Structure is important and by establishing as 'fact' that side b of the C text is beginning with a new year - in April 17 when Polaris and the ruling stars of Ashvini were rising heliacally - we can begin to make predictions, for instance that the Hindu system of lunar mansions perhaps can be followed when interpreting the text.
The names of the first 3 nakshatras, as translated in Wikipedia, indicate females. Bharani can probably be thought of as the child-bearer. The 'knife or spear' could refer to how the new Sun is breaking through the fogs of early dawn, similar to how an egg shell is penetrated from its inside by the sharp 'tooth' on the beak of its inhabitant:
In Polynesia the time of this important event could to have been defined by Tau-ono, the 6 (ono) stars (tau) which in rongorongo times were rising with the Sun in May 16 (136) - like nurses tending a newborn. From Bharani (41) to Tau-ono (56) there are 15 days, but possibly the Hindu system once used a date corresponding to May 15 (135) when the first part of the Pleiades rose heliacally, in which case there would be twice 14 days from Sheratan and Mesarthim to the Pleiades. 135 = 5 * 27. Metoro may have identified the 'egg tooth' in Cb1-21, but his hoea means rather the opposite - the time when a sharp instrument changes things from light to dark:
Perhaps the Hindu nakshatra system was used when defining the dates for the C glyphs. The right ascension days of the Hindu ruling stars could have been used to find the corresponding dates in the Gregorian calendar - once created to follow the Sun. But south of the equator May was not a spring month but a month in autumn, not a time when Sun like a chicken was waiting to break through his confinement but a time when the 'old fire' had turned feeble - like a 'smoking mirror' image of his former self - and was no longer capable of warming and giving light as before. This old source of comfort would soon be 'swallowed' by the dark forces. On Easter Island the Gregorian calendar had to be read 'upside down' in order to find the season. Glyph 413 (= 12 * 29½) at May 7 could then be understood as a hoea. 12 lunar synodic months was a total and then the dark times would begin. When Tau-ono rose with the Sun it meant summer was in the past. By turning the Gregorian calendar 'upside down' May could be 'mirrored' as an autumn month (comparable to November north of the equator) and when in May 10 Algenib Persei rose with the Sun, north of the equator indicated light ahead, then the comparable south of the equator event would be in day 314 (November 10) - which date north of the equator could be imagined as a Sign for the day when the cycle of Sun light was ending. The Arabic manzil dates are counted from May 17 and therefore this year was reaching its end with the heliacal rising of the Pleiades. Also this system was created for use north of the equator and possible to use 'upside down'. I will anyhow continue my descriptions by also noting which stars were rising heliacally at the 'upside down' dates of the text. These can be useful when trying to understand the basic meanings of the heliacal stars which are 'standing right side up'. For instance can the Phoenix stars be contrasted with the (upside down) Raven stars. |
