Tahana glyphs were used in the rongorongo calendars to indicate where one 'year' was ending and another beginning. An example will illustrate this:
Side a of the G text has 230 glyphs (given that we count with Gb8-30 as a first glyph), i.e. the first glyph on side b will be number 231. In H this number occurs if we count from tahana in Ha3-39 up to and including tahana (the sign at right) in Ha7-33. It is no coincidence, because 7 * 33 (as in Ha7-33) is equal to 231 - a method which was used for verifying a correct reading of the texts. Tahana in Ha3-45 comes 6 positions later (than tahana in Ha3-39). Probably its function is to point at a glyph 6 positions later than Ha7-33:
The signs in the complicated glyphs Ha7-38--39 confirm that the sun is turning around from 'waxing' to 'waning' and a new 'year' is beginning at Ha7-39. In G the 'parallel' glyphs are very different, but they convey the same information in other terms:
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