Naturally we expect
the rest of the glyphs in the G text to amount to 260 - the number
equal to the time in the light. However, Small
Santiago Tablet offers too small a surface to enable carving 261
(dark) + 260 (light) = 521 glyphs on it. The total number of glyphs
is 229 (side a) + 242 (side b) = 471:
210 should therefore be read as 42 * 5, where 42 = 3 * 28 (three months with 28 luminous moon nights in each). 5 represents fire (as in the sun). The message is light (in contrast to absence of light, 261). As a confirmation that we have understood the message we can compare with the number of glyphs on each side. 229 on side a is a number which ends in 29 and 242 on side b ends in 42. (Reading 210 as 6 * 35 will not give any such confirmation.) The 9 + 9 'feathers' on the 'back side' (tu'a) of the viri sign in Ga1-6 obviously can be read as those 90 + 90 = 180 days of the year during which sun rules. Those days are gone (at the back) when Gb1-6 is reached. Then follows 261 glyphs representing the rest of the year. There often is no direct arithmetical relationship between number signs in the glyphs and the number of nights (or days) in the real world. Probably 261 should be read as 26 weeks + 1. 26 * 7 = 182 and if we add 1 we reach 183. 180 + 183 = 363 < 365. The reason for not reaching 365 is that we have counted together two different sorts, 'sun' and 'moon'. If we count 'according to moon' in summer too we will have twice 26 weeks + 1 = 365. Moon can be seen also in the summer nights. |
||||||||
