Thank you, Scribe.

I have uploaded a gif of the beginning of line 12 of the
Santiago Staff (I could not figure out how to attach it
to a post)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/qalam/files/STAFF12.GIF


This image, STAFF12.GIF, shows the first few signs
according to Barthel and according to Fischer. The difference
between the two drawings of the first sign is striking,
and inexplicable. Note also how the last sign differs,
minimally, yes, but we do not know whether these are
two allographs or two graphemes until (rather, IF) the
rongorongo are deciphered, at least in part.

Would-be decipherers are constantly confronted with
such uncertainties which, given the very small size
of the corpus, ensure that any decipherment is highly
questionable, however convincing and well argued
it may be.

Worse: most are not even aware that they are working
on tainted data.