My arguments have lead me to the conclusion that the calendar for the year used on the back side of the tablet was probably neither Gregorian nor Julian but of a pre-Julian kind, a calendar with (normally) 350 + 5 = 355 days. It was Julius Caesar who inserted July and August as new months, to be added to the old ones. The pre-Julian months ought therefore to have been 10 in number. 350 / 10 = 35 = 5 weeks. We should reassess the meaning of the text immediately after Terminalia:
The creator of the text may have been aware of the Julian calendar with its Bissextum (twice February 24). Clearly the figures at left and right of the pair of connected marama signs in Cb13-16 are drawn to mark where the center of interest should be, viz. where we perhaps are meant to count to the pre-Julian day 13 * 16 = 350. Cb13-15 is glyph 314 on side b and the completed π day could have needed also the following day. February 25 = 314 + 1 days beyond heliacal Polaris in April 16 (106). 106 + 315 = 421 and 421 - 80 = 341, which in rongorongo times was the RA day number corresponding to February 25. Februarius 25 was day number 29 (Ianiarius) + 25 = 54, which could have been perceived as twice 27. Using a month with 27 days, we can count 355 / 27 = 13.148148 ... = 13 * 27 + 4. And 14 * 27 = 378 (corresponding to the synodic cycle of Saturn). February 25 could be day 25 in the 14th month and 14 * 25 = 350. Counting with the Moon a calendar year measuring 350 well ordered and stable nights would presumably not have had 10 months but 14 months. Although March 25 (spring equinox according to Caesar) could have been read as 325 = 13 * 25. Beyond day 350 should then come the last 5 'creative nights' of the year (when Nut - the mother in the night - gave birth):
57 (Februarius 28 in my assumed pre-Julian calendar) = 3 * 19 and this could be alluded to in Cb13-19. Similarly, 3 * 17 = 51 (Cb13-13), 3 * 18 = 54 (Cb13-16), 3 * 20 = 60 (Cb13-22). However, there are 28 glyphs remaining to the end of side b, which possibly could be explained by pointing at the necessity to sometimes count with 378 days in the leap years. 378 - 28 = 350 and 28 = 23 + 5:
My idea implies the last 5 glyphs on side b could represent those 'creative nights' which belong in a leap year with 378 days. They would then be different in kind from (and complementary to) those 5 similar nights in an ordinary year:
But a leap year would sometimes not be 378 but 377 days long and then Cb14-18 could represent the 5th of the added 'creative nights'. Or else the leap year with 377 days could have had only 4 additional such nights. March could be the 15th month and 15 * 28 = 420:
... The four bereaved and searching divinities, the two mothers and their two sons, were joined by a fifth, the moon-god Thoth (who appears sometimes in the form of an ibis-headed scribe, at other times in the form of a baboon), and together they found all of Osiris save his genital member, which had been swallowed by a fish. They tightly swathed the broken body in linen bandages, and when they performed over it the rites that thereafter were to be continued in Egypt in the ceremonial burial of kings, Isis fanned the corpse with her wings and Osiris revived, to become the rule of the dead. He now sits majestically in the underworld, in the Hall of the Two Truths, assisted by forty-two assessors, one from each of the principal districts of Egypt; and there he judges the souls of the dead. These confess before him, and when their hearts have been weighed in a balance against a feather, receive, according to their lives, the reward of virtue and the punishment of sin. Julius Caesar defined March 25 as the day of spring equinox. This could explain the strange manu kake in Cb14-15 (where 4 * 15 = 60 = 2 * 30 and 14 * 15 = 210 = 7 * 30 - signs of the Sun). Possibly a leap year with 378 nights was used in order to coordinate the old Moon calendar with the new Sun calendar implemented by Caesar. 736 (Cb14-15) = 364 + 372 = 26 * 14 + 31 * 12. In rongorongo times Acrux was close to the Full Moon and according to the Hawaiian authorities it was Acrux which (together with Polaris) defined where time had separated Tagaroa from Tane: ... The first line is drawn from Hoku-paa, the fixed or North Star, to the most southerly star of Newe, the Southern Cross ... The portion (of the sky) to the right or east of this line (the observer is evidently assumed to be facing north) is called ke ala ula a Kane, the dawning or bright road of Kane, and that to the left or west is called ke alanui maawe ula a Kanaloa, the much-traveled highway of Kanaloa ...
I think we instead should join nakshatra Acrux at March 25 to the heliacal pair Ankaa and κ Phoenicis in March 26. Manu puoko erua (bird with a pair of heads) could have been Metoro's way of explaining the special character of the manu kake type of glyph in Cb14-15:
14 * 26 = 364. Nakshatra Acrux followed by the heliacal pair Ankaa and κ Phoenicis could be the reason for manu puoko erua and heliacal Achernar followed by nakshatra Benetnash (η Ursae Majoris) could be the reason for manu kake rua.
In rongorongo times the much-traveled highway of Tagaroa would then have ended with March 25 (concluding with the equinoctial day in a manner which can be compared to how there seems to be no glyph at March 21 at the beginning of the C text). The 'dawning or bright road' of the returning 'Fire Bird' (Ankaa, α Phoenicis) would have begun with March 26 and its shadow companion κ would have explained why there had to be 2 stars when light reemerged - there is no light without shadows. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
