ANCR-601 Lessons

The classroom is bedecked with numerous fragments of wood today. Some of them are on thick planks as wide as the tables in the Great Hall, while others are on tiny, jagged fragments. A handful of students are bold enough to go over and investigate -- though they are wary not to touch -- wondering how Professor Wessex could have gotten her hands on so many of the twenty six viable texts… and why she is not sitting here protecting them fiercely.

As the clock tolls eleven, they run out of time to ponder, as Professor Wessex strides through the door and students scurry to their seats. The blonde woman notes their looks of confusion with mild amusement, though very little makes it to her face.

Introduction
Good morning, students. I believe I told you we would be discussing more Rongorongo texts. However, these will be of the… less magically potent variety. The three we discussed in depth last class, and those related, are the only examples of proven magical texts. The remaining 19 authentic texts are, give or take, completely non-magical. Additionally, there are far more non-magical texts when you start to delve into the world of replicas, fakes, and attempted revivals. You can see just a fraction of what I am talking about in our decorating choices today. Though as you know by now, nothing is ever that simple, and that does not mean that these non-magical texts should be completely ignored. Today we will be focusing on the various non-magical and completely inauthentic Rongorongo texts as well as discussing related topics like the difficulties in determining authenticity and revivals of the script.

An Abundance of Duds
As you know from our discussions in Year Two, runic magic has the benefit of lasting for extended periods of time without fading. That is, unless the integrity has been compromised in some way. The runic magic applied to the item is only as viable as the artefact itself. For Rongorongo artefacts, this is a serious consideration to make, as there are few surviving texts that are completely unaffected. Most have at least a notch or two or some wear, at the very least.

Sadly, at least eight, if not more, of the authentic Rongorongo texts were likely magical at one point, but have suffered significant damage and thus can no longer be tested. There are others which may have been magically compromised, or never magical at all, that have been similarly damaged, which makes it difficult to sort through the authenticity of some texts even for magical folk.

Additionally, over the years since the decline of the Rapa Nui civilization, there have been quite a few attempts to reinvigorate the magical script. There are a few different schools of thought on this, and it is a phenomena we will examine more closely at the end of the lesson.

Non-Magical Text Types
Like last week, there are three commonly held subcategories of non-magical texts. There are those that have been damaged (which is the most common and prevalent type), those that have been interfered with in some way, and those that were never magical to begin with. There is often times a fair amount of uncertainty as to which category any given non-magical text fits in, but they are basic starting points. We will look at an example of each, though there are multiple examples as non-magical texts are far more prevalent than their magical counterparts.

Damage
Because of the fact that the Rapa Nui people became more or less illiterate after blackbirding ships destroyed their population, the value of Rongorongo tablets highly diminished. Coupled with the fact that the island was completely deforested and wood was in short supply, many tablets were repurposed for what were deemed “more important” uses like fire-making, fishing tools, or for building materials. Alternatively, some tablets were simply forgotten and left to rot. Many of them were left buried in caves, though no one is entirely sure why they were there in the first place. In any case, rotted or repurposed, the result is the same: the tablets, even if they were once magically activated, are no longer viable.

There are many examples of this category, though one of the most unfortunate can be found in text H. The tablet was used to start fires by rubbing another firemaking tool on it, which severely compromised its magical integrity and legibility, as you can see from the example to the left. The text was originally quite large, and a beautiful specimen complete with fluting. It is hypothesized that the text -- were it still magically viable -- would contain spells to aid in the creation of various potions, or at least contain recipes for them.

Interference
This subset of once-magical texts is equally as disheartening to discover. To be considered part of this group, a text must have been largely regarded as magical at one point or another in its history. However, in most cases, this is impossible to prove, so this classification comes with a fair amount of uncertainty.

Text K, or the small London tablet, is a prime example of this unfortunate circumstance. The text is otherwise in good condition, apart from a small chip that is hypothesized to have predated the runic inscription and therefore would not have damaged the magical ability. However, at some point in the piece’s history, it was redone. The Pacific rosewood plank did at one point have an authentic Rongorongo inscription, but the present inscription is crude and cut in with steel rather than the customary shark tooth and obsidian combination. The erasure of the original inscription to replace it is called a palimpsest, and sadly, this is not the only text to which that name applies.

Magianthropologists and historians are unsure whether this is due to a well-intentioned revival of the script by the fragment of the population left over or if this is yet another example of attempting to create fakes for European collectors, explorers, and tourists. However, it seems unlikely that anyone who wanted to create a tablet to sell would go to all the effort of erasing an original. In any case, text K — like many others — is no longer magical as the new glyphs inscribed over the top lack both the finesse and the magical ability of their predecessors.

Never Magical
On that note, let us move neatly to the topic of forgeries. Technically speaking, forgeries are only a subset of never magical tablets rather than a direct synonym for the whole category. However, because forgeries make up a very large percentage of this category, the two terms are often used interchangeably. It is hypothesized that there were authentic non-magical Rongorongo tablets created throughout the height of Rapa Nui civilization, but we have not been able to prove this hypothesis, as nearly all texts fitting this description have been proven fakes. It is likely that any authentic non-magical texts were either not as well protected with enchantments, or were not as revered and not cared for as their magical brethren, and therefore fell into ruin and disuse. On the other hand, forgeries were purposefully cared for and preserved in order to sell or attempt to use. 

As I have been alluding to, forgeries of Rongorongo were remarkably common in the years immediately after 1863 due to frequent European contact and the peak in interest in the script. Most forgeries were immediately discounted and are not part of the “sacred 26,” as some loose canons of the magiarchaeological world call the established 26 tablets. These lettered and officially accepted texts have been scrutinized by many a scholar. However, as the two scholars most involved in the categorization and compilation of the list early on were non-magical,¹ a few fakes did slip through and make it onto the official list.

Many of these forgeries are widely believed to be remnants of various attempts by the depopulated Rapanui to kick-start and renew their magical prowess to aid them in troubled times. Some of these occurred very shortly after the depopulation, while others are suspected to have been more recent attempts by a potential (though very small) resurgence of Muggle-born Rapanui, perhaps around the 1800s. In any of these cases, the outcome has still been the same: complete failure. There is only one even partially contested success, which we will discuss in a moment.

The forgeries do not work for a number of reasons. First of all, many of the post-peak Rapanui artefacts are inscribed on woods other than the toromiro or Pacific rosewood that were favored by the magical civilization. Additionally, the fact that no one is literate in Rapa Nui has significantly impeded the ability to create any working magical artefacts since.

One such example of a failed Rapanui text that has made it onto the list of 26 is text A, or Tahua. As is common for forgeries, it is not made of native woods, but European ashwood. In fact, the tablet is actually part of the flat of a repurposed European oar. While the glyphs are actually very high quality, and therefore difficult to distinguish from an authentic text non-magically, there are a few red flags, even apart from the non-standard wood used.

First, the fact that the tablet uses a European artefact indicates contact between the two cultures. From studying the Rapanui people’s history, we know that there was a very small window of time between heavy European contact and widespread illiteracy. However, the biggest indicator is the content of the inscription itself. The text is cobbled together out of large strings of glyphs from various confirmed or magical tablets, including texts B, C, and E, as well as some texts that were magical at one point, such as texts H and Q. Magiarchaeologists are quite confident that the rest of the text is simply copied from other texts that were completely lost or destroyed. Because these strings are pasted together in a seemingly haphazard way and are cut off in the middle of generally accepted enchantments, this indicates that the author did not understand what they were copying down. The fact that the script shows no sign of magical residue only further solidifies this theory.

It is most likely that this text was made in an attempt to regain understanding and power by recently depopulated natives shortly after 1863. Despite the fact that it is a forgery, it and many others have been allowed to remain as part of the sacred 26 even in the wizarding world mostly due to our own complacency. However, the fact that the text is based on numerous actual magical texts, some of which do not exist today, is a more compelling reason. The copied fragments on text A are all that exist of previous magical texts and therefore, these sections still merit study.

Resurgence
Before we close our discussion of Rongorongo for the year, we must briefly touch on the topic of resurgence. Earlier, I mentioned that only one text has even come close to being deemed a successful attempt at revitalizing the script. This attempt, though highly contested, is known as Ho’ou.

Magihistorians have dated the fragment of Pacific rosewood back to roughly 1970, solidly dispelling any possibility that the wood carries any traces of older magic.² The text, though now essentially burnt to cinders, was found by Ugandan researchers carefully preserved in a hidden crevice of the caves where the birdman petroglyph is highly prominent. Once it was shipped to the Chilean Museo de Utensilios Magicos and secured, it was immediately tested via magic to determine the type of wood and age with complete certainty in an attempt to discover if the text could possibly be authentic. However, in one of the more catastrophic events in modern magiarchaeology, upon completion of the testing, the tablet burst into flames.

This is pertinent because these common testing spells had never, and should not have, produced this effect on non-magical wood. This reactivity indicates that there was some sort of enchantment upon the object. Sadly, with the destruction of this tablet, it was impossible to study it further.³ However, it does bring us to a difficult set of questions to answer. Could Rongorongo be revitalized? Has it, in fact, already happened in the past? Would revitalized Rongorongo operate the same way as the original? Many suggest it would not, as a way to explain the strange reaction the tablet had. Most interestingly to many magilinguists and anthropologists, if revitalized Rongorongo behaves differently than its ancestor, can it really be considered the same script at all?

Closing
Sadly, these questions and more remain unanswered, and potentially will forever. It is on this note that we close the lesson today. Should you find yourself still pondering the answer to these questions as you lie in bed at night, there are many opportunities for researchers to break into this field. It may be something to keep in mind now that you are approaching the end of your years here at Hogwarts. In the immediate future, you have a midterm on these topics as well as a number of smaller assignments, both required and extra credit. Starting next week, we will move onto our two last scripts of the year, the interrelated Proto-Canaanite and Phoenician.

Footnotes

1. In the early years of Rongorongo study, the wizarding community was more concerned with attempting to unravel the magical secrets of the script and foolishly ignored all other areas. By the time they realized this was an impossible feat to do without understanding the non-magical components of the script as well, much research had already been done. Rather than waste the effort on conducting additional time-consuming studies of their own on the same topic, the magical community simply took the standing Muggle research as good enough. This is the reason for the large amount of non-magical influence in the field, like Barthel’s glyph numbering system. There are a number of academics from various fields that dislike this complacency and suggest we should make our own inquiries into the subjects, but there is not enough traction for any of these studies to become largely accepted or used.
2. This piece of driftwood seemed to have been brought in from another island, and great pains might have been taken to bring in the specific kind of wood from another distant island in Oceania. It is possible that more than one piece of wood was brought in a similar fashion.
3. This is also the reason that magical dating is no longer used on Rongorongo artefacts, though the spells to determine the type of wood still seem to work fine.

Original lesson written by Professor Venita Wessex
Image credits here, here, and here