Abstract

The Rongorongo script of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) remains undeciphered and its status as language notation is not proven. Only very recently has a full corpus of Rongorongo, with carefully edited texts, appeared, while a consensual inventory of signs remains a desideratum. We report the 3D-modeling of Rongorongo Tablet C, which provides new detail on certain portions of its text, and a new drawing and transcription, complete with paleographic commentary. We also revisit the structure and possible contents of its text – a crucial step towards decipherment. In addition to a previously identified calendar (list of the nights of the moon), Tablet C may include words related to agriculture, well as other lexical lists, perhaps copied for the purpose of learning. We thus combine new technologies and more conventional approaches to offer new insight on an undeciphered inscription