There was a hole (rua) in the east through which the Sun rose in the morning and another hole in the west through which he left in the evening. This conception seems to have been in the minds of the ancient Mesopotamians:

... In ancient Babylonia they imagined the earth was bulging upwards because down below under the earth, in the darkness, there was a huge freshwater reservoir (apsū). The form of the earth was therefore like an overturned boat. I suggest the same kind of world view could have been shared by the creators of the rongorongo texts. Above there was a sky dome and below the sky dome the earth was also dome-shaped like an overturned canoe - i.e. formed like a hare paega. There were two shells ...

... Sky (rangi) and Earth (papa) lay in primal embrace, and in the cramped, dark space between them procreated and gave birth to the gods such as Tane, Rongo and Tu. Just as children fought sleep in the stifling darkness of a hare paenga, the gods grew restless between their parents and longed for light and air. The herculean achievement of forcing Sky to separate from Earth was variously performed by Tane in New Zealand and the Society Islands, by Tonofiti in the Marquesas and by Ru (Tu) in Cook Islands. After the sky was raised high above the earth, props or poles were erected between them and light entered, dispelling the darkness and bringing renewed life. One detail which is iconographically of interest is whether the god responsible for separating Earth and Sky did so by raising the Sky with his upraised arms and hands, as in Tahiti and elsewhere, or with his feet as in New Zealand ...

... It is certainly true that the exterior form of the hare paenga, when the superstructure and thatch are intact, resembles an overturned boat, with the form established by the foundation. However, it is equally true (and perhaps equally important) that the configuration of the foundation is otherwise most like the Rapa Nui vulva design called komari. The komari is the quintessential female symbol which is everywhere prominent in Rapa Nui art, often carved in rock and wood, incised on human crania, and painted on the human body.

In the hare paenga foundation form, the komari is cut in stone and embedded in the earth, the cosmologically female realm. Spanning above, over and virtually into this komari foundation is the ridgepole 'backbone' and curved rafter 'ribs' of what I surmise to be a symbolically male form. In short, we have a shelter which may be metaphorically understood as 'the sky father enclosing his progeny as he embraces the earth'. Those progeny entered and departed this male/female, earth/sky form through a low, dark tunnel which may be logically compared to the birth canal.

This postulated symbolism does not, of course, negate the 'overturned boat' comparison, since Polynesian canoes were often likened to the bodies of great ancestors or to Tane as First Man. The canoe which transported the first exploratory voyage to Rapa Nui was said to have been called The Living Wood, a reference to Tane. Indeed, it is likely that the 'overturned boat' concept and its relationship to home, hearth and lineage, which is so graphically visible, was commonly understood (hence its retention in the oral literature), while the more esoteric godly connections, perhaps along the lines of those explored here, were known only by spiritual leaders ...

…to enter a war canoe from either the stern or the prow was equivalent to a 'change of state or death'. Instead, the warrior had to cross the threshold of the side-strakes as a ritual entry into the body of his ancestor as represented by the canoe. The hull of the canoe was regarded as the backbone of their chief. In laments for dead chiefs, the deceased are often compared to broken canoes awash in the surf ...

... At the letter i there is 'der Versammlungsraum mit der Schicksalskammer' (assembly hall with a room for deciding the outcome) ... An element of hazard (gambling) was present at the equinoxes according to the ancient Babylonians: ... In ancient Babylonia they imagined the earth was bulging upwards because down below under the earth, in the darkness, there was a huge freshwater reservoir (apsū). The form of the earth was therefore like an overturned boat: Da ferner sofort nachgewiesen werden wird, dass sich der apsū unter der Erde ihrer ganzen Ausdehnung nach befindet und ein Höhlung unter der Erde nur verursacht werden kann durch eine Wölbung der Erde, werden wir nicht umhinkönnen, diese Vorstellung von dem apsū wieder gespiegelt zu sehen in dem Bericht des Diodor, dem gemäss die Erde von den Chaldäern in der Gestalt eines umgestülpten Bootes vorgestellt wurde ...

In Egyptian thought Night (Nut) handed over (delivered) the Sun in the morning,

... Nut, whom the Greeks sometimes identified with Rhea, was goddess of the sky, but it was debatable if in historical times she was the object of a genuine cult. She was Geb's twin sister and, it was said, married him secretly and against the will of Ra. Angered, Ra had the couple brutally separated by Shu and afterwards decreed that Nut could not bear a child in any given month of any year. Thoth, Plutarch tells us, happily had pity on her. Playing draughts with the Moon, he won in the course of several games a seventy-second part of the Moon's light with which he composed five new days. As these five intercalated days did not belong to the official Egyptian calendar of three hundred and sixty days, Nut was thus able to give birth successively to five children: Osiris, Haroeris (Horus), Set, Isis and Nepthys ...

... Curiously the spine of a human consists of 7 neck bones, 12 dorsal bones and 5 tail bones, 24 vertebra in all. Certainly this was noticed very early and thereafter incorporated into the myths, wherever suitable. 5 tail bones (although no tail was visible outside the human body) must correspond to the 5 extra days at the end of the year (not visible in the calendar) ...

and Mother Earth grasped the Sun at the end of the Day:

But it was said that anciently the Sun had travelled too fast from the horizon in the east to the horizon in the west. This myth could have been a way to teach about the change from 10 months to 12 months.

... Maui took the sacred tresses of his sister Hina, he cut off lengths of Hina's hair and plaited it, to make a rope whose mana could not be destroyed by Ra. He took that noose of Hina's hair, he travelled eastward to the border of the sea; he placed his ropes around the pit from which the sun rises, waited there, he waited for the dawn. Then Ra came up, he came up from the spirit-world which lies in the east. Maui pulled the cord, he caught the sun-god by the throat! Ra struggled, kicked, he screamed against the sky. 'Then will you go more slowly if I turn you loose?' The sun then promised Maui, 'Let me go, and I will move more slowly, I will make longer days for your fishing'. Since that time, men have had longer days in which to go about their work ...

If the days grew longer, then also the year would become longer.

Ba1-1	Ba1-2	Ba1-3	Ba1-4	Ba1-5
Ka tuu i te Ragi	ki te henua	e rua	no Hoatumatua	ka hakanohoa

Should we try to count from the beginning of side b, then the position of Ba1-3 will become day number 506 + 3 = 509, which 'happens to be' equal to 365 + 12 * 12 = 364 + 145 = 2 * 182 + 290 / 2 (where 290 = 182 + 108).

The Sun promised to move more slowly in order to make longer days for fishing. And as if by design day 144 on side a of the G tablet marked the Pillar-to-fish-by: