About
Rongorongo is the undeciphered script of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Fewer than two dozen inscribed wooden artifacts survive. This platform is an open-source tool for structuring the corpus, visualizing glyph relationships, and supporting decipherment research.
Corpus
The corpus data is scraped from kohaumotu.org, a research site maintained by P. Spaelti. Each glyph occurrence is extracted as a standalone SVG from the original inline SVG line renderings. Glyph identification follows the Barthel numbering system (1958).
Notation System
Glyphs are identified by three-digit Barthel codes (001-799). Approximately 120 base signs have been catalogued.
Renderings are graphic variants of the same glyph, marked by a lowercase letter suffix: 002a, 002c, 002d. These follow Barthel's original classification.
Modifiers describe how a specific occurrence differs from the standard form:
Ligatures (compound glyphs) are formed by combining two or more base glyphs. They are notated with dots: 001.006 means glyphs 001 and 006 fused together.
Texts are written in reverse boustrophedon: alternating direction with each row, with the tablet rotated 180 degrees at the end of each line.
Sources & Attribution
SVG glyph tracings from kohaumotu.org by P. Spaelti — the primary source for all glyph vector data in this project.
Barthel, Thomas (1958). Grundlagen zur Entzifferung der Osterinselschrift. Hamburg: Cram, De Gruyter & Co. — the foundational glyph catalogue and numbering system.
Fischer, Steven Roger (1997). Rongorongo: The Easter Island Script. Oxford University Press. — extended catalogue and comprehensive analysis.
Tablet photographs from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Corpus structure informed by the rongopy project (J. Gregorio de Souza).
Materials are used under fair use for non-commercial academic research. Individuals wishing to reuse these materials should observe the usual rules of attribution.
Technical
Built with Laravel, Tailwind CSS, and Filament. Source code is open and available on GitHub.
Contact
Corrections, suggestions, and collaboration proposals are welcome at d.shaludnyov@gmail.com