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The Rongorongo of Easter Island

Thomas Barthel's Transliteration System


In the mid-fifties Thomas Barthel elaborated an alphanumeric transliteration system for representing the rongorongo signs, which is explained pp.38-42 of his Grundlagen zur Entzifferung der Osterinselschrift published in 1958 in Hamburg by Cram, de Gruyter.

This system is mostly numerical. A numerical code references each sign or variant thereof, while single-letter affixes express modifications of the basic sign (e.g. y when mirror-image, x when upside-down, h when superscript, t when subscript, etc.), and punctuation marks express how signs appear concatenated or combined, i.e.  a hyphen when juxtaposed (e.g. 4-4-4-7 ), a dot when linked to each other (e.g. 200.200.11 ), an apostrophe when fused together (e.g. 551'71 ), a colon when stacked above one another (e.g. 43:50 ), Barthel classified the signs into six main categories:

Signs 1-199 Figures seemingly representing objects, plants, or natural phenomena, some abstract.    The more common signs are assigned lower code numbers.
001 019 104 196
Signs 200-399 Anthropomorphic figures. Each digit expresses head, body, and hand shape.
First digit: head shape.

2

Type-2 head Lozenge-shaped head, with a bulbous protrusion on each side, perhaps ears, or eyes, or coils of hair.

3

Type-3 head Round head in profile with gaping mouth, facing to the right of the reader.
Second digit: position of the arms and legs.

0

Type-0 body
Type-0 body
Standing, both arms lowered or one arm raised.

1

Type-1 body Standing, both arms raised.

2

Type-2 body "Running" (laufend), any arm position.

3

Type-3 body "Kneeling" (kniend), any arm position.

4

Type-4 body
Type-4 body
Sitting, legs spread left and right, arms lowered or one arm raised.

5

Type-5 body Sitting, legs spread left and right, both arms raised.

6

Type-6 body
Type-6 body
"Squatting" (Schneidersitz), any arm position.
Third digit: position and aspect of the hands.

1

Fingers inwards, similar to sign 61.

2

Fist clenched, similar to sign 62.

3

Hand pointing down, similar to sign 63.

4

Open hand, lifting, similar to sign 64.

5

Pointing up, similar to sign 10.

6

Fingers and thumb, similar to sign 6.
Signs 400-499 Miscellaneous figures with heads similar to the 300-399 series.
430b 415
Signs 500-599 According to Barthel, reserved to anthropomorphic figures with miscellaneous head shapes, e.g. signs 510 and 524. Many, however, are not anthropomorphic at all, e.g. signs 518 and 543.
510 524 518 543
Signs 600-699 Figures with a bird's head, e.g. signs 610 and 619, but some are barely recognizable as such, e.g. sign 658.
610 619 658
Signs 700-799 Other zoomorphic figures.
710a 761

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