In 1956 Nikolai Butinov and Yuri Knorozov argued in an article in Sovetskaja Ehtnografija ("Soviet Ethnography") that a sequence of signs on the tablet known as "Small Santiago Tablet" was probably a genealogy. An English translation was published the following year in the Journal of the Polynesian Society.
That sequence of signs occurs towards the beginning of line 6 of the verso of the Small Santiago Tablet, reproduced above. The repetitive pattern, ABCZ ACDZ ADEZ AEFZ, is compatible with a genealogy, for instance: King A son of B, King B son of C, King C son of D, etc. Alfred Métraux did not believe that the signs constituted a writing system, but he changed his mind on seeing Butinov and Knorozov's evidence.
If indeed that is a genealogy, then sign Z, in red in the above illustration, is certainly a taxogram for patronymics, and sign A, in blue, is perhaps a title.
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