This is a *wonderful* piece on the Rongorongo script of Easter Island. It gives a brief but accurate overview of the linguistic work on the script, but more importantly explores the importance, mystery and magic of this enigmatic and fascinating script.
cabinetmagazine.org/issues/64/mika…
cabinetmagazine.org/issues/64/mika…
Worth noting that the hypothesis advanced in this article - that the Rongorongo script originated after the islanders had initial exposure to Western writing in 1770 - is not universally accepted by scholars in the field, and there is at least some evidence that contradicts it. 
This distinction matters: if the Rongorongo script predates any Western contact (as the Rapa Nui islanders themselves believe, and which some evidence expressly indicates), it would make it only the 5th (or perhaps 4th) indisputably independent originations of writing on earth.
My own view is that the script certainly is far older than the "1770" hypothesis claims. There's no other recorded incidence in history where a single, very limited, one-off exposure to Western writing has inspired the creation of a new script in any 'pre-script' population. 1/2
And since we know the Rongorongo script was already dying or dead by the 1870's, the "1770" hypothesis asks us to believe that a script was orignated, refined, used widely, declined and died in the space of a century - again, something which has never been recorded elsewhere. 2/2
As with the Phaistos disk from Crete, there is no shortage of deluded souls who believe that they - and they alone - have deciphered this script. One of them, Steven Fischer, has even written a book, "Glyphbreaker", confidently asserting his claim to have deciphered both scripts.
