7. Based on the right ascension data the distance from Mirach to Anunitum is half a day, because there are 24 * 60 = 1440m in the right ascension cycle and 2m / 1440m * 365¼ days = ca 0.5073 days:
If we approximate the year with 360 days the equation is 2 / 1440 * 360 = ½, i.e. there are 4 right ascension minutes in a day - a convenient way to count. The data for this pair of stars proves that if the glyphs in G should be completely in parallel, then there will be 1 glyph for half a day or 2 glyphs in a day instead of my up to now used measure of 1 glyph per day:
But presumably each star could have been imagined to be at a glyph only approximately in the right place. The rising fish (Piscis Boreus) is touched on its back by the left arm of Andromeda and it is (in Hevelius' picture) drawn between the stars of Andromeda and the stars of Pisces. Maybe the left part in Gb7-15 refers to the star η Andromedae or to her left arm. From Antares (Ana-mua, the 'star in front') to Aldebaran (Ana-muri, the 'star at the end') the data indicates a distance in time of (1440 + 275.9 - 989.4) / 1440 * 365¼ = 184.3 days (or 726.5 / 4 = 181.6 days):
South of the equator Antares is a sign of the arrival of summer, not a sign of its end. And Aldebaran is rising heliacally late in autumn (ca 275.9 / 4 = 69 days after autumn equinox). On Tahiti it would therefore have been natural to consider Antares as the 'star in front' and Aldebaran as the 'star at the end'. If Antares should be at Ga7-16, then Aldebaran could be at glyph number 186 + 184 = 270:
Day number 266 probably indicates autumn equinox and to put Aldebaran at Gb2-14 is to dismiss those 69 days as irrelevant, a solution I cannot believe in without further evidence. Instead I have earlier considered another alternative, viz. that Aldebaran could be at the beginning of side a:
The logic of this interpretation is that south of the equator the same images could have been used as north of the equator. Thus vaha mea in Ga1-4 could be an image of the arrival of summer north of the equator. 186 - 5 = 181 is just where we wish it to be (181 + 184 = 365). But of course we could instead put Antares at Ga1-4 (because it is 'the star in front') and Aldebaran at Ga7-16 (to show it is the 'Scorpion down in the south'). This solution will have time running not with the glyphs but 'withershins'. |
