rongorongo explained

Title: Rongorongo Explained 1

Abstract

Rongorongo is a system of hieroglyphic writing inscribed on wooden

tablets discovered on Easter Island in 1864. Even though transcripts on

some of the Rongorongo tablets performed by native islanders such as

Metoro Tau‘a Ure and Ure Vae Iko exist, no successful understanding

of the Rongorongo system has been accomplished. The primary

intention of this paper is to provide a comprehensible method that

sheds light on the understanding of the Rongorongo writing system,

called crustography. It is also pointed out that a specific hieroglyph

found on Santiago Staff tablet and its several variations strongly

suggests that Easter Island could have been known to and related with

countries located in northern eastern Asia such as China, Korea and

even Japan. Finally, a full interpretation of the Rongorongo transcript

of the Échancrée and Great Washington tablets left by Ure Vae Iko

will be presented. Based on the interpretation, it also is pointed out

how the Rongorongo script can be associated with the Indus Valley

corpus.

1. Rongorongo script

Since the discovery of Rongorongo scripts that are inscribed on

wooden tablets, many researchers have been debating the writing system for

decades [6]. From researchers who believe that Rongorongo is a valid writing

system, numerous attempts to explain the system of Rongorongo have been

made based on structural analysis [1,4,5]. Nevertheless, none of the attempts

appears to be successful in explaining the whole structure of the Rongorongo

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scripts. The basic idea of structural analysis is based on the observation that a

similar composition of a hieroglyphic passage or text tends to be repeatedly

found across tablets. In Section 1.2, a systematic approach called crustography

to explain the nature of repeating hieroglyphic passages is introduced.

1.1 The clue hidden in plain sight

Fig 1 shows the last seven glyphs of Ev8, i.e. the 8th line on the

obverse side of the Keiti tablet. Metoro’s transcript for these glyphs is ‘mama

mamae hia – ka maramarama – mama mamae hia – e hoea – ihe

mama ia’.

Figure 1 Last 7 glyphs on the obverse of the Keiti tablet

As Barthel pointed out, the right reading direction of the script is marked as A,

but Metoro read it backward in the direction of B. The inconsistent choice of

reading direction made Barthel doubt the credibility of Metoro’s transcript,

and people who agreed with Barthel would not have been willing to pay a

second look at his transcript.

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Unfortunately, it is unknown how exactly Metoro’s transcript is divided and

assigned to each glyph. As can be seen in Fig 1, three out of five glyphs at the

end have an identical design, and this means that it is highly likely that the

same word or words in the transcript would be assigned to them. For example,

the same words of mama mamae hia can be assigned to G3 and G5, except

G1. The word that G1 has is only mama, and mamae hia is missing in the

trailing transcript. Even though glyph G1 is the same as both G3 and G5,

Metoro did not assign mamae hia to it. If he did not make a mistake, this

suggests that the sound value for G1, G3 and G5 should be mama, and the

extra words mamae hia assigned to G3 and G5 need to be addressed

differently. Then, where did those two words come from? The answer to that

question can be found by trying to understand the meaning of those words.

In Maori-Polynesian (MP) [8], the meaning of mamae is ‘in pain’, and mama

means ‘to lighten pain’. With hia as ‘to wish for’, mama mamae hia of G5

is interpreted as ‘to wish for relieving pain’. maramarama of G4 means

‘somewhat light’. In a way, both mama and mamamarama share a similar

meaning, ‘to ease’, that is from mama. When maramarama is regarded as a

combined word, i.e. mara+marama, it is interpreted as ‘to kill the pain of a

splinter’ where the meaning for mara and marama are taken as ‘to kill’ and

‘splinter’ respectively. By taking the individual interpretation of G5 and G4

together, a conclusion can be drawn that Metoro had looked up the following

glyph, G4, ahead before he transcribed glyph G5. In other words, if he did not

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look up the following glyph, he would not have assigned any extra words to

glyph G5, and the word assigned to glyph G5 should have been single word,

mama, just as done with glyph G1. The meaning of hoea is unknown. When

hoea is regarded as hoe+a, hoe means ‘to push away with the hands’, and a

means ‘the collar-bone’. By taking both meanings together with ihe,

however, e hoea ihe is interpreted as ‘to push away a fish bone’. If a fish

bone as a splinter is regarded as the source of the pain, then the origination of

mamae hia assigned to glyph G3 is accounted for, and the use of both words

evidently came from glyph G2. The script from G5 to G1 is interpreted as ‘to

pull out a fish bone with difficulty wishing to relieve the pain’.

Obviously, the five glyphs illustrated in Fig 1 show how a Rongorongo

sentence can be composed in a crust structure. A Rongorongo sentence starts

with a glyph, and the same glyph is used at the end. G5 is called the opening

glyph of the crust, and G1 is the closing glyph. The same glyph used in the

middle of the crust is called a relaying glyph. Glyph G4 is a text glyph that is

associated with G5, and G2 is the text glyph for G3. In other words, G4

contributed to the transcription for G5 not for G3. The extra words mamae

hia for G5 came from G4. The absence of mamae hia for G1 indicates that

G1 does not have a text glyph, and it is the end of the crust.

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1.2 Defining crustography

A crust is defined as a structured form of a Rongorongo hieroglyphic

segment, and crustography is a writing system of Rongorongo crusts. The

following are the summarized basic rules of crustography, and they are applied

to all Rongorongo scripts.

(1) Within a crust, there are two types of glyphs. One is a crust glyph,

and the other is a text glyph. The same text glyph in one crust can be

used as the crust glyph in another crust.

(2) A crust starts and ends with crust glyphs. The same crust glyph used

in the middle of a crust is called a relaying glyph. If a crust glyph is

being used as text glyph, it should take a modified design from the

original form.

(3) When a crust glyph is being read, the following text glyphs are

looked up ahead and contribute to its transcription.

(4) A crust band is defined as a group of glyphs banded together that is

used to start and end a crust. A relaying band is a crust band used in

the middle of a crust.

(5) A crust can be embedded as a text segment in another crust.

There are some variations of the basic rules, but it will be shown with some

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examples that the same principle of crustography can be applied consistently.

Figure 2 A 3-glyph crust from Cb2 of the Mamari tablet

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Fig 2(a) shows a three-glyph crust from the second line on the obverse side of

the Mamari tablet. On the right side, Metoro’s transcript for the crust is listed.

Glyph G1 in Fig 2(a) is the opening crust glyph. Glyph G2 becomes the

closing glyph even though it has an extra partial glyph resembling a piece of

barbed wire that protrudes on the upper right corner of G2 and bends

downward to the ground. According to the definition of crustography, the

crust formation of Fig 2(a) can be considered equivalent to the one shown in

Fig 2(b). If Fig 2(b) were the case, the transcript would have ended with te

honu. Since glyph T2 was combined into G2 and glyph G3 does not exist at

the end, glyph G2 is regarded as the closing glyph of this crust. This example

shows that a crust glyph does not have to be of exactly the same design as long

as each crust glyph shares the same core element. In this case, the shared core

element is glyph G1.

Figure 3 A 3-glyph crust from Cb10 of the Mamari tablet

Fig 3(b) is a three-glyph crust taken from Cb10, the 10th line on the obverse

side of the Mamari tablet. Each glyph consisting of a crust is a composite

glyph. The left half of each glyph is the same and only the right halves are

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different from each other. There are no text glyphs in-between crust glyphs. In

Metoro’s transcript, the sound value for core element G is hau as shown in

Fig 3(c). Both prefixes ka ha- and ku ha- added to hau for G1 and G2 are

from the reading ahead nature of the Rongorongo transcript. This strongly

suggests that hahau can be handled as ha+hau. In Maori-Polynesian, the

meaning of ha is ‘four, to breathe’ and hau means ‘rope, thread’. One of

many probable interpretations for hahau is ‘four ropes’. When ha is

regarded as ‘to breathe’, another probable interpretation could be ‘to take a

breath over a rope’, and this indicates ‘the action of pulling ropes’. If both

interpretations can be applied together, hahau is interpreted as ‘to pull four

ropes’. The sound value of glyph X, resembling a hand, is rima, which

means ‘the hand, fingers, fifth, five’. The transcript for G1 is the combined

reading of G and X. It is obvious that the transcript of G2 gives a different

result as shown in Fig 3(c), and the sound value for glyph Y is ahi, which

means ‘fire’ or ‘light’. The sound value for the last glyph, Z, is kihikihi.

Fig 3(d) illustrates the transcript for G3 rearranged over two parallel lines.

Some spaces were inserted so that e and te can take the same column

position on each line. Such a parallel arrangement of a transcript is one of the

many other characteristics that can be found in Metoro’s transcript. The crust

example shown in Fig 3(b) is a generalized form of the crust shown in Fig 2(a).

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Figure 4 A crust from Bv3-4 of the Aruku Kurenga tablet

Fig 4 illustrates a crust from the obverse side of the Aruku Kurenga tablet.

Glyph A2 in Fig 4(d) is the last glyph of the 3rd line. Glyph H is the starting

glyph of Bv4, the 4th line. This crust starts with G1 and ends with G2. Both G1

and G2 are the crust glyphs. As can be seen, there is no other crust glyph and

the script in-between G1 and G2 is a text. Then, the text segment can be

further divided into three smaller crusts as illustrated in Fig 4(e). It is

relatively easy to identify three glyphs from E1 to E3 as a crust since it is the

same type of crust shown in Fig 3(b).

Identifying a crust in the middle of a text segment is rather complicated. The

core element of B1 and B2 is the open hand on the left side. The core element

of B2, C1 and C2 is the barbed wire on the right side. The B and C glyphs are

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based on different core elements, and they are regarded as two different crusts.

Even though they are two different crusts, the middle part of glyph B2

combines them into a larger crust. In other words, the glyphs from B1 to C2

form a composite crust. Glyph D corresponds to the right half of B1 and glyph

H to the right half of C1. Finally, the middle crust starts from glyph H and

ends at glyph D.

The three glyphs ahead of glyph H form another crust where the core element

is the right half of A1. It has one text glyph in-between A1 and A2. The crust

structure of Fig 4(a) shows that a crust can be nested into another crust as a

text segment. The sound value of the barbed wire on glyph C2 is maro as in

Fig 2(a).

Figure 5 Lunar calendar crust of the Mamari tablet

Fig 5 illustrates the well-known lunar calendar crust. It is located on the front

side of the Mamari tablet and Barthel named it the lunar calendar. According

to Barthel, it starts from glyph S and ends at glyph E. The lunar calendar crust

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was identified based on the count of moon glyphs, and many researchers agree

with the idea that the passage represents a cycle of moon phases. From the

perspective of structural analysis, however, the segmentation of the lunar

calendar crust is mistaken, and it is a part of a larger crust.

Figure 6 Barthel’s lunar calendar crust nested in a super crust

A crust band is a group of glyphs that opens and closes a crust as illustrated in

Fig 6. According to the definition of crustography, there is no limitation on

how many glyphs a crust band can contain. The lunar calendar crust is actually

formed by eight crust bands. Each crust band consists of five glyphs, except

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for the first relaying band, which has only three glyphs out of five. There are

seven text segments in-between crust bands. It is noted that the direction of the

moon glyphs in the crust bands is opposite to the direction of the moon glyphs

in text segments. The reason why they face opposite directions will be

explained later.

The last five glyphs of Barthel’s lunar calendar are not part of the crust. The

start of the crust is the same as Barthel’s, but the last glyph, F, of the crust is

different from Barthel’s classification. In addition to this, the lunar calendar

crust is nested in a bigger crust. The trailing three glyphs after glyph F are the

closing band of the super crust. In-between the opening crust band and the

lunar calendar, there are one text segment and three more crusts.

Figure 7 A crust of the Great Washington tablet

Fig 7 illustrates a crust taken from the Great Washington tablet. From a

structural point of view, the basic element of the Rongorongo script is a crust.

A crust is formed with text segments separated by crust glyphs or bands.

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When a glyph or a band of glyphs is repeatedly used, they are classified into a

crust glyph or band. The key principle to use the same glyphs in a crust. One

exceptional case has been found regarding crust band formation, and Fig 8

shows how sophisticated Rongorongo script writing could get.

Figure 8 Identical structure of crust bands

When closely examined, it can be seen that the opening band can actually be

classified as a crust. This applies to all the other crust bands. The reason why

they are classified as crust bands is that the same composition rule is

repeatedly used for each crust. In the opening band, glyph A1 is a crust glyph,

and it is used three times. In the next relaying band, a different glyph B1 is

used as a crust glyph and it repeats three times, just like the opening band. The

same rule applies to the remaining crust bands. Based on this example, two

types of crustograms are defined.

• Abstract Type I: A crust glyph or crust band is repeatedly used to form

a crust.

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Most Rongorongo scripts are categorized into the Abstract Type-I definition of

crust writing.

• Abstract Type II: The structure of a crust is repeatedly used to form a

crust. The repeating structure does not have to be based on the same

crust glyphs.

The crust shown in Fig 7 belongs to this type. It is really rare but exists.

The crustography proposed in this paper indicates a system that can explain

how the Rongorongo script was written. Within a limited space, various

examples of crusts have been presented to explain the effectiveness of

crustography in detail. Especially, the example shown in Fig 7 demonstrates

how sophisticated the system Rongorongo actually is. It also should be pointed

out that crustography does not state how to read the Rongorongo script.

1.3 An ancient form of information technology

We are now living in the digital age represented by computers and the

Internet. The invention of computers or personal computing devices equipped

with communication capabilities has made it possible to advance modern

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information technology so that everyone around the globe becomes capable of

communicating with each other through a computerized data network from

anywhere at any time. Digital information is represented in a binary form of

data that is based on 0s and 1s. On the bottom level of the data communication

network, various routing devices consisting of the backbone encapsulate

information into packets and make sure those packets are delivered to a final

destination point at a remote location. In other words, any length of

information can be divided into any number of smaller data packets. Each data

packet is then encapsulated in a structured form in which the start and end of

information can be defined.

Computers transform information such as text, picture, sound or movies into a

digital form of data. All digital data are finally represented as a sequence of

binary numbers. In modern data communication technology, a sequence of

binary numbers, i.e. bits, are grouped into a sequence of bytes. A byte consists

of eight bits. A sequence of bytes is then segmented and encapsulated into a

packet for ease of transmission. A routing device marks the start and end of a

packet by adding a special control byte called a flag [7]. The flag has a fixed

value: 127 as a decimal number, 0x7E or 7E as a hexadecimal number and

01111110 as a binary number. When a flag is encountered in a data packet, the

receiving device interprets it as the start or end of the information being

delivered. The introduction of a dedicated control flag requires some kind of

escape mechanism with which the flag value as data can be discriminated and

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handled differently from the control flag. For example, the escaping

mechanism replaces a data byte of 7E with two control bytes, 7D and 5E. In

turn, the data byte of 7D is replaced with 7D and 5D. This escaping method

ensures that no data byte of 7E is found in a data packet. By using control

flags, any length of information is encapsulated into a data segment, and even

multiple segments can be contained in the same data packet. When two

segments are concatenated together, the flag at the start of the latter segment is

spared since the flag of the former segment is regarded as the start of the

segment.

If the 7E flag of a data packet is substituted with a hieroglyph, a Rongorongo

version of a data packet or hieroglyphic text can be obtained. In the

Rongorongo script, the framing method of digital information is transformed

into the crust of Abstract Type-I definition. As the 7E flag is replaced with 7D

and 5E, any glyph of a text segment that is also used as a crust glyph should

escape in order to not be mistaken otherwise. This is the reason why the moon

glyph used in the text segment of the lunar calendar crust is represented in the

opposite direction in the crust bands.

When a data packet is received by an information device at a destination, the

data enclosed in-between 7E flags are separated from the packet and inspected

to replace the sequence of 7D and 5E with 7E. The sequence of 7D and 5D is

replaced with 7D. Information contained in-between 7E flags should be

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looked up ahead for the detection of escaped sequences before reconstructing

the original data. In the Rongorongo script, all crust glyphs or bands should be

looked up ahead before identifying text segments. Metoro looked up the next

glyphs in a text segment before reading a crust glyph as explained with Fig 1.

When closely examining Rongorongo tablets, each script has been written in

well-defined crusts. Each crust in a given script follows the definition of

crustographic structure. Since every tablet script ends with a crust, no

excessive glyphs are found after the end crust of a script. The benefit of

crustographic analysis is that it can be used to determine where the script starts

and ends. For the script of the Santiago staff, two different opinions on the

reading order of the script exist since it is inscribed on a round staff. When the

crustographic segmentation technique is applied to the script, the reading order

of any script can be decided deterministically. When a crust on one line starts

with an opening crust band, the line with its closing crust band is the next one

to read.

2. Rongorongo transcript

Crustography is a method to explain the writing system of the

Rongorongo hieroglyphic script. Unfortunately, it does not dictate how to read

or transcribe the Rongorongo script. Only two natives of Easter Island, Metoro

Tau‘a Ure and Ure Vae Iko, left Rongorongo transcripts written in Rapa Nui

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words. Once the meaning of Rapa Nui words is known, an interpretation can

be made. Nevertheless, most Rapa Nui words used in their transcripts have

already been forgotten; no successful interpretation has been proposed, and the

story of the Rongorongo scripts still remain unknown. In Section 2.2, an

attempt to find ways to recover forgotten Rapa Nui words will be presented so

that a plausible interpretation can be made.

2.1 Mapping a crust into its transcript

Fig 9 illustrates a crust in Br4 of the Aruku Kurenga tablet. The

following is Metoro’s transcript for the crust. For demonstration purposes, the

original transcript has been edited with intentional spaces between words and

the lines have been numbered.

Figure 9 A crust in the 4th line on the retro side of the Aruku Kurenga tablet

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Figure 10 Metoro’s transcript edited

As shown in Fig 10, the alignment of a transcript segment with its matching

crust is a process of identifying the sound value of a Rongorongo glyph in the

transcript. For example, it is safe to say that the sound value of glyphs A5, B5

and T2, resembling a barbed wire is hikihiki as shown in Fig 3. The sound

value of glyphs G1 and G2 would be huki. In Rapa Nui, huki means

‘digging stick, pole attached to the stern of a ship from which a fishing net is

suspended’. Based on its shape, glyph G1 depicts a stick with a bent top as a

hook. Overall, the segment of the transcript in Fig 10 matches the crust in Fig

9.

The opening glyph of the crust is G1, and G2 is the closing glyph. The two

trailing glyphs after G2 are regarded as a tail to the crust. The two leading

glyphs, H1 and H2, are regarded as the header to the crust. It is not shown

here, but the glyph in front of H1 is the closing glyph of the previous crust.

This indicates that both glyphs H1 and H2 belong to the crust that starts with

G1.

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Figure 11 Crossover arrangement of Metoro’s transcript

Compared to the fairly well-defined structure of the crust, its transcript shown

in Fig 10 looks disordered and even like gibberish without any meaning

behind it. Nevertheless the structure embedded in Metoro’s transcript can be

revealed when the lines are shuffled around as illustrated in Fig 11. In this

arrangement, lines L2, L6 and L10 are brought together and bundled in a

group at the word toki. The transfixing words for lines L3, L7 and L11 are

pua, oho and kihikihi. The resulting arrangement shows that there is a

highly defined format within the transcript. Even though the original transcript

looks like gibberish, the story contained within it is not. After all, the

transcript was not made to make it easy to understand the story, but it was

arranged to follow the structure of the crust. Rearranging Metoro’s transcript

in such a way as illustrated in Fig 11 can help reveal the seemingly ordered

lines of the story.

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Figure 12 Four possible ways of transcript mapping

In Fig 12, four possible combinations of transcript mapping onto the

Rongorongo script are illustrated. Fig 12(a) is the 5-glyph crust shown above

in Fig 1 with Metoro’s transcript next to it. It shows that the repetitive use of

the word mama in the transcript follows the order of appearance of its

corresponding crust glyph. Both the crust and its transcript are parallel in a

way. In the example of Fig 12(b), the transcript seems to lack the repetitive

characteristics of crust glyphs, and it does not run parallel to its crust structure.

On the contrary to Fig 12(b), the transcript shown in Fig 12(c) seems to

indicate a well-structured crust from the repetitive use of the word ia, but

these four glyphs are not regarded as a crust. In Fig 12(d), both the crust and

its transcript are not structured. In other words, the transcript goes parallel to

its crust. Since there is no repeating glyph, there is no repeating word in the

transcript.

Two among four combinations of mapping are ordered, but the other two

cases do not look related. Evidently, it is very difficult to identify when to read

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a crust in an orderly way and when not to based on the analysis presented in

Fig 12. Maybe the ordinary ways of transcribing the Rongorongo script would

be either Fig 12(a) or Fig 12(d). As long as the transcriber keeps the story

straight within his work, it can be accepted to transcribe scripts in the ways of

Figs 12(b) and 12(c) whether the script is structured or not. In other words,

how to read the Rongorongo scripts would be the choice of the transcriber

based on the way that he remembered the story.

2.2 Rapa Nui words

The Rongorongo transcripts left by both Metoro Tau‘a Ure and Ure

Vae Iko, natives of Easter Island, are written in Rapa Nui words. Rapa Nui is

the language used in Easter Island and it is of the Maori-Polynesian family.

Even though the transcripts are written in Rapa Nui, their stories still remain

as mysteries since many Rapa Nui words used in the transcripts have lost their

meaning. It will be shown that the meaning of some Rapa Nui words can be

recovered.

For example, there is a Rapa Nui word tauuru, which was used by Metoro

in the transcript of the Aruku Kurenga tablet. The meaning of tauuru in the

transcript is unknown since there is no reference in Rapa Nui. When tauuru

is divided into two words, tau and uru, the meaning of each word in Rapa

Nui is ‘rock on the coast, to look in another direction’ and ‘the West, the

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head’ respectively. If both tau and uru can be combined into tauuru and

their own meaning is preserved with them, the word tauuru can be

interpreted as ‘the head that looks in another direction’ or ‘the rock head on

the west coast that looks in another direction’.

Figure 13 Tauuru, the rock head on the west promontory

Fig 13 shows a photograph taken from a satellite in space of an area in the

west promontory of Easter Island. A profile of a young man’s face on the cliff

can be identified within the circle. The finding of the exact face in the exact

area indicated by the meaning of tauuru tells us that there is a way to

recover the meaning of forgotten Rapa Nui words. When a forgotten Rapa Nui

word is divided into other known smaller words, the combined meaning of the

split words can represent the whole word. If a split word does not have any

reference in Rapa Nui, then it will be sought from the Maori-Polynesian

languages. It also is true that this technique might not always be able to

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produce comprehensible results, but it is better than nothing.

Figure 14 The head of a turtle above tauuru

For another example, there are the words nuku honu in the Aruku Kurenga

transcript as illustrated in Fig 14. Both words have a reference in Rapa Nui.

nuku means ‘ground, land’ and honu ‘turtle’. It can be interpreted as ‘the

land of the turtle’. The translation of nuku honu seems meaningful and

might even be mythical to a certain extent. Surprisingly, it actually refers to a

physical location on Easter Island.

The aerial picture of a rock resembling a turtle’s head right above tauuru

can be identified in the circle. Based on the revelation of honu, the meaning

of nuku honu is ‘the rock of the turtle head’, and it indicates the area where

the rock is located. The revelations of the physical reference of tauuru and

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nuku honu suggest that the story written in the Aruku Kurenga transcript

might not be so mythical but rather be earthly. It is very interesting to realize

that both the profiles of a man’s face and a turtle’s head on the cliff only can

be identified from the sky and in the shadow of the sun at a certain time of a

day, and yet there is no elevated place in front of them out on the sea.

Figure 15 Chinese letter of a sacred mask

On the right side of Fig 15, a Rongorongo glyph from the Santiago Staff tablet

is presented. On the left side, there is an ancient Chinese letter indicating a

sacred mask [9]. The Rongorongo glyph and the Chinese letter are not

identical, but they have common characteristics in their design. Some

variations of glyph G1 are also found in other Rongorongo tablets. The sacred

mask was used in a ritual to expel demons and it is called Fang Xiang Shi (方

相氏) in Chinese, Ho So Si (ほうそうし) in Japanese, and Bang Sang Si

(방상씨) in Korean. In Japan, the ritual, also called Oniyarai (追儺), was held

on a special day in the palace as an annual ceremony. During that ceremony,

the mask of Fang Xiang Shi was put on the face of a performer. The ritual is

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known to have originated from China, but similar traditional rituals or regional

ceremonies are also found in both Korea and Japan as well. It was not until the

1860s that the existence of the Santiago Staff became know outside of Easter

Island, and yet a kind of traditional ritual using a sacred mask that shares a

remarkable resemblance has existed in northeast Asia. The Chinese letter of

the sacred mask strongly suggests possible links of Rongorongo to countries in

northeast Asia.

Figure 16 Refrain of a Korean traditional song called Arirang

Arirang is the name of a traditional song in Korea and there are many regional

variations in the country. Each Arirang song has different lyrics, but every

song has a commonly used refrain as illustrated in Fig 16. There are many

theories on the true meaning of words, such as arirang, arario, suri,

and surirang, but none of them has been widely accepted. If these words

were considered as sharing the same root of Maori-Polynesian (MP), including

Rapa Nui, arirang can be regarded as ari+rang(i). In MP, ari means

‘the 11th moon phase, to transport’ and rangi means ‘the sky, the great

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father of men’. Arirang can be interpreted as ‘the sky of the great father on

the 11th moon phase’. When arario is divided into ara+ri+o, it is

interpreted as ‘to get in the sacred path’ where ara means ‘road, path, ladder,

to rise up’, ri ‘a sacred mark’ and o ‘to get in, of, belong to’.

In 1932, an article was published claiming a relationship between Rongorongo

and the Indus Valley script based on similarities of hieroglyphic design [2].

When Sanskrit takes a role in the recovery of forgotten Rapa Nui words, some

of the words in the refrain of the Arirang song can be explained. In Sanskrit,

arari means ‘aero, via air’. In the refrain of the Arirang song, arario is

parallel to or paraphrased with ‘고개로 넘어간다(go over the path of a hill)’.

In MP, arirang and arario can be interpreted as ‘go over the sacred path

in the sky of the great father on the 11th moon phase’. For the word suri,

there is no reference found in MP. Nonetheless, it means ‘chief, sage, path,

course’ in Sanskrit. If surirang is regarded as suri+rang(i), it can be

interpreted as ‘the sky of the sage’. In MP, uri means ‘offspring,

descendants, a relative, a connection by blood’. If both suri and uri are

regarded as having the same root, the meaning of (s)uri+rang(i) is ‘the sky

of the descendant sage’. Based on the accounts presented here, arirang

indicates ‘the sky of the great father’ and surirang indicates ‘the sky of the

descendants’. Arario suggests the traveling of people from the sky of the

great father to the sky of the offspring via the air. If the land of the great father

indicates the Indus Valley, Easter Island would be the land of the offspring.

Milton Kim


The link between the Indus Valley and Easter Island can be found in the

refrain of the Arirang song.

In the transcript of the Aruku Kurenga tablet, Metoro used many Rapa Nui

words with the suffix (n)ga. For example, kurenga is one, and its meaning

is forgotten. In MP, kure and nga mean ‘to cry like a sea-gull, a great

talker’ and ‘to breathe’ respectively. In Korean, ga means ‘song, person,

worker, house, residence’. In Korean-Chinese, ga for a song is 歌, ga for a

person is 家 and ga for a house is 家. Singing a song requires control of

breathing. The panting of a worker is a result of physical labor. The meaning

of aruku kurenga is ‘a song about the deity that moved swiftly’ where

a+ruku and kure+nga mean ‘the Deity that moves swiftly’ and ‘a song’. As

another example, hihoga is regarded as hi+ho+ga where ga indicates a

person. Hihoga is interpreted as ‘the person who is tugging away with a hook

and line’ where hi and ho mean ‘to catch with a hook and line and hoist’ and

‘to carry away and transport’ respectively.

Milton Kim


Figure 17 Chinese letter depicting nuku honu

In Chinese, the letter 龜 means turtle, tortoise or the name of a land. On the

bottom of Fig 17, Chinese letters meaning a turtle are presented. The letter on

the left is old Chinese, and one can see that it generally takes after the image

of a turtle. There are parts in the letter indicating the head, legs, tail and shell.

The part that cannot be found on a real turtle is the shoulder in a rectangular

shape above the shell. If the letter took after the landscape of Easter Island, the

shoulder part can be explained. As illustrated in Fig 14, nuku honu looks

like the head of a turtle. Rano Kau Volcano indicates the shell of a turtle. The

rectangular shaped open land right above nuku honu in front of Orongo

ruin indicates the shoulder part. When a turtle’s legs are placed together with

the shell, they become the old Chinese letter for a turtle. In the Indus Valley

script, a hieroglyph consisting of a turtle’s legs and shell can be found. If the

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Indus Valley and Rongorongo glyphs are considered as related, the Indus

Valley glyph shown in Fig 17 indicates the area of nuku honu on Easter

Island.

Figure 18 Chinese letters for manu and vaha

In the transcript of the Aruku Kurenga tablet, manu refers to ‘the Deity, a

bird’, and there are two different glyphs for manu as presented in Fig 18. The

only difference between the two glyphs is the eye in the head. One has an eye

and the other does not. In Chinese, there are two different letters for a bird.

One refers to a bird in general, and the other means a crow. The glyph for

manu with an eye is paired up with the Chinese letter for a bird. The glyph for

manu without an eye is paired up with the Chinese letter for a crow. The

sound value of the glyph on the right side of Fig 18 is vaha, and it means ‘a

mouth, an opening’. The Chinese letter that resembles vaha is 水 and it

means water. Both the Chinese letter and the Rongorongo glyph depict water

pouring out of an opening.

Milton Kim


Figure 19 Chinese letter for tuu

On the right side of Fig 19, the Rongorongo glyph and Chinese letter for sky

are presented. The sound value of the Rongorongo glyph is ragi or rangi.

On the same position as the Chinese letter, the Rongorongo glyph has two

horns on the top. The glyph of ragi with a raised hand was read as ‘ka tuu

i te ragi’ in the Aruku Kurenga transcript, and it can be interpreted as ‘as

soon as set free in the sky’. Tuu means ‘to let go, to deliver, to set free’. The

meaning of the Chinese letter for sky with a hand is ‘pull, push’. Both have

similar meanings, and it is acceptable to interpret ka tuu as ‘as soon as being

pulled (in the sky)’.

Figure 20 The Chinese letter for wife indicates a specific place on Easter Island

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Associating a Rongorongo glyph with a landscape feature of Easter Island is

not new. Fig 20 illustrates a Rongorongo glyph taken from the landscape of

the hills indicated by rapue on the northeast coastline of Easter Island. When

rapue is regarded as ra+pue, it means ‘a heap of earth on the east’. A

satellite photograph shows the geological location of three circular hills. Two

of them still reserve their round shapes, but the hill on the top has been

corroded so severely that only a small remnant of it hints at its original circular

shape. In Rongorongo scripts, the glyph of two circles is interchangeably used

with the glyph with three circles, and its sound value is maitaki, which

means ‘the favorite wife’. The Chinese letter for rapue is 串, and it means

‘the name of a land’. The Chinese letter for the Rongorongo glyph of ‘koe ki

to maitaki’ is 侶, and its meaning is ‘wife’.

Figure 21 The Chinese letter for kavahaa

In the Aruku Kurenga transcript, the glyph shown in Fig 21 is read as ‘te ahi

i te kavahaa’. The glyph can be divided into two, and the first was referred

to as vaha earlier in Fig 18. It also means that kavahaa can be regarded as

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ka+vaha+a. The sound value of the glyph on top of vaha is ahi and it

means ‘fire, light’. The transcript can be interpreted as ‘(water was poured

out) as soon as a light was put on the top of the opening’. The Chinese letter

that has the same composition of the Rongorongo glyph is 泉, and it means

‘water spring’. Again, a Chinese letter with the same composition as a

Rongorongo glyph is found, and they have a similar meaning.

Figure 22 The Chinese letter for mountain [3]

Easter Island has three volcanoes, and Terevaka Volcano in the middle is the

highest. The volcanoes on both sides are about the same height. The Chinese

letter for mountain depicts the three volcanoes of Easter Island as illustrated in

Fig 22. Indus Valley scripts also have hieroglyphs depicting the three

volcanoes.

Milton Kim


Figure 23 Chinese letter for manu (a bird)

As can be seen in Fig 23, the Chinese letter for manu does not take after the

shape of a bird except for four strokes on the bottom, two strokes for wings

and the other two for legs. They could be something other than wings and legs.

Either way, the letter itself can be divided into three parts. L1 in Chinese

means ‘white’. L2 depicts the ledge of the nuku honu area. L3 indicates

haga, which means ‘four persons’ where ha is ‘four’ and ga is ‘a person’.

This suggests that the Chinese letter for manu does not depict a bird but

indicates the area where people were waiting for a deity. Ahi also indicates

that the deity arrived on the island at night, so a light was needed.

Figure 24 The Chinese letter for island

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At the top left of Fig 24, the Chinese letter for island is illustrated. It depicts a

bird sitting on a mountain. If L2 depicts the three volcanoes of Rapa Nui, then

Easter Island should be the one referred to by L3. When L3 depicts ‘a bird or

a deity coming to the island’, L6 can be regarded as ‘the hand of a person

waiting for the deity coming to the island’. The meaning of L6 is ‘pound, hit’.

In the Aruku Kurenga transcript, there is a passage that reads ‘ka vero ia

ki te hua’. Ia indicates the deity and vero means ‘to throw a spear, to

hurl’. L6 depicts the passage of vero in the transcript.

Earlier in the Section 2.1, it was demonstrated how the Rongorongo script can

be mapped into Rongorongo transcript. It does not show that there is always a

deterministic pattern of transcription but suggests that the transcriber should

acquire prior knowledge of the story so that he or she can choose a better way

to tell it from the script. It is fortunate that Rongorongo transcripts are written

in the Rapa Nui language even though the meaning of many words has already

been forgotten. A split-and-merge technique to recover the forgotten meaning

of a Rapa Nui word has been presented. As an example, it was shown how the

meaning of tauuru can be recovered. The finding of a sacred mask glyph in

an old Chinese letter led us to how Chinese and Korean languages can be used

to understand the Rongorongo script and interpret its transcript. In Section 3, a

full interpretation of two Rongorongo transcripts left by Ure Vae Iko will be

presented.

Milton Kim


3. Interpretation of Rongorongo transcripts

In order to demonstrate the theories presented above, the interpretation

of all Rongorongo transcripts of the Échancrée and Great Washington tablets

left by Ure Vae Iko will be presented.

Figure 25 Line numbered transcript of the Échancrée tablet

3.1 The Échancrée tablet

Fig 25 illustrates the transcript arranged into three paragraphs, and

each line was assigned a number. It was formatted in the way illustrated in Fig

10. In this case, there was no need to rearrange the number sequence as in Fig

11. As can be seen in the first paragraph, line L1 almost repeats itself in line

L2. Only a few words are different. Within the second paragraph, four words

of ‘viviri rai inage o’ are repeated, and the text is put in a structured

form. The pattern that can be found in the third paragraph is ‘e ~ auwe

poki’. Each paragraph shown in Fig 25 has its own pattern of words.

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3.1.1 L1 and L2

In Samoan, uiga means ‘the way of acting’. When uiga is regarded

as ui+ga, it is interpreted as ‘to call (servants) to come for labor, or servants

who had been called in for labor’ where ui means ‘a call for visitors to come’,

and ga is regarded as ‘worker, servant’ as in the Korean reference explained

earlier. ‘Ka ihi uiga’ is interpreted as ‘the imperative or instruction for

servants who had been called in to split the way of action’ or ‘to instruct

servants who had been called in to split into groups of different objectives’

where ihi means ‘to split, to divide’. In MP, ati means descendant. When

ati is regarded as a+ti, it is interpreted as ‘to bend down the collar-bone of

a deity’. Altogether, te ki ati is interpreted as ‘to split and move toward the

descendants to bend down the collar-bone of a deity’. Auwe is regarded as

a+uwe, and it is interpreted as ‘to hitch and move the collar-bone of a deity

along’ where uwe means ‘to move, to hitch along’. Te poki is interpreted as

‘to split (servants) to cover (the collar-bone of a deity)’ or ‘to divide servants

to hang the collar-bone of a deity under a concave structure’ where poki

means ‘to cover, to place the concave side downward, to be surrounded’. All

together, ‘ka ihi uiga te ki ati auwe te poki’ is interpreted as ‘the

servants who had been called in were instructed to split up and move toward

the descendants to bend down the collar-bone of the deity; the servants were

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divided to hitch the collar-bone of deity, move it along and hang it under a

concave structure’.

Ite maki is interpreted as ‘knowing the trouble of the given works’. In

Tongan, hiva means nine. When hiva is regarded as hi+va, it is

interpreted as ‘to catch local extensions with a hook and line’. Collectively,

hiva is interpreted as ‘to catch nine local extensions with a hook and line’.

Tana rii te hiva is interpreted as ‘its nine little extensions’. Ina ka ihi

uiga mai is interpreted as ‘when the servants who had been called in were

instructed to split up and come to the designated place’. Therefore, ‘ite

maki tana rii te hiva ina ka ihi uiga mai’ is interpreted as

‘knowing the trouble of the given works, nine little extensions on the deity

were caught with hooks and lines when the servants who had been called in

were instructed to split up and come to the designated place’.

In L2, honiti is regarded as ho+niti, and it is interpreted as ‘to throw in

darts or spears to carry away’ or ‘darts or spears to throw in for the

transportation of a deity’. Ite maki tana honiti is interpreted as

‘knowing the trouble of the given works, darts were thrown in (toward nine

extensions) for the transportation of the deity’. Moa indicates the deity, which

was used to haul the visiting deity onto the island when they arrived at the

island. Ina ka ihi uiga moa mai is interpreted as ‘when the servants who

had been called in were instructed to split up and come to the designated place

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as Ariki’s deity Moa approached’. Finally, ‘ite maki ~ moa mai’ is

interpreted as ‘knowing the trouble of the given works, darts were thrown in

(toward nine extensions) for the transportation of the deity when the servants

who had been called in were instructed to split up and come to the designated

place as ariki’s deity moa approached’.

3.1.2 L3 to L6

Umu in Hawaiian is imu. When whakaumu is regarded as

(w)ha+ka+umu, ha imu is interpreted as ‘a landmark’. Ha indicates ‘four

(servants)’, and the prefix (w)haka is interpreted as ‘an order or imperative

for four servants to do ~’. Ha imu is also interpreted as ‘four servants at a

landmark place’. When imu is regarded as i+mu, it is interpreted as ‘a

buzzing noise coming from a distance’. Ha poki is interpreted as ‘four

servants to catch or surround’. When ha imu is interpreted as a landmark,

that specific location is identified by the meaning of rai, ‘the face’. In other

words, imu or whakaumu indicates tauuru, the face on a rock that is

looking in another direction. Finally, ha imu poki is interpreted as ‘four

servants positioned themselves at the location to surround the deity as a

buzzing noise was coming from a distance’. Ta indicates ‘the stern of the deity

Moa’. Auwe is regarded as a+uwe, and it is interpreted as ‘to hitch the collar-

bone of a deity along’. Therefore, ta auwe rai is interpreted as ‘Ariki’s

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deity moa hitched the collar-bone of the visitor’s deity along with the stern

and hauled them into the sky over the rock face’.

When viviri is regarded as vi+viri, it is interpreted as ‘the deity made of

iron was falling from the sky’. When viviri is regarded as vivi+ri, it is

interpreted as ‘the servants began to retreat after the deity had been hung up,

and a sacred mark had been set up to prevent people from passing’. It seems

both accounts are equally applicable for the meaning of viviri. The former

indicates the process before mooring, and the latter suggests the follow-up

taken after mooring. Inage is regarded as ina+ge, and it is interpreted as

‘when short repeated rumbling sounds were emitted’. Rai inage is

interpreted as ‘when short repeated rumbling sounds were emitted in the sky

over the rock face’. Altogether, viviri rai inage is interpreted as ‘as the

deity made of iron was falling down over the rock face, short repeated

rumbling sounds were emitted from the sky’.

O i ruga is interpreted as ‘to get in the space above’. Hinua is regarded as

hi+nu+a, and it is interpreted as ‘to catch the collar-bone of an agitated deity

with a hook and line’. Te papare is interpreted as ‘to split up to avert (any

difficulties)’. Te papare hinua is interpreted as ‘four servants had been

split up to avert any difficulties during catching the collar-bone of the agitated

deity with hooks and lines’. Finally, ‘viviri rai ~ hinua’ is interpreted as

‘as the deity made of iron was falling down and getting into the space over the

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rock face, short repeated rumbling sounds were emitted from the sky; four

servants had been split up to avert any difficulties during catching the collar-

bone of the agitated deity with hooks and lines’.

Lastly, viviri rai inage o is interpreted as ‘the servants began to retreat

after the deity had been hung up in the sky over the rock face, and a sacred

mark had been set up to prevent people from passing’.

3.1.3 L7 to L11

Haki is regarded as ha+ki, and it is interpreted as ‘four (servants)

toward ~’. Avahinua is regarded as ava+hinua. Ava means ‘an opening

that admitted the deity approaching the shore’, and hinua is interpreted as

‘to catch the collar-bone of an agitated deity with hook and line’. Together,

avahinua is interpreted as ‘to catch the collar-bone of the agitated deity

with a hook and line at the opening that admitted the deity that was

approaching the shore’. Tagu is regarded as ta+gu, and it is interpreted as

‘the growling stern of the deity’. Ki tagu atu is interpreted as ‘others

headed toward the growling stern of the deity’. Auwe is interpreted as ‘to

hitch and move the collar-bone of a deity along’, and te poki as ‘to split up

(servants) to cover (the collar-bone of a deity)’ or ‘to divide servants to hang

the collar-bone of a deity under a concave structure’. Auwe poki is

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interpreted as ‘to hitch the collar-bone of a deity along and hang it under a

concave structure’. Finally, ‘haki e avahinua ki tagu atu auwe

poki’ is interpreted as ‘four servants headed toward the opening of a passage

where the deity was admitted to the shore; others had split up and went

toward the growling stern of the deity to hitch the collar-bone of the agitated

deity along and hang it under a concave structure’.

Ava rai is interpreted as ‘the sky over the opening of a passage’. Hiva was

interpreted as ‘to catch nine local extensions with a hook and line’. Mata ina

hiva auwe poki is interpreted as ‘the tribe came on to the nine local

extensions of the deity over the sky of the passage in order to hitch the collar-

bone of the agitated deity along and hang it under a concave structure’.

No reference to renia was found in a Maori-Polynesian comparative

dictionary. Instead of taking renia, ite renia is regarded as i tere

nia, and it is interpreted as ‘while floating above’. Parapa is regarded as

para+pa, and it is interpreted as ‘to surround with the half of a tree that has

been split down the middle’. Moni is regarded as mo+ni, and it is interpreted

as ‘for the use of this, i.e. the half of a tree’. O parapa moni is interpreted as

‘to get in the enclosed field that was surrounded with the half of a tree that has

been split down the middle like a scaffold’. Finally, ‘ite renia o parapa

moni auwe poki’ is interpreted as ‘while floating above in the sky, the deity

had got into the enclosed field that was surrounded by scaffolds that had been

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split down the middle; the tribe hitched the collar-bone of the agitated deity

along and hung it under the half split tree’.

3.1.4 Indus symbols

The Indus script is a corpus of symbols, and much of the writing is in

the form of inscribed seals. In 1932, an article was published pointing out that

a relationship between Rongorongo and Indus scripts based on the similarities

of forms exists. In addition to the similarity of form, the descriptions on some

of the Indus symbols can be found in Rongorongo transcripts. For example,

there is a word rerega in the transcript of the Aruku Kurenga tablet. In the

Indus scripts, there are various symbols for a person. In the Rongorongo

transcripts, there are many words ending with ga, such as ariga, haga,

hihoga, huaga, huraga, iriga, maharoga, mauga, nohoga, ohoga,

purega, rerega, toga, totoga, tuiga, tuuga, veroga, viriga,

etc. Ohoga indicates a person who does oho. For example, when oho means

‘to go to speak’, ohoga can be interpreted as ‘messenger’. In the Indus

symbols, there is a symbol of a person who has four legs, and it depicts a

running person who was sent over.

Milton Kim


Figure 26 Indus symbols related to figures of people

Fig 26(a) illustrates various Indus symbols depicting people. Fig 26(b) shows

three symbols that relate to rere. The first symbol on the left depicts a bird

with its head down symbolizing an action of landing. The second symbol

depicts a landing action toward the ground. The top of its symbol without the

bird figure indicates that it is related to the first symbol. In the third symbol,

only the inverted heart with a vertical line through its center remains, and it

depicts a hovering action over the ground. In other words, the third Indus

symbol can be regarded as rere in Rapa Nui as used in the transcript of the

Aruku Kurenga tablet, and its meaning is ‘to fly’. The Indus symbol of a

person with rere on its top is rerega, and it means ‘a pilot or a person who

is responsible for flying’.

Milton Kim


Figure 27 The Indus Valley corpus related to the Échancrée tablet

Identifying an Indus corpus related to the Rongorongo transcripts is

completely different from finding an Indus symbol. Fig 27 illustrates an Indus

corpus that matches the description in the interpretation of the Échancrée

tablet presented above. In the Indus script, short lines in horizontal or vertical

directions indicate persons.

(1) The U-shaped symbol depicts an open space, and it depicts the area

of nuku honu as illustrated in Figs 14 and 17. Haki e avahinua

is interpreted as ‘four servants toward the opening that admitted the

deity approaching the shore’.

(2) The symbol of an up-side-down bowl depicts a concave structure in

the area. There are six people around the structure and three more at

the entrance. Both te poki and hiva are interpreted as ‘a concave

structure and nine extensions’. This indicates one person on one

extension. An arrowhead on the bottom consists of three specks that

are associated with the fourth symbol. It indicates three servants with

a long spear as illustrated in Fig 27(b).

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(3) The third symbol depicts four servants above on the deity and three

servants below on the ground.

(4) Hiniti is interpreted as ‘throw three darts or spears in for the

transportation of the deity’.

(5) The fifth symbol depicts an object floating inside open space. Ite

renia regarded as i tere nia is interpreted as ‘while floating

above’.

(6) The symbol of a fish indicates a deity. In the transcripts of the Aruku

Kurenga tablet, when a deity is in the sky, it is referred to as a bird.

When a deity is moored at the ground, it is referred to as a fish.

(7) Hinua is interpreted as ‘to catch the collar-bone of an agitated deity

with a hook and line, and auwe is interpreted as ‘to hitch and move

the collar-bone of a deity along’. The seventh symbol depicts a

hooking device.

(8) The eighth symbol depicts an enclosed field. ‘O parapa moni’ is

interpreted as ‘to get in the enclosed field that was surrounded with

the half of a tree that has been split down the middle like a scaffold’.

(9) The ninth symbol depicts two people above the ground, and they are

also found in the second symbol on top of the concave structure.

As explained, the first eight symbols of the Indus corpus seem to follow the

transcript of the Échancrée tablet. This indicates that once all the Rongorongo

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transcripts are interpreted, many other Indus Valley scripts can be explained.

Figure 28 Line numbered Great Washington transcript

3.2 The Great Washington tablet

Milton Kim


Fig 28 lists the formatted transcript of the Great Washington tablet left

by Ure Vae Iko. The transcript is grouped into 10 paragraphs. Each paragraph

starts with the same phrase, marked as H in brackets. Along with H, four more

phrases that repeat in the transcript are also marked in brackets as illustrated in

Fig 29.

Figure 29 Repeatedly used phrases

Before starting with text in each paragraph, five phrases in brackets will be

interpreted first. Phrase H is the longest, and the other phrases have one or two

words fewer than H. This indicates that the interpretation can be applied

separately to Eaha, to/te ran and ariki kete and then to mahua i uta

nei.

First of all, eaha is regarded as ea+ha, and it is interpreted as ‘to haul four

servants to the land on shore, or four servants to be brought to land’ where

ea in MP means ‘to be brought to land, to be hauled on shore’. When mahua

is regarded as ma+hua, it is interpreted as ‘for being hung over like a fruit’. If

mahua is regarded as mahu+a, it is interpreted as ‘to stop the collar-bone of

a deity or airship’. Collectively, mahua can be interpreted as ‘to stop the

collar-bone of a deity and hang it over like a fruit’. Therefore, ‘mahua i uta

nei’ or [---nei] is interpreted as ‘to stop the collar-bone of a deity and

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hang it over right here on the island’. ariiki is regarded as ari+iki, and

it is interpreted as ‘to transport or the transportation of a deity on the night of

the 11th moon phase’. In the transcript of the Aruku Kurenga tablet, the

context suggests that the visitors from the master’s land arrived Easter island

from the west on the night of the 11th moon phase (ari), and the islanders

hauled the deity, i.e. the visitors’ transportation vehicle, inland, and kete

indicates ‘the belly (of the deity)’. Therefore, ‘ariiki kete’ can be

interpreted as ‘on the night of the 11th moon phase, the belly of the deity was

transported’. [a--nei] can be interpreted as ‘on the night of the 11th moon

phase, the belly of the deity was transported right here onto the island, and the

collar-bone of the deity was hung over to stop its movement’. Ran does not

have a reference in Maori-Polynesian and ran is assumed as an abbreviation

of ranga, which can be interpreted as ‘a company of persons, to urge

forward’. In the Great Washington transcript, there are two more examples to

which the same assumption was applied. They are hon and han respectively.

hon is regarded as honga and han as hanga. To and te are interpreted as

indicating the islanders and the visitors respectively. To ran means ‘a

company of islanders’, and te ran indicates ‘a company of visitors’. [to-

nei] is interpreted as ‘on the night of the 11th moon phase, a company of

islanders transported the belly of the deity right here onto the island, and the

collar-bone of the deity was hung over to stop its movement’. [te-nei] is

interpreted as ‘on the night of the 11th moon phase, a company of visitors

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transported the belly of the deity right here onto the island, and the collarbone

of the deity was hung over to stop its movement’. Finally, phrase H is

interpreted as ‘in order to haul four servants to land on the night of the 11th

moon phase, islanders transported the belly of the deity right here onto the

island, and the collar-bone of the deity was hung over to stop its movement’.

Table 1 Interpretation of five phrases

Words Interpretation

[---nei] to stop the collar-bone of the deity and hang it right over here

on the inland

[a--nei]

on the night of the 11th moon phase, the belly of the deity was

transported right here onto the island, and the collar-bone of

the deity was hung over to stop

[to-nei]

on the night of the 11th moon phase, a company of islanders

transported the belly of the deity right here onto the island and

the collar-bone of the deity was hung over to stop

[te-nei]

on the night of the 11th moon phase, a company of visitors

transported the belly of the deity right here onto the island and

the collar-bone of the deity was hung over to stop

[H]

in order to haul four servants and a company of four servants

to land on the night of the 11th moon phase, islanders

transported the belly of the deity right here onto the island,

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and the collar-bone of the deity was hung over to stop

ariiki to transport or the transportation of the deity on the night of

the 11th moon phase

ran a company of persons or servants

eaha to haul four servants to the land on shore, or four servants to

be brought to land

The interpretation of each paragraph of the Great Washington transcript is

presented below.

3.2.1 1A to 1F

The format of ‘e ~ e ~ e [~]’ is frequently found in Rongorongo

transcripts, and there is no specific meaning for e. ‘A’ indicates a deity, and it

is interpreted as ‘the collar-bone of a deity’. ‘Tomo a’ is interpreted as ‘to

berth a deity or to put a deity into the anchoring ground’. Mea indicates an

area on a deity with an external object. Since a deity is described as a fish

when it is moored to the ground or a structure on the ground, mea can be

interpreted as ‘an external object on a deity (that was used to seize it)’. On the

contrary, when a deity is in the air, it is described as a bird like manu. Mata

is interpreted as ‘the tribal people on the edge’. ‘Mata mea’ can be

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interpreted as ‘the tribal people on the edge of an external object called mea’.

Tupu means ‘to be firmly fixed and to overhang like a fruit’. Together, ‘tupu

tomo a mata mea’ is interpreted as ‘the deity was pulled onto the ground for

mooring, and its collar-bone was firmly fixed and overhung like a fruit by the

tribal people on the edge of an external object called mea’. Tuatea depicts a

ground structure, which has an extended arm in midair like the crest of a wave.

‘To ran’ is interpreted as ‘a company of servants gathered on the ground

side’ since to is used to indicate the islanders. ‘Rangi ran’ can be

interpreted as ‘a company of servants gathered on the deity, which was

hovering in midair’. Likewise, ‘tuatea to ran’ is interpreted ‘a company

of servants gathered at the ground structure with an extended arm in midair’.

‘E tupu tomo a mata mea e rangi ran e tuatea to ran’ is finally

interpreted as ‘the deity was pulled onto the mooring ground, and its collar-

bone was firmly fixed and overhung like a fruit by the tribal people on the

edge of an external object called mea. A company of servants gathered on the

deity, which was hovering in midair. A company of servants gathered at the

ground structure with an extended arm in midair.’

Ane is regarded as ‘the servants working like ants’. In Waigiou, mani

indicates manu, and it means ‘the bird as a deity’. More specifically, manu

was the airship by which the group of visitors traveled. ‘Ane rato mani’

can be interpreted as ‘the working ants hauled the deity manu’. Karata is

regarded as kara+ta, and it is interpreted as ‘the wing of a deity at the stern

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or the tail wing of a deity’. ‘Rata karata’ is interpreted as ‘to level the tail

wing of a deity’. Since rata also means a kind of tree, ‘rata karata’

indicates ‘the tail wing made of a tree’. Tupuna is regarded as tupu+na and

it can be interpreted as ‘to be firmly fixed with satisfaction or to be fixed firmly

and satisfactorily’. Karata was used to form the structure of a ‘karata ~

karata ~ karata ~’ list like e. This means that any text after karata will

belong to the same context, which is ‘ane rato mani rata karata’.

‘karata te rangi ran’ indicates that the servants worked on the deity to

level the tail wing not by the servants on the ground since te is used instead

of to. ‘Ane ~ te tupuna’ is interpreted as ‘the servants working like ants

hauled the tail wing of the deity manu and leveled it in midair, and the deity

was firmly and satisfactorily fixed and hung over on the extended arm of the

ground structure’.

3.2.2 2A to 3D

When ura is regarded as u+ra, it is interpreted as ‘to firmly seize the

solar-deity’. In Maori-Polynesian, ura means ‘red feathers, a lobster’. In the

context of the Aruku Kurenga transcript, Tuura as tu+ura is interpreted as

‘a fish trap (with latches like lobster hands) or a seizing structure on the

ground to which an airship is being restrained’. Poopoo is interpreted as ‘a

sunken area of an oval shape’. Koiro means a fish. Koi in Japanese means

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‘a fish (carp)’, and ro in Maori-Polynesian means ‘an ant’. When koiro is

regarded as koi+ro, Koiro can be interpreted as ‘an ant-shaped fish or

airship’. When nohoe is regarded as no+hoe, it is interpreted as ‘until being

pushed away with the hands’. If nohoe is regarded as noho+e, it can be

interpreted as ‘to stay, remain’, and ‘e’ is considered as a part of “e ~ e ~ e”.

Collectively, ‘e ura e poopoo e koiro e nohoe e’ is regarded as ‘ura

poopoo koiro nohoe’ and can be interpreted as ‘the ant-shaped deity was

firmly seized by a fish trap with latches like lobster hands at the sunken area

of an oval shape and stayed until being pushed away’. ‘Ane rato mani

rata karata’ is interpreted as ‘the working ants hauled the deity Manu and

leveled the tail wing of the deity’. ‘Te ura ki kara te poopoo’ is

interpreted as ‘the fish trap seizes the wing at the sunken area of an oval

shape’. Nehe is interpreted as ‘with a rustling sound’. Riku is regarded as

ri+ku, and it can be interpreted as ‘to hang to keep it still’. In the Aruku

Kurenga transcript, kava was interpreted as ‘the extension glowing by the

light of a fire, liquid fertilizer or tacky substance’. In other words, kava

means ‘an extension through which tacky substances are poured out’. Kava-

kava indicates two-extensions. ‘Kava-kava atu’ is interpreted as ‘two

extensions are shown or revealed’. ‘E nehe e riku e kava-kava atu’ is

regarded as ‘nehe riku kava-kava atu’, and it is interpreted as ‘with a

rustling sound, the deity was hung to keep it still, and two extensions were

revealed’.

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Atua is regarded as atu+a, and it is interpreted as ‘to show on the collar-

bone of a deity’. ‘Kava atua’ can be interpreted as ‘the extension on the

collar-bone of a deity is revealed’. ‘E nehe e riku e kava atua’ is

interpreted as ‘with a rustling sound, the deity was hung to keep it still, and the

extension on the collar-bone was revealed’. ‘Ane rato mani rata

karata te nehe karata riku karata rain kava atua’ is regarded

as ‘ane rato mani rata karata - te nehe riku rain kava atua’.

Regarding rain, ‘rain kava atua’ ‘rain kava atu+a’ ‘raina

kava atu’. Raina means ‘there, yonder’ and ‘raina kava atu’ can be

interpreted as ‘the extension was revealed there or where the extension was

revealed’. Finally, ‘te nehe riku rain kava atua’ can be interpreted as

‘with a rustling sound, the deity was hung to keep it still, and an extension was

revealed there’.

3.2.3 4A to 4G

‘A hao nei’ is interpreted as ‘the collar-bone of a deity encircles or is

secured with ropes here’. Kahi indicates the deity as a fish. When kahi is

regarded as ka+hi, it can be interpreted as ‘the imperative (for servants) to

catch with a hook and line and hoist’. In other words, when a deity as a

hovering airship is secured with ropes and tied down to a ground structure, it

is represented as a fish in the context of the Rongorongo script. Atu is

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regarded as a+tu, and it is interpreted as ‘the deity to be served’. Ature is

regarded as a+ture, and it can be interpreted as ‘the deity to be honored’.

Therefore, ‘e a hao nei e kahi e atu e ature’ can be interpreted as ‘the

collar-bone of the deity was secured with ropes here; the deity was caught

with a hook and line and hoisted, and the deity was served and honored by

servants’.

‘Ane rato mani’ was interpreted as ‘the working ants hauled the deity

manu’. ‘Rata karata’ is interpreted as ‘to level the tail wing of a deity’.

Altogether, ‘ane rato mani rata karata’ is interpreted as ‘the working

ants hauled the deity manu and leveled its tail wing’. Kaharta is regarded as

ka+ha+r[a]ta, and it can be interpreted as ‘the imperative for four servants

to bring it to an even level’. ‘Te kahi kaharta’ is interpreted as ‘four

servants were ordered to catch the deity with a hook and line and hoist it, and

they brought it to an even level’. Ahi means ‘fire, light’. When ahi is

regarded as a+hi, it can be interpreted as ‘the collar-bone of a deity to catch

with a hook and line and hoist’. Collectively, ahi can be interpreted as ‘under

the light of fires, the collar-bone of a deity was caught with hook and line and

hoisted’. Rarata is regarded as ra+rata and it is interpreted as ‘to level on

the side toward the east’. Therefore, ‘ahi rarata’ is interpreted as ‘under

the light of fires, the collar-bone of manu was caught with a hook and rope,

hoisted and leveled on the side toward the east’. ‘Te ature ane rato’ is

interpreted as ‘the working ants served to haul the deity and honored it’.

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3.2.4 5A to 5D

‘E ufi e tra e kumaro’ is regarded as ‘e ufi tra kumaro’ for

its interpretation. In Malagasy, tra is used as a suffix in helatra, which

means lightning. Other than that, there is no reference found in MP, so the

meaning of tra in the transcription is unknown. Tra as an Indo-European

suffix means ‘instrument’. In the context of the Rongorongo transcript, tra

will be interpreted as ‘instrument’, and it is regarded as indicating a deity itself

or a specific part of a deity.

When kumaro is regarded as kuma+ro, it is interpreted as ‘standing in

company with the ants or working servants’. Together, ‘e ufi e tra e

kumaro’ can be interpreted as ‘the part of the deity standing in company with

the working servants was covered’. ‘To ran ariiki mahua i uta

nei’[to--nei] is interpreted as ‘on the night of the 11th moon phase, a row of

islanders transported the belly of the deity right here onto the island, and the

collar-bone of the deity was hung over to stop its movement’.

‘Ane rato karata’ is interpreted as ‘the working ants hauled the deity

manu by the part belonging to its tail wings’. Kumara is regarded as

kuma+ra, and it is interpreted as ‘standing in company with the side toward

the east’. Toa is interpreted as ‘the male end of the pierced mooring stick’.

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‘Te ufi kumara toa’ means ‘the cover was standing in company with the

male end of the pierced mooring stick on the side toward the east’. ‘Mahua i

uta nei’ is interpreted as ‘to stop the collar-bone of the deity and hang it

over right here on the inland’. ‘Ane rato maru’ can be interpreted as ‘the

working servants hauled and sheltered the deity’.

3.2.5 6A to 6D

Honu indicates the rock, which looks like the turtle head on the west

promontory as illustrated in the Fig 14. In the upper middle of the picture,

there is a rock in the shape of a turtle’s head, which is presumed to be ‘nuku

honu’ as referred to in the transcript of the Aruku Kurenga tablet. ‘Te honu’

as ‘the rock of turtle head’ indicates this location as illustrated in Fig 14. In

MP, kea means ‘the name of a bird; mucus discharging from the nose’. As a

bird figure, kea indicates a deity, i.e. manu or mani. When kea is regarded

as ke+a, it can be interpreted as ‘a deity in a different appearance from a

bird’. Pane is interpreted as ‘the cliff at the bones of the neck’. Finally, ‘E

honu e kea e pane’ can be interpreted as ‘the deity that had come to the

island to provide liquid fertilizer was hauled onto the cliff at the neck of the

turtle’s head’.

‘Ane rato karata’ is interpreted as ‘the working ants hauled the deity

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manu and took it by the part belonging to its tail wings’. ‘Ane rato karata

te honu te kea te pane’ is interpreted as ‘the working ants hauled the

deity with the supply of mucus taken from the part belonging to its tail wings

over to the place of the turtle head at the cliff’.

3.2.6 7A to 8B

When hetu is regarded as he+tu, it can be interpreted as ‘to be

served by a servant looking like a small dwarf in the distance’. Range is

regarded as ra+nge, and it is interpreted as ‘to call out on the side toward the

east’. From Fig 19 above, the side toward the east faces the cliff. As ran is

handled as ranga above, han is regarded as an abbreviation of hanga, and

the meaning is ‘worker, builder, creator’. When raa is regarded as ra+a, it

is interpreted as ‘the collar-bone of the deity on the side toward the east’.

Mahua is interpreted as ‘to stop the collar-bone of the deity and hang it over

like a fruit’. ‘E han e na e raa e mahua’ is considered the same as ‘e han

na raa mahua’, and it can be interpreted as ‘the builders or visitors who

belonged to the sacred deity worked on the collar-bone facing the east to

overhang it like a fruit’. Collectively, ‘e hetu ~ e mahua’ is interpreted as

‘the visiting creators who looked like dwarfs in the distance called out on the

side toward the east, and they belonged to the sacred deity and worked on the

collar-bone facing the east to overhang it like a fruit’. ‘Ane rato karata’

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is interpreted as ‘the working ants hauled the deity manu taking it by the part

belonging to its tail wings’. ‘Te rangi’ means ‘the sky where visitors are’.

Hon is regarded as an abbreviation of honga, and it is interpreted as ‘a

worker who is tilting on one side’. ‘Te rangi e hon e na e raa e mahua’

can be interpreted as ‘in midair, the visitors who belonged to the sacred deity

tilted on the side toward the east in order to overhang it like a fruit’.

Anuga is regarded as a+nu+ga, and it is interpreted as ‘shaking the collar-

bone of a deity to make a roar like a strong wind or a person who is

responsible of for handling the collar-bone of a deity’. Hehun is regarded as

he+hun[ga]. Hunga means ‘a company of persons’, and hehun is

interpreted as ‘a company of dwarfs’. ‘Karata te hehun rangi’ is

interpreted as ‘the wings of the deity belonged to the company of dwarfs in

midair’. ‘Han na raa mahua’ is interpreted as ‘the builders or visitors who

belonged to the sacred deity worked on the collar-bone facing the east to

overhang it like a fruit’. Collectively, ‘e anuga ~ raa mahua’ can be

interpreted as ‘shaking the collar-bone of the deity made a roar like a strong

sound; the wings of the deity belonging to the company of dwarfs in midair

came here, and the builders who belonged to the sacred deity worked on the

collar-bone to overhang it on the side toward the east’. ‘Ane rato karata’


belonging to its tail wings’. Hehuu is regarded as he+hu+u, and ‘te hehuu

rangi’ can be interpreted as ‘the dwarfs strongly blew a loud thundering

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noise in midair’. Collectively, ‘ane rato ~ raa mahua’ is interpreted as

‘the working ants hauled the deity manu taking it by the part belonging to its

tail wings; the dwarfs strongly blew a loud thundering noise in midair, and the

builders or visitors who belonged to the sacred deity worked on the collar-

bone facing the east to overhang it like a fruit’.

3.2.7 9A to 9B

Ariiki is interpreted as ‘to transport or the transportation of the deity

on the night of the 11th moon phase’. Tapairu is regarded as tapa+i+ru.

Tapa means ‘the brim of a vessel’, and ru is interpreted as ‘to shake the land

with a rumbling sound’. Tapairu can be interpreted as ‘the brim of the deity

shook the land with a rumbling sound’. Therefore, ‘e ariiki e tapairu’

can be interpreted as ‘on the 11th moon phase, the deity was transported, and

the brim of deity shook the land with a rumbling sound’. To of ‘to ariiki’

indicates the 11th moon phase on the island. Te of ‘te tapairu’ indicates

the brim of the deity. Te is used as a form of reverence. ‘Ane rato karata’


belonging to its tail wings’.

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3.2.8 10A to 10B

Potupotu is interpreted as small sticks. ‘Oi potupotu’ is

interpreted as ‘to mix different substances by working with small sticks’.

Ugarara is regarded as uga+rara, and it can be interpreted as ‘to send and

spread out on a stage or platform’. Hata is regarded as whata, and it means

‘a scaffold put up for any purpose’. Collectively, ‘e oi e potupotu e

ugarara e hata’ can be interpreted as ‘a company of servants were sent

and spread out on a scaffold, which was put up for them to mix different

substances with small sticks’. Main is regarded as main[ga], and it is further

divided into mai and nga. It is interpreted as ‘toward a working person’.

‘Main rata’ is interpreted as ‘toward a person who works on leveling a

deity’. Finally, ‘ane rato karata main rata’ can be interpreted as ‘the

working ants hauled the deity manu taking it by the part belonging to its tail

wings toward the servants who worked on leveling the deity’.

4. Conclusions

As long as understanding Rongorongo is concerned, there are two

missing links to mend. The first missing link is to figure out how both Metoro

Tau‘a Ure and Ure Vae Iko transcribed Rongorongo scripts in Rapa Nui. The

second missing link is to recover the original meaning of Rapa Nui words that

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has been long forgotten. Metoro left four transcripts on the Aruku Kurenga,

Tahua, Mamari and Keiti tablets, and it appears that he had tried to read every

single glyph on each tablet. On the contrary, Ure Vae Iko left two brief

transcriptions. What makes it more difficult to mend the second missing link is

the fact that many researchers have discredited Metoro’s fully exercised

transcriptions since he obviously read the Keiti tablet in the wrong direction,

and he also read the same glyph differently. His works have been considered

inconsistent and even as looking like gibberish.

Nonetheless the structural analysis of the Rongorongo script explains the

reason why Metoro’s transcriptions had to be that way. Based on the definition

of crustography, the same Rongorongo glyph can be transcribed differently

based on the next glyphs. Moreover, there are four different ways of

transcribing that the teller can choose from, and they depend on how he or she

remembers the story of the script. When a given Rongorongo script is divided

into crusts, its transcript also can be segmented and assigned to its crust. Once

a segment of transcript is identified, it can be arranged in such a way that the

hidden pattern of repeating words is revealed. After that, all ambiguities

embedded in the script and its transcript disappear, and the transcript written

in Rapa Nui will be ready to interpret.

Even though there have been researchers against the view of trans-cultural

difussion [14-17], morphological similarities between Indus Valley and

Rongorongo scripts suggests that Rongorongo script could be a diffused

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version of Indus Valley script [2, 10-13]. Unlike Indus Valley scripts, some of

Rongorongo scripts have their transcriptions left by island natives and with the

example of Échancrée transcript it has been explained how an Indus Valley

script that fits the description of interpreted transcript can be found. In

addition to that, with the examples of Figure 15 and Figures 17-24, it was

explained how Rongorongo script might have diffused into old Chinese letters.

Recovering the forgotten meaning of Rapa Nui words used in the Rongorongo

transcripts can be helped by expanding the boundary beyond Rapa Nui and

into regions such as the Indus Valley, China and Korea. The discovery of the

symbol of a sacred mask known in northeast Asia proves that a link had

existed with Rapa Nui in ancient times. It was also demonstrated that some old

Chinese letters can be linked to Rongorongo glyphs based on the similarities

of shapes and meaning. The Korean language also helps by associating the

words ending with ga in the Rongorongo transcriptions. In doing so, the

meaning of a forgotten word can be reconstructed by dividing it into pieces.

Based on the meaning of each piece, the meaning of the original word is

reconstructed. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated by the

example of tauuru. The meaning of tauuru was lost in Rapa Nui a long

time ago, but, when tauuru is divided into tau and uru, the meaning of

tauuru as ‘the rock of the head on the west coast that looks in another

direction’ can be reconstructed and is proven correct as illustrated in Fig 13.

The belief that the Indus script might had been linked to the Rongorongo

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script based on the similarities of their shapes can be further pursued once the

full text of the Rongorongo transcript is interpreted. In the Section 3.1.4, it

was demonstrated how the interpreted text of the Échancrée tablet can be used

to identify the Indus corpus that it might be related to, and it is not simply

based on their shapes but is also purely based on meaning. There are still

many things to clarify, but this paper presents practical methods to be used in

understanding what Rongorongo is.

References

1. Barthel, Thomas S. 1958. Grundlagen zur entzifferung der

osterinselschrift, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter.

2. de Hevesy, Guillaume 1932. [Letter to Mr Pelliot on a mysterious

script of the Indus Valley], Bulletins de l'Académie des Inscriptions et

Belles-Lettres, Sept:310.

3. Wikipedia.org [Internet]. Easter island [map]. Available from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island#/media/File:Easter_Island_

map-en.svg

4. Guy, Jacques B.M. 1999. Peut-on se fonder sur le témoignage de

Métoro pour déchiffrer les rongo-rongo? Journal de la Société des

Océanistes, 108:125–132.

5. Melka, Tomi S 2008. Structural observations regarding Rongorongo

tablet 'Keiti', Cryptologia, 32: 155-179.

Milton Kim


6. Robinson, Andrew 2002. Lost languages: the enigma of the world's

undeciphered scripts, McGraw-Hill.

7. Network Working Group 1994. PPP in HDLC-like framing, RFC 1662.

8. Tregear, Edward 1891. The Maori-Polynesian comparative dictionary,

Kessinger Publishing, LLC.

9. Shirakawa, Shizuka 2007. [Ji mitsuru dictionary], Heibonsha.

10. Chauvet, Stephen-C. 1935. L’Île de Pâques et Ses Mystères. Paris:

TEL.

11. Heine-Geldern, Robert. 1938. Die Osterinselschrift. Anthropos (Wien),

33: 815-909.

12. Imbelloni, José. 1951. Las “tabletas parlantes” de Pascua, Monumentos

de un SistemaGráfico Indo-oceánico. Runa, Archivo para las Ciencias

del Hombre, 4(1-2): 89-177.

13. Heyerdahl, Thor. 1965. The concept of RONGO-RONGO among the

historic population of Easter Island - Report 16. In T. Heyerdahl & E.

N. Jr. Ferdon (Eds.), Miscellaneous papers: Reports of the Norwegian

archaeological expedition to Easter Island and East

Pacific[Monographs of the School of American Research and the Kon-

Tiki Museum, Number 24, Part 2, 1965]. Stockholm, Sweden: Forum.

pp. 345-385.

14. Buck, Peter H. (Te Rangi Hiroa). 1938. Vikings of the Sunrise. New

York: Frederick A. Stokes Company.

15. Lavachery, Henri. 1939. Les Pétroglyphes de l’Ile de Pâques. De

Sikkel: Anvers / Antwerpen.

16. Métraux, Alfred. 1940. Ethnology of Easter Island. Bernice P. Bishop

Museum Bulletin 160. Honolulu: Bernice P. Bishop Museum Press.

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17. Métraux, Alfred. 1957. Easter Island: A Stone-Age Civilization of the

Pacific. New York: Oxford University Press.

Milton Kim

rongorongo explained

Documents

rongorongo transcript

rongorongo system

system of rongorongo

rongorongo tablets

rongorongo writing system

abstract rongorongo

rongorongo milton kim

system of hieroglyphic