The “Topaze stick fragment”—a newly discovered rongorongo-inscribed artifact collected during the Rapa Nui (Easter Island) visit of HMS Topaze in 1868

Abstract

In this article, we document a small wooden relic from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) acquired by a crewmember of HMS Topaze during the ship’s visit to the island in 1868. Despite its otherwise unassuming appearance, it is significant in that it bears a short rongorongo (the indigenous script of Easter Island) inscription carved on one side. It was only after locating the “Kell Hand” artifact (Schoch and Melka 2022), also collected during the 1868 Topaze visit and bearing a short rongorongo inscription, that the current authors became aware of this second Topaze-collected rongorongo-inscribed item. Herein, we describe and analyze the inscription found on the “Topaze stick fragment.” Given the serendipitous emergence of Topaze-collected artifacts not previously documented in the literature, there is the lingering hope that further pieces bearing rongorongo inscriptions may come to light in the future, whether associated with the Topaze or other visiting ships during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.