To read the rongorongo texts it was evidently necessary to use both the time frame of rongorongo (updated with the Sun's precessional movement) and a First Point of Aries calendar (not updated with the Sun's precessional movement). When the Sun gradually 'consumed' more and more nights - arrived steadily earlier in the year - the First Point of Aries calendar would gradually diminish correspondingly. In rongorongo times 340 days would have been its remaining measure. The total amount of glyphs in the C text was 740 (= 392 + 348). If 340 of them were for the remains of a First Point of Aries calendar, then there would be 400 remaining. The last 8 glyphs on side b could have been regarded as equal to 400 - 392, representing 8 dark nights outside the ordinary calendar structure:
There were 8 dark nights when Venus was invisible before returning as morning star, a phenomenon which could have been compared to the return of the Sun in spring. The last 8 glyphs on side b had no 'earth' (henua, cfr Cb14-11) and the time was the same as at the beginning of the text on side a, viz. the northern spring equinox in rongorongo times respectively Terminalia ('February 23) in the times of Al Sharatain:
When counting the distance from Cb1-6 to Ca1-5, past the end of side b and on to the beginning of side a, it would have been necessary to subtract 8 glyphs in order to make the numbers fit together. 745 (Ca1-5) - 398 (Cb1-6) = 347 and 347 - 8 = 339:
Another aspect of making the numbers fit together may have been a wish to use a year with 366 days in order to arrive at 26 days' difference between rongorongo times and the times of Al Sharatain:
Although there were 27 days from March 21 to April 17 the influence of Antares rising at declination 26º S may have been strong. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
