Rongorongo is the name of the ancient writing system associated with the people of Easter Island.
Rongorongo appears on wooden tablets and other objects from Rapa Nui, the Polynesian island commonly called Easter Island. The signs include human figures, animals, plants, tools, and geometric forms. Most surviving examples were collected by Europeans and missionaries during the nineteenth century, when the island’s population had already suffered severe disruption.
The system remains undeciphered. Scholars have not established whether Rongorongo records a full spoken language, a specialized mnemonic system, or a combination of written and ritual signs. This uncertainty makes claims of complete translations unreliable. The surviving corpus is also small, and many objects were damaged, lost, or removed from the island.
The name Rongorongo comes from a Rapa Nui term often translated as “recitation” or “to recite.” Researchers debate whether the system developed independently on the island or was influenced by outside contact. Regardless, it is one of the most important and mysterious records of Indigenous Polynesian intellectual history.