TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

INTERLUDE 2

Adding zero changes nothing, multiplying by 1 changes nothing. There is a mysterious quality uniting 0 and 1.

0 was once the unknown, similar to X nowadays. When a cycle ends zero is reached and the future is uncertain.

When a baby is born his future is unknown. The concept of te pito is a way to materialize the mysterious.

This night I woke up from a dream - my kuhane (dream person) was standing up explaining exaltedly that number 1 was disturbing the balanced harmony among the natural numbers established by man as his cosmos:

26	sun king	28	moon
16	moon queen	18	sun
6	flames	8	perfect

27	old sun swept away	29	moon vanished
17	moon waning	19	sun gone away
7	Saturday	9	death

But wasn't she wrong? 1 is balanced by 0.

Kelley writes about the names of the months:

"... Beyer was able to show that the 'variable element' of the Initial Series Introducing Glyph (what Spinden called the 'title glyph') varied regularly according to the month in which the Initial Series date occured. Beyer hypothesized that the name given was that of a deity of the month.

Thompson (1950, pp. 105-107) discusses these patrons of the months on the basis of their glyphs. Morley (1947, p. 234) lists them even more briefly. Strangely, no one has attempted to equate them with the month deities mentioned in Landa, although Morley (1947, pp. 247-256) discusses these only a few pages later and does list both together in his Table VI.

Neither has anyone made any formal published attempt, as far as I know, to equate the Aztec deities with Mayan deities of equivalent months ..."

He also suggests that 'month gods, like other aspects of the calendar' may derive from an ancient common prototype.

This is highly relevant for our rongorongo studies. The Polynesians ought to have had contacts - directly or indirectly - with the high cultures of ancient Mesoamerica (the predecessors of the Maya).

Therefore I here intend to list the 18 Mayan months again, this time with comments from Kelley and my own added immediate reflections.

The numbers and names below (e.g. 1 Pop) refer to Yucatec, and the other names and numbers may differ (e.g. 3 Nabich according to Kanhobal). Citations and pictures are from Kelley (unless otherwise stated).

Picture at upper left is from the mounuments (Initial Series Introducing Glyph), while the glyph at upper right is from Gates.

	1 Pop
	"... there is no dispute about the jaguar as patron of Pop ..."

According to Gates the quincunx symbol (upper right symbol) means 'yellow', which makes sense because in the center of the 4 cardinal stones there ought to be a fire. Although in the inscription variant the central fire is missing. I connect this sign with the symbol immediately below, which looks like a shell with concave side down (the fire is inside and not visible). The corresponding symbol in the codices example confirms the impression of there being a shell at bottom right.
The other main element in the Pop glyphs apparently is two intertwined ropes. At the beginning of the year the old and new years ought to be securely connected, I think, the 'binding of the years'. Pop is Yucatec for 'mat' - an artifact characterized by intertwined threads (or similar). "Pop (po reduplicated) is widely spread in Mayan languages as the word for 'mat'." These pictures show how mats are woven on hand looms by women (the moon I guess, because at new year sun and moon should meet). The two pictures at right have a 'tree' attached to the loom, and the 'tree' has two 'stems' which are bound together, which I believe alludes to the binding together of the old and new years. The idea of binding together years is close to the old 'threadreel' symbol in the old Chinese glyph for 5. A 'mat' is manufactured in order to let the king 'sit on' it. The idea of a net or mat at the end of the journey seems to be universal in old human cultures, as for instance in this ancient Egyptian picture (from Wilkinson): At right the 'prow' of the Pharaoh 'ship' is entering the 'mat'.
The jaguar, finally, once 'owned the fire' (I remember), but then his fire was stolen (at least in South America). And then he lost his fiery eyes in a juggling contest - they became hanging high up in a tree. Instead he received small ones made from water, by which he could see in the night. The jaguar is 'strongly associated with the presence of water and is notable, along with the tiger, as a feline that enjoys swimming'. The big cat Leo is high in summer ('fire') - north of the equater. South of the equator he is located down in the 'water' (the dark half of the year). We can understand why there are sea-shells at bottom right in the Pop glyphs. The eye of the jaguar, as depicted in the picture from the monuments, has a horizontal line across it, which presumably indicates the water surface (or water by pars pro toto). Higher up we can see another 'eye', which may illustrate an 'eye' up in the 'tree'. Sun sometimes is low ('in the water') and sometimes is high ('in the top of the tree'). The Pop jaguar is at the low sun stage.

I have used much space for Pop because it is a fairly clear concept. We can compare with the 'month' calendar at the beginning of side a in Tahua where I suppose it is Aa1-1--2 which might correspond to Pop:


Aa1-1	Aa1-2	Aa1-3	Aa1-4	Aa1-5	Aa1-6	Aa1-7	Aa1-8

Pop refers both to the sun (the jaguar) and the moon - or at least to a woman who prepares a 'mat'. There is (theoretically) a conjunction between sun and moon at new year. Aa1-2 is the moon and Aa1-1 probably represents the sun (I have deduced earlier). Aa1-1 is convex forwards, while Aa1-2 is convex backwards - a male and a female glyph.

The two 'shell half' shapes with different orientations (in Aa1-1 and Aa1-2) reminds us about the two bottom shapes in the inscriptions variant of Pop, one 'open' (left) and one 'closed' (right). The left symbol could mean 'empty' while the right symbol could be like a fist - closed and containing 'fire' - the next generation, the 'twin sons' (halfyear suns). The central fire in the quincunx of course is missing because it has moved to the inside of the 'fist' and is not visible.

The two mirrored shapes of Aa1-1 and Aa1-2 suggest the shape of the sun is a mirror image of the shape of the moon, but in reality it is rather the opposite - the crescent of the moon is due to light from the sun.

The ship of Pharaoh is at left (in the picture above) moving up, i.e. towards 'midnight', while the ship at right is moving towards 'morning'. The front of the ship at left is somewhat like Y, while the front at right has a point. The end of the ships presumably represent the two different moon crescents. Egypt lies north of the equator and the end of the ship at left depicts the growing moon. It has no dark spots, while its 'twin' at right (waning moon) has dark spots.

The sky vault (Nut) on which the Pharaoh ship travels is oppositely bent (compared with the ship of Pharaoh). The same idea as we can detect in Aa1-1--2.

When the ship of Pharaoh glides along the back (tu'a) it steadily changes its direction. We can be sure that the same type of direction change occurs also in daytime. During the course of 24 hours the direction of the ship is changing 360 degrees around.

Applying this simple and basic idea we can once again state that Aa1-1 and Aa5-17 probably are related:


Aa1-1	Aa5-17

Counting does not invalidate the idea: With Aa1-1 as glyph number 1 Aa5-17 will be glyph number 350.

At the beginning of the year moon is still ruling and sun is just a newborn little boy. He travels in a ship on the bent surface of the sky waters. During a long sea journey the canoe will change direction because the surface of the sea is bent.

Realizing this, we can try to add three other glyphs to the group:


Aa1-1	Aa5-17	Aa6-67	Ab4-68	Ab4-69
1	350	483	982	983
-	-	0	499	500

483 = 3 * 7 * 23 = 21 * 23.

982 = 2 * 491.

983 = prime number.

The numbers suggest the last three added glyphs belong to another group than the first two.

The first two could be designed to illustrate the ship of the sun following the bent surface of the sky ocean, while we have earlier noted how the bottom halves of Ab4-68--69 reverse direction as if to indicate how light in front is arriving at number 500. The upside down canoe in Ab4-69 - we can imagine - has made an abrupt turn and the early morning sunlight is now capable of illuminating the inside of the canoe.

In the inscriptions variant of Pop the two bottom shapes could illustrate moon (left) respectively sun (right):

The double shape at left, balancing on what could be full moon, is in harmony with a moon symbol, while the stronger 'canoe' at right seems to refer to the sun.

However, having arrived at this point we can see that sun is missing - his shape should have been on the same level as the little full moon sign at left. He is not inside his 'canoe' (or 'shell'). He is missing both at the center of the quincunx and at the center of his 'upside down canoe'.

The Egyptian Pharaoh ship is not upside down at 'midnight'. Therefore we should reinterpret the shell shape at bottom right in the Pop example. It cannot be the ship of the sun, instead it presumably is the sky dome, and sun is missing under the sky roof. In Ab4-68--69 it can be the inverted day sky dome at the top.