Hatching in the Hieroglyphic Script and Iconography of Easter Island (Rapa Nui): Comparison with Maya and Nahuatl Scripts

Abstract

Most logosyllabic scripts opt for special word-signs denoting colour terms even though colours are abstract properties which are impossible to depict. Two strategies are attested in the invention of property signs for colour terms: prototypical objects can serve as an iconic source for the signs of corresponding colours, and “Colouring” can be applied in writing systems that make use of colour inks. In black-and-white systems, “Inking” of adjacent signs can be used as the sign for BLACK; in carved and incised texts “Hatching” is found instead of “Inking”. The observed behaviour of the word-signs for colour terms may be due to cognitive factors—we do not think about colours as objects on their own but rather perceive them as properties of objects. In the Kohau Rongorongo script of Easter Island (Rapa Nui), “Hatching” behaves as a word-sign for colours: first, hatched signs have plain equivalents; second, hatched and non-hatched signs show different distribution in texts; third, hatched signs are less frequent than their plain equivalents; fourth, only a part of a sign can be hatched; and fifth, hatching can spread on adjacent signs in parallel texts. “Hatching” and “Cross-Hatching” seem to be different signs because they follow different patterns of distribution. Both “Hatching” and “Cross-Hatching” appear as indicators of colours in the art of Easter Island. Comparison of iconographic and epigraphic data allows us to tentatively identify the signs for RED, “Hatching”, and BLACK, “Cross-Hatching”, in the Kohau Rongorongo script.