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Rongorongo (; Rapa Nui: ) is a system of glyphs discovered in the 19th century on Easter Island that appears to be writing or proto-writing. Numerous attempts at decipherment have been made, none successfully. Although some calendrical and what might prove to be genealogical information has been identified, not even these glyphs can actually be read. If rongorongo does prove to be writing and proves to be an independent invention, it would be one of very few independent inventions of writing in human history. Two dozen wooden objects bearing rongorongo inscriptions, some heavily weathered, burned, or otherwise damaged, were collected in the late 19th century and are now scattered in museums and private collections. None remain on Easter Island. The objects are mostly tablets shaped from irregular pieces of wood, sometimes driftwood, but include a chieftain's staff, a bird-man statuette, and two ''reimiro'' ornaments. There are also a few petroglyphs which may include short rongorongo inscriptions. Oral history suggests that only a small elite was ever literate and that the tablets were sacred. Authentic rongorongo texts are written in alternating directions, a system called reverse boustrophedon. In a third of the tablets, the lines of text are inscribed in shallow fluting carved into the wood. The glyphs themselves are outlines of human, animal, plant, artifact and geometric forms. Many of the human and animal figures, such as glyphs and have characteristic protuberances on each side of the head, possibly representing eyes. Individual texts are conventionally known by a single uppercase letter and a name, such as Tablet C, the ''Mamari'' Tablet. The somewhat variable names may be descriptive or indicate where the object is kept, as in the Oar, the Snuffbox, the Small Santiago Tablet, and the Santiago Staff. ==Etymology and variant names== ''Rongorongo'' is the modern name for the inscriptions. In the Rapa Nui language it means "to recite, to declaim, to chant out". The original name—or perhaps description—of the script is said to have been ''kohau motu mo rongorongo'', "lines incised for chanting out", shortened to ''kohau rongorongo'' or "lines () chanting out".〔Englert 1993〕 There are also said to have been more specific names for the texts based on their topic. For example, the ''kohau ta‘u'' ("lines of years") were annals, the ''kohau îka'' ("lines of fishes") were lists of persons killed in war ''(îka'' "fish" was homophonous with or used figuratively for "war casualty"), and the ''kohau ranga'' "lines of fugitives" were lists of war refugees.〔 Some authors have understood the ''ta‘u'' in ''kohau ta‘u'' to refer to a separate form of writing distinct from ''rongorongo.'' Barthel recorded that, "The Islanders had another writing (the so-called 'ta‘u script') which recorded their annals and other secular matters, but this has disappeared."〔Barthel 1958:66〕 However, Fischer writes that "the ''ta‘u'' was originally a type of ''rongorongo'' inscription. In the 1880s, a group of elders invented a derivative 'script' () called ''ta‘u'' with which to decorate carvings in order to increase their trading value. It is a primitive imitation of ''rongorongo.''"〔Fischer 1997:667〕 An alleged third script, the ''mama'' or ''va‘eva‘e'' described in some mid-twentieth-century publications, was "an early twentieth-century geometric () invention".〔Fischer 1997:ix〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rongorongo」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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