The Paris Snuff Box (Y) has text on all its sides. Fisher says wrongly "Here a small part of a tablet inscription has been cannibalised in order to fashion a six-sided snuffbox." Such is not the case. The rongorongo texts on the box form a complete whole. Nothing is missing. This will now be proven (as far as such can be done with the means at hand). First we have the number of glyphs and their distribution on the 6 pages (a-f):
There are 84 glyphs distributed in 3 different calendars (which I have labelled I, II and III). The number of glyphs in these calendars is determined by the structure of respective calendar and by the space on each side. 42 we can recognize as 7 * 60 = 6 * 70 (the '7th flame of the sun'). 24 is equal to e.g. our own idea of how many hours there are in a day. 18 easily can be imagined as the number of 'decades' of days in half a year. Other interpretations exist and they are equally valid. For instance is twice 21 also the number of the assessors which are helping Osiris to judge the souls of the dead in the Hall of Two Truths:
The creators of the rongorongo texts probably used such numbers which had been tried and found to be good by the ancients. No newly 'invented' numbers were used. That is what I think, because there are limits to what can be done with low natural numbers and 'simple' arithmetic. Though these limits encompass incredibly much more than we moderns are able to imagine. There is no glyph line with an odd number of glyphs, excepting Ya3 and Yb1:
That was necessary in order to make calendar I reflect what happens according to its structure. 42 is the sum of 3 times 14 (6 + 8, 7 + 7, respectively 8 + 6). Calendar I can be read as a year with 300 days, yet it manages to describe this year in a consistent way with 42 glyphs distributed as 14 + 14 + 14. Remarkable! It also hints that 300 is only half the whole cycle, because the lunar cycle is based on twice 29.5 nights, of which only 28 are to be counted (when moon is visible). 42 = 28 + 14 (= 1½ months). Pairs are to be used when calendars are constructed. 14 = two weeks and 28 = 2 * 14, etc. Therefore the whole snuff box should have 84 = 2 * 42 glyphs. The structure of calendar I is not trivial. Indeed, it was a rather cumbersome task to piece it together. The information carried by the glyphs must agree with what the numbers are saying (and the planets, and our earlier experiences from other tablet texts). Calendar I is presented here. |
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