The following table gives an overview of the items in the corpus.
A map showing the current location of the known tablets.
| Code | Name | Material | Length | Width | Thickness | Lines | Signs | Condition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Tahua | Fraxinus excelsior | 909 | 115 | 26 | 8+8 | 1825 | Fine |
| B | Aruku-Kurenga | Thespesia populnea[1] | 415 | 152 | 29 | 10+12 | 1135 | Fine |
| C | Mamari | Thespesia populnea[1] | 290 | 196 | 25 | 14+14 | 1000 | Fine |
| D | Échancrée | Podocarpus sp. cf Latifolia[1] | 241 | 121 | 26 | 7+6 | 270 | Good |
| E | Keiti | unidentified | 390 | 130 | 25 | 9+8 | 822 | Destroyed |
| F | Chauvet Fragment | unidentified | 111 | 80 | 15 | 6+4 | 51 | Good |
| G | Small Santiago | Thespesia populnea[1] | 319 | 122 | 22 | 8+8 | 720 | Fine |
| H | Large Santiago | Thespesia populnea[1] | 449 | 125 | n/a | 12+12 | 1580 | Good |
| I | Santiago Staff | unidentified | 1260 | n/a | 60 | 14 | 2920 | Good |
| J | Large London Reimiro | unidentified | 700 | n/a | n/a | 1 | 2 | Good |
| K | London Tablet | Thespesia populnea ?[1] | 218 | 68 | 20 | 5+5 | 163 | Good |
| L | Small London Reimiro | unidentified | 423 | 178 | 15 | 1 | 44 | Fine |
| M | Large Vienna | Thespesia populnea | 285 | 145 | 23 | 9+0 | 54 | Poor |
| N | Small Vienna | Podocarpus sp. cf Latifolia[1] | 260 | 53 | 21 | 5+5 | 172 | Good |
| O | Berlin Tablet | unidentified | 1030 | 130 | n/a | 7+0 | 90 | Poor |
| P | Large St.Petersburg | Podocarpus sp. cf Latifolia[1] | 620 | 144 | 27 | 11+11 | 1163 | Fine |
| Q | Small St.Petersburg | Thespesia populnea[1] | 418 | 112 | 28 | 9+9 | 718 | Good |
| R | Small Washington | unidentified | 245 | 95 | 18 | 8+8 | 357 | Good |
| S | Large Washington | Podocarpus sp. cf Latifolia[1] | 642 | 122 | 18 | 8+8 | 600 | Good |
| T | Honolulu Tablet | unidentified | 305 | 95 | 20 | 11+0 | 120 | Poor |
| U | Honolulu Forked Wood | unidentified | 680 | 80 | 22 | 4+0 | 27 | Poor |
| V | Honolulu Ua | unidentified | 710 | 88 | 30 | 2+0 | 22 | Poor |
| W | Honolulu Fragment | unidentified | 63 | 20 | 15 | 3+0 | 8 | Splinter |
| X | New York Birdman | Toromiro | 440 | n/a | n/a | 10 | 37 | Fine |
| Y | Paris Snuffbox | unidentified | 71 | 50 | 29 | 3+2+3 | 85 | Fine |
Notes
1.Updated material information from Orliac (2010). Thanks to P.H. for the pointer.
Hello – In Oslo, Norway, Thor Heyerdal’s Kon-Tiki museum displays a rongorongo tablet of ivory or bone. Also, I have seen three tablets at the Vatican museum. I would like to know more about them. Are they included in your collection? Thank you for any information you can provide. -RG
Sorry for the slow response. I don’t often get comments, and I don’t check in that often either.
—
I am assuming that the one(s) you may have seen at the Kon-Tiki museum are casts. According to Horley (2021) there is a cast of Tablet B “Aruku Kurenga” there. There are actually casts of various of these items in museums all over the place.
By “Vatican museum”, do you mean the “Congregazione dei Sacri Cuori” in Rome? Three originals (A, B, and C) are kept there to my knowledge. But I don’t know if any of these items are exhibited at all. I think one needs special permission to see any of them.
I, for one, have never seen any of these items in original or copy.