During my summer holidays in the year 2000, off from work and enjoying a nice time of rest with unusually fine weather in our summer house, I read the book by Thomas Barthel and learned that Easter Island had more than one mystery, not only the famous stone statues but also an undeciphered system of writing.

Realizing that in a few years time I was going to retire, I suddenly saw the possibility to continue an active life even after that by trying to decipher these writings! It would be like a gigantic crossword, keeping myself occupied years ahead. So I decided to try it. I would allocate 10 years for it starting at once.

Of course the number of hours per week initially could not be so many, but it would be enough to make the necessary preparations. First of all I needed to read books about Polynesia in general. And as there was a possibility that Easter Island's old writing system was designed to fit a non-Polynesian language (perhaps originating from South America?), I would also have to orient myself about the whole circumpacific area.

Can an amateur make any progress where the specialists seem to have failed? Why not? Given time and interest at least some results must come out of it.

The experiment: To see what results I will arrive at without consulting what other people already have accomplished. If I arrive at the same results, will it then not be something similar to a proof that the translations are right?

Now that I have retired from work it is time to make an effort to consolidate the results I have reached so far. I have decided to try to write in English and to use HTML / Internet for this effort. I would also like to make my results (though only very preliminary) accessible for others who might be interested.