RIGEL
 

In an agricultural society - not going anywhere but staying put - the idea of space was not very relevant. But the idea of when was important for ensuring a crop of plenty.

'Where' is primarily anwered with focus on a single spot.

... I do want it, said the maiden. Very well. Stretch out your right hand here, so I can see it, said the bone. Yes, said the maiden. She stretched out her right hand, up there in front of the bone. And then the bone spit out its saliva, which landed squarely in the hand of the maiden. And then she looked in her hand, she inspected it right away, but the bone's saliva wasn't in her hand. It is just a sign I have given you, my saliva, my spittle. This, my head, has nothing on it - just bone, nothing of meat. It's just the same with the head of a great lord: it's just the flesh that makes his face look good. And when he dies, people get frightened by his bones. After that, his son is like his saliva, his spittle, in his being, whether it be the son of a lord or the son of a craftsman, an orator. The father does not disappear, but goes on being fulfilled. Neither dimmed nor destroyed is the face of a lord, a warrior, craftsman, an orator. Rather, he will leave his daughters and sons. So it is that I have done likewise through you. Now go up there on the face of the earth; you will not die. Keep the word. So be it, said the head of One and Seven Hunaphu - they were of one mind when they did it ...

'When' on the other hand requires a minimum of two references:

Counting on your fingers evidently does not end with 32 (→ 24º N + 8º S → Rigel). The equator line has not been counted. Instead the tip of your right hand long finger will arrive. 22, 23, 24, 9 + 24.

This perspective makes Mars interesting, because it was observed that he followed a pattern of return based on 2 years (pairs, twins):

Circuit of the planet Mars

Aug 23 (258, *178.0)

Nov 6 (258 + 52 = 310, *230)

Dec 28 (310 + 52 = 362, *282)

 

Febr 20 (*336, 416 = 364 + 52)

2023 (→ 460)

2025

2027

2030 (→ 600)

LION

SCORPION

GOAT

PEGASUS

93 LEONIS

VRISCHIKA (π Scorpii)

DABIH (β Capricornii)

SIRRAH (α Andromedae)

*178.0

*241 ( 178 + 63)

*308.0 ( 178.0 + 130.0)

0h (*285 → 178 + 107)

We should here notice that 3 * 52 = 156, which 'happens to be' twice the number of days from 0h to Rigel, the Foot of Orion.

It suggests a new Rigel cycle might have been perceived as beginning after around twice 156 days ≈ 314.

... In north Asia the common mode of reckoning is in half-year, which are not to be regarded as such but form each one separately the highest unit of time: our informants term them 'winter year' and 'summer year'. Among the Tunguses the former comprises 6½ months, the latter 5, but the year is said to have 13 months; in Kamchatka each contains six months, the winter year beginning in November, the summer year in May; the Gilyaks on the other hand give five months to summer and seven to winter. The Yeneseisk Ostiaks reckon and name only the seven winter months, and not the summer months. This mode of reckoning seems to be a peculiarity of the far north: the Icelanders reckoned in misseri, half-years, not in whole years, and the rune-staves divide the year into a summer and a winter half, beginning on April 14 and October 14 respectively. But in Germany too, when it was desired to denote the whole year, the combined phrase 'winter and summer' was employed, or else equivalent concrete expressions such as 'in bareness and in leaf', 'in straw and in grass' ...

Why should we count thus when we instead could count 3 * 52 - 100 = 56 (→ Alcyone in the Pleiades → 78 - 22)?

... Why should we count thus? Because the Julian equinox was defined as day 84 counted from January 1 and by adding 16 in order to reach the corresponding day in ancient times - when they waited late at night for the return to visibility of the relevant star - the sum will become a nice 100 ...

And for an observer living not far up in the north but far down in the south, as on Easter Island (27º S), the idea of misseri ought to have been attractive (beautiful). 24 (N) + equator + 26 (S)= 51 = 4 * 13 (→ 14 * 29½) - 1.

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