G
Text G of the rongorongo corpus, the smaller of two tablets located in Santiago and therefore also known as the Small Santiago tablet, is one of two dozen surviving rongorongo texts. It may include a short genealogy.-Other names:...
and T
Rongorongo text T
Text T of the rongorongo corpus, also known as Honolulu tablet 1 or Honolulu 3629, is the only fluted tablet in the Honolulu collection and one of two dozen surviving rongorongo texts.-Other names:...
(or at least Ta), but has nothing in common with the rest of the rongorongo corpus.
The Staff provided the basis of Steven Fischer's attempted decipherment, which is widely known through his book, but which has not been accepted by others in the field. Fischer believes the Staff consists exclusively of creation chants in the form of "all the birds copulated with the fish; there issued forth the sun". The sign which Fischer translates as 'copulate', 76
, a putative phallus, occurs 564 times on the Staff.Guy (1998) argues that this is untenable, and further that if Butinov and Knorozov are correct about a genealogy on Gv
Rongorongo text G
Text G of the rongorongo corpus, the smaller of two tablets located in Santiago and therefore also known as the Small Santiago tablet, is one of two dozen surviving rongorongo texts. It may include a short genealogy.-Other names:...
, then Fischer's putative phallus is a patronymic marker, and the Staff would consist almost entirely of personal names. Fischer's creation chant given above might instead "Son of (bird) was killed", since the fish
was used metaphorically for a war victim. (The kohau îka "lines of fish" rongorongo were lists of persons killed in war.) The Staff would more likely be a list of battles and of their heroes and victims.Text
There are thirteen full and one partial line, containing ~ 2,320 glyphs per Fischer. As of April 2008, the CEIPPCEIPP
The C.E.I.P.P., or the Centre d'Etudes sur l'île de Pâques et la Polynésie is a geographic and anthropological group created by André Valenta and Michel-Alain Jumeau.The CEIPP is notable for its members' publications on Easter Island, which include:*Nouveau Regard sur l'île de Pâques, a...
counted 2208 legible glyphs, 261 indistinct or partially legible glyphs, and estimated that 35 glyphs had been effaced.
Although the direction of reading has been determined, the point where the text starts has not. Philippi's line numbers were arbitrary, but kept by Barthel. The main asymmetry is that line 12 (Fischer's line 1) is 90 cm long, running three quarters the length of the Staff. The space occupied by lines 12 and 13 is 30 mm wide at the thick end of the staff (at the end of line 12 and beginning of line 13), but only 17 mm wide at the tapered end (at the end of line 13). Past the beginning of line 12, the baseline of line 13 shifts upward, and the glyphs widen to fill in the gap. From that point on, 13 is parallel with line 11 rather than antiparallel as is normally the case for adjacent lines. Fischer took the short line to be the beginning of the text, while Barthel took it to be the end. However, for it to be the end, the author would have had to calculate exactly how long the line would be before inscribing, whereas for it to be the beginning, the author would only have had to indent the first line. The way lines 12 and 13 squeeze together (the glyphs are 12–14 mm high at the thick end of the staff, but only 8–10 mm high at the point line 12 terminates and 13 takes over) is also consistent with these being the last lines engraved.
The Staff is the only rongorongo text inscribed with vertical bar
Vertical bar
The vertical bar is a character with various uses in mathematics, where it can be used to represent absolute value, among others; in computing and programming and in general typography, as a divider not unlike the interpunct...
s (|), 103 of them, which Fischer believes divided the text into sections.
Fischer (1997) writes,
- Much thin outlining of glyphs, using obsidian flakes, was subsequently covered with other glyphs using a shark's tooth, leaving the traces of the unused outlines.
Barthel
Fischer
Fischer renumbered the lines, shifting them by upward by a count of three, with Philippi's line 12 as his line 1. He made at least one obvious error in his transcription, with the very first glyph: