Name in the Kohau Rongorongo script (Easter Island)

Abstract

Many interpretations of the undeciphered Kohau Rongorongo script of Easter Island have been proposed, but nowadays only the suggestion about a genealogy on the Small Santiago Tablet offered by Yuri Knorosov and Nikolai Butinov in 1956 seems to be trusted. The paper seeks answers on two controversial questions related to this suggestion: What is the function of sign 076? And why the a possessive marker is absent there? Three Kohau Rongorongo texts represent name lists, supposedly, of either defeated and sacrificed enemies or newborns. Structural analysis of the tablets shows that some signs, which frequently appear in a certain position in the names, may be titles. Many names are complemented with possible titles, others are not. The genealogy consists of six names marked by the same title, which follow a passage free of names. Probably, this passage is inserted into the name list and refers to the most prominent person mentioned. The proposed suggestions indicate that Kohau Rongorongo texts served as an important media of sociopolitical integration.

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