Rongorongo Tablet Keiti
Date
2010-05-01
Authors
Contributor
Advisor
Department
Instructor
Depositor
Speaker
Researcher
Consultant
Interviewer
Narrator
Transcriber
Annotator
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Volume
24
Number/Issue
1
Starting Page
Ending Page
Alternative Title
Abstract
THE EARLIEST DESCRIPTION OF RONGORONGO comes from a letter by Brother Eugène Eyraud, dated December 1864. He mentions them as commonly-used objects: “… one finds in all houses wooden tablets or staffs covered with sorts of hieroglyphic characters.” (Orliac and Orliac 2008:62). This sensational news did not attract attention until one of the tablets (later named Echancrée), reached Bishop Tepano Jaussen in June 1869. He understood its importance (ibid:71): “…my attention was immediately drawn to this piece of board … [with] characters in lines and well drawn. This sight even then did not remind me of Mr. Eyraud’s passage, and the astonishment of Father Gaspard, his friend, proves that on Easter Island … Mr. Eyraud had not even shown the missionaries one tablet.” The Bishop urged the missionaries to search for more tablets on Rapa Nui, and all known rongorongo objects were collected in the following twenty years. However, the largest and best-preserved specimens were recovered during the next year, in 1870: Tahua, Aruku Kurenga, Mamari, Keiti and the Large St. Petersburg tablet (presented by Jaussen to N.N. Mikloukho-Maclay, [Fischer 1997:484]). Both Santiago tablets (acquired by the missionaries [ibid:442, 450]) and the Santiago staff (contributed by Dutrou Bornier [ibid:455]) were shipped out on the corvette O’Higgins in the same year. None of the tablets discovered later were as well-preserved. Five additional tablets, damaged by burning, rotting or reuse, were obtained with the help of A. Salmon – three now belong to the museums of Vienna and Berlin. They were acquired after Geiseler’s visit in 1882 (Fischer 1997:501), and two tablets were purchased by W.J. Thomson in 1886 for the Smithsonian Institution (ibid:469). Several inscribed but damaged artifacts were collected by J. L. Young around 1888 and deposited with the Bishop Museum (ibid:459). Some rongorongo artifacts, obtained in the late 19th century (such as the London tablet and a snuffbox made of inscribed pieces of wood) made their way to museums in the 20th Century. If Bishop Jaussen had not initiated an intensive search in 1869, perhaps we would never have had a chance to study any large and intact rongorongo object. The fate of tablet Keiti (or, perhaps, Ke Iti, “the smaller other one”, Fischer 1997:395) was even more dramatic. Bishop Jaussen promised this tablet to Prof. Charles de Harlez, and it was dispatched to Belgium in 1894. After the publication of two papers (mainly dedicated to the Jaussen List) in Le Muséon (1895-6), de Harlez donated Keiti to the Library of the Catholic University of Louvain; it perished in the fires of the First World War (Orliac and Orliac 2008:260). Luckily, before sending the tablet to Louvain, “Bishop Jaussen insisted on making photographs and rubbings” (Lavachery 1933:101), which allowed further study of its text. Despite a considerable progress achieved in the structural analysis of this inscription (Butinov and Knorozov 1956:78, Barthel 1958:304-313, Pozdniakov 1996:299-301, Horley 2007:26-29, Melka 2008:159-171) many questions still remain; some are discussed in this paper. The glyphs shown in the figures in this paper were traced from photographs in the Archives of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (SS.CC.); Bancroft and Hocken Libraries; Museum für Völkerkunde; pictures taken by Scott Nicolay; as well as from photos published by Butinov and Knorozov (1956); Heyerdahl (1975); Klein
(1988); Campbell (1999); Kjellgren (2001); and Orliac and Orliac (2008). Tablets, lines and glyphs are referenced using Barthel’s notation. The tracings from Grundlagen were actually drawn by Bodo Spranz (Barthel 1958: Vorwort, Fischer 1997: 239), and are referred to as “Barthel’s tracings” in the sense of “tracings published by Barthel”.
Description
Keywords
Easter Island, Rapa Nui
Citation
Extent
Format
Geographic Location
Time Period
Related To
Related To (URI)
Table of Contents
Rights
Rights Holder
Local Contexts
Collections
Email libraryada-l@lists.hawaii.edu if you need this content in ADA-compliant format.