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6. If Antares is at mago in Ga7-16 and an equinox is at viri in Ga5-11, then the beginning of side a on the G tablet could be said to document a time with Sun 'absent' from Easter Island:
Or we could say these 182 days represent the half year with Sun 'present', because the glyphs which I have identified with the rear and the entrance pillars could be for someone who looks at the stars in the night and needs a map of the sky to find heliacal risings by way of the nakshatra method; Aldebaran when looked at in the night is south of the equator a sign of summer. The same glyphs can be used to describe the whereabouts of the stars from a position north of the equator as well as from a position south of the equator. Night comes at the same time on both sides of the equator. The nakshatra method will give the same result on both sides of the equator and an observer on Easter Island will deduce which star is rising heliacally and get the same result as an observer north of the equator. Therefore we should at first avoid trying to define which equinox is meant at Ga5-11. However, 472 = 182 + 290 seems to indicate Sun is referred to from Aldebaran up to and including Antares. At no time in history has the distance between them been so much as 182 days (always less then the present 181), therefore the equation 182 + 290 = 472 could indicate that Sun 'rules' for half 364 days and then follows 10 months with 29 nights in each (where 29 as a number sign implies 'no Sun light on Moon'). Thus we can guess viri in Ga5-11 is meant to indicate spring equinox on Easter Island rather than autumn equinox north of the equator. Close to the end of side a the brilliant Vega is perhaps alluded to by the thick curve at the top of the nuku element at left in Ga8-15, because we can guess it refers to the Apex of the Sun's Way, close to the north pole. According to G this point in time arrives 33 days after the 'entrance pillar':
The apex in the path of Sun should be at midsummer, we might think, when Sun stands at his highest in the sky. But the G text instead seems to point at day number 64 + 186 + 33 = 283 (= 219 + 64), counted from spring equinox north of the equator.
80 + 283 = 363, alternatively 89 + 283 = 372. Both these numbers are relevant for the reader of rongorongo texts, e.g. can 372 be explained as 572 - 200 (cfr at The Big Man). And 14 * 29½ - 50 = 363, where 50 could refer to the 50 nights when Venus is invisible between her appearances as morning star in the east and as evening star in the west (see chapter 8). 363 is a palindrome, a sequence of signs which can illustrate a change from one side to the opposite. South of the equator it is easy to see that summer solstice ought to be 90 days after spring equinox, and 122 + 90 = 212 is one week earlier than Ga8-15. Perhaps Vega marks the end of the solstice. However, we could alternatively count 266 + 283 - 365 = 184 and then easily deduce this to be one week later than glyph number 177:
But we have so far no firm ground for counting days from puo in Gb8-26 as if it marked winter solstice. The tail of vaha mea in Ga1-4 is not open in front (whereas the tail in Ga7-16 is widely open). The beginning of side a evidently describes a dark time. This is undeniable. Above has been argued for the season of Sun arriving not far later, with spring equinox at viri in Ga5-11. The dark time at the beginning of side a can therefore hardly refer to the whole of side a. Instead it could refer to the season of winter solstice. 122 - 87 = 35:
Though if we instead should count the difference between 122 and 89 (the distance from winter solstice to spring equinox north of the equator) we will arrive at Canopus. And if we should count from the 1st of January we will reach to ω Gemini, because 122 - 80 = 42. The first line of glyphs on side a could represent winter solstice and the first glyphs in line a2 could be a description of how light is about to return. Alhena is γ Gemini and the Twins ('The Doublegood Pair') was in ancient times announcing the return of Sun at spring equinox: ... the constellation Punarvasu is quite equivalent to our Gemini, the Twins. In far antiquity (5800 B.C.) the spring equinoctial point was predicted by the heliacal rising of the Twins ... By 4700 B.C. the equinox lay squarely in Gemini ... Beyond the 'fish-hook' of ω Gemini (which illustrates twin hooks, one above the other) is the beginning ot the 8th right ascension hour. Glyph number 42 alludes to 7 * 60 = 420 and 420 / 1440 * 365¼ = 106.53. When Maui is fishing up land it probably refers to this point in time: ... Blow gently, whakarua, / blow gently, mawake, / my line let it pull straight, / my line let it pull strong. My line it is pulled, / it has caught, / it has come. The land is gained, / the land is in the hand, / the land long waited for, / the boasting of Maui, / his great land / for which he went to sea, / his boasting, it is caught. A spell for the drawing up of the world ... As if by magic the light ('land') will return after having been down at the rock bottom of the southern sea, below the ecliptic where old Canopus is stationed, sitting with a curved back at his eternal fire, possibly kept in a brazier on his head (cfr at Atua Mata Viri):
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