TRANSLATIONS

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The structure I proposed cannot be right:

summer 1 macaw 2 quetzal 3 blue dove
1:st half of winter 4 'owl' 5 'eagle'
crack 6 icim
2nd half of winter 7 'turkey' 8 muan

Muan must fly in the evening, not in the morning. Vultures and owls belong to the last phase of summer, and then follows the 'quake' (16 Ollin):

10

Ozomatli (monkey)

Chuen

monkey

11

Malinalli (grass)

Eb

broom

12

Acatl (reed)

Ben

reed

13

Ocelotl (jaguar)

Ix

tiger, magician

14

Cuauhtli (eagle)

Men

bird, eagle

15

Cozcacuauhtli (buzzard)

Cib

owl, vulture

16

Ollin (movement)

Caban

force, earth

17

Tecpatl (flint knife)

Etz'nab

flint knife

18

Quiahuitl (rain)

Cauac

storm, tun

19

Xochitl (flower)

Ahau

lord

It would be too much of a twist to put Muan at the end of winter - irrespective of whether the sky observations were done in the morning or in the evening. The bird list in Manuscript E also has an owl at the end of the sun season:

1

manu tara

9

tavake

2

pi riuriu

10

ruru

3

kava eoeo

11

taiko

4

te verovero

12

kumara

5

ka araara

13

kiakia

6

kukuru toua

14

tuvi

7

makohe

15

tuao

8

kena

16

tavi

"The next two names on the list ar ruru and taiko (numbers 10 and 11). While those two represent two different species, it should be pointed out that the combined name ruru-taiko refers in MAO. to a black petrel (Procellaria parkinsoni).

There are no cultural data available for ruru, which seems to be derived from PPN. *lulu 'owl', or for taiko (compare RAR. taiko 'black petrel', MGV. tiaku, 'petrel?, omen of death'), but the textual association of taiko and spirits should be kept in mind (Campbell 1971:113)." (Barthel 2)

I associated ruru to the great sailor and humpbacked earthquake god Ru, whose season could correspond to Ollin:

23
Ga6-9 Ga6-10 Ga6-11

The order between the Mayan birds is wrong. It must be the mirrored:

1:st half of winter 11 muan 12 'turkey'
crack 13 icim (Ix)
2nd half of winter 14 'eagle' (Men) 15 'owl' (Cib)

We have forgotten the wave pattern. It must be part of a true explanation:

The two first birds are perching on what I believe is the Moon goddess. Macaw is the Great Dipper and belongs to the beginning of the year, while Quetzal must belong to the opposite 'pole'. Macaw re-presents Waxing Moon and Quetzal the Waning Moon. At the beginning of Waning Moon the full moon is located at 'zenith' - therefore the sitting posture. I think we can translate this structure of a sitting posture to rongorongo. In Thursday (which must correspond to the beginning of waning week) there are people sitting down:

Hb9-39 Hb9-40 Hb9-41 Hb9-42
Hb9-43 Hb9-44 Hb9-45 Hb9-46 Hb9-47

The structure of the two faces of the moon was used to map the sun year. At new year we should think about new moon, at full moon we should think midsummer etc. Looking at the stars in the sky it will be dark, and Macaw indicates the position of new year. Quetzal should be a star to watch for in summer. Macaw should represent the 1st half of the year, Quetzal the 2nd half.

The wave of the wave pattern is easily understood. But then comes more undulations. I suggest we should reinterpret the bird structure so that there are two groups, 2 + 6 birds. The 6 following (those who fly instead of perch) should represent sun stations - there is no Moon goddess to perch on. The undulations must be tabulated:

Body position: 'seated' 'kneeling
1:st half of winter 11 muan -
- 12 'turkey'
crack 13 icim (Ix) -
2nd half of winter - 14 'eagle' (Men)
15 'owl' (Cib) -
- 16 'blue dove' (Caban)

... Pewa-o-Tautoru, Bird-snare-of-Tautoru; the constellation Orion in New Zealand. The Belt and Sword form the perch, te mutu or te teke, while Rigel is the blossom cluster, Puanga, used to entice the unsuspecting bird. To visualize the bird-snare we must remember that Orion, as we see it in the northern hemisphere, is upside down to the view obtained from New Zealand where Orion stands in the northern sky...

The word for year, tau, also means to perch.

The 'blue dove' becomes number 16 and Caban means 'earth, force' (Ollin = movement). There are 'quakes' both at Muan and at Caban, the major changes from summer to winter and back again.

Then we must consider the similar wave pattern related to Mayan number 168, also connected with birds in the sky:

... For help in figuring out how the zodiac works, I went to David Kelley's Deciphering the Maya Script. He had noticed that there are distance numbers of 168 days between each of the pictures [in a zodiac in the Paris Codex]. These intervals served to place the constellations on opposite sides of the sky rather than right next to each other ...

 

... I now have read in Kelley about 168, and nothing new of importance has emerged. 6 * 28 is noted between the zodiacal signs ...

With 168 days between successive zodiacal signs an undulating pattern emerges. Once again I look up the relevant pages in Kelley. These are his tabulated 'tentative identifications' of the Mayan zodiacal signs:

1 Bird 4 Cancer June 21 July 22
2 Rattlesnake (Venus) 9 Sagittarius November 22 December 21
3 Turtle 3 Gemini May 20 June 20
4 Scorpion 8 Scorpio October 23 November 21
5 Cox bird? 2 Taurus April 20 May 19
6 Fish snake 7 Libra September 23 October 22
7 Bird 1 Aries March 21 April 19
8 Peccary 6 Virgo August 22 September 22
9 Bat (Moon) 12 Pisces February 20 March 20
10 (naab) 5 Leo July 23 August 21
11 ?? 11 Aquarius January 21 February 19
12 Skeleton (Skull) 4 Cancer June 21 July 22
- 10 Capricorn December 22 January 20

The redmarked Mayan constellations are up in the sky - all are 'birds', excepting the 'turtle'. The bluemarked are down on the earth. The wave pattern depends on 'sitting down on earth' and 'standing high in the sky'.

The 'turtle' probably refers to the Crab Nebula below the Belt of Orion. It is strange to find her up in the sky. Only if you watch her from a point south of the equator (as for instance in Polynesia) does it seem right to think of her as up in the sky.