TRANSLATIONS

next page previous page up home

There is one more hatchmarked henua in the K calendar, viz. Ka4-7:

3
Ka4-4 Ka4-5 Ka4-6 Ka4-7
11 12 13 14

Comparing with Kb2-102 we can see that the hatchmark pattern is the same:

18 ...
Kb2-1 Kb2-2 Kb2-3 Kb2-4 Kb2-101 Kb2-102
*60 *61 *62 *63 *64 *65 *66

2 marks are located where the arms touch henua, 1 mark where the legs touch henua. All hatchmark lines point upwards.

The difference in glyph number (66 - 14 = 52) probably carries meaning. If we guess the hatchmark lines to divide the henua season into 4 parts, we can continue the line of thought and guess each of the 4 parts to have 13 subparts (4 * 13 = 52). Though the parts may have different lengths.

In Ka4-7 the top of henua is 'sucked in', but not so in Kb2-102.

The difference in period number (18 - 3 = 15) suggests full moon, possibly because beyond vero the moon rules.

Moreover, Ka4-6 is basically the same type of glyph as in Kb2-1 and Kb2-4. However, I have defined the glyph type in Ka4-6 as honu (not hakaua).

Hakaua (hakauaua = 'mark with lines' darkness?) has no limbs, honu has limbs:

Ka4-6 Ka5-8 Kb2-1 Kb2-4 Kb3-1 Kb4-15
13 31 *60 *63 *78 *108
3 11 18 22 30

These 6 glyphs are the only ones of their kind in the K text, and they all belong in the calendar. Number 6 implies the sun and, indeed, I have been close to such a suggestion in the glyph dictionary:

The turtle is a creature of the water and therefore in opposition to the lightgiving heavenly bodies, foremost the spring sun (Rigi). Light comes from fires and the two elements water and fire are in opposition. When Rigi 'dies' it is the work of the turtle.

The spring sun 'dies' at summer solstice because from that point onwards he is waning. Sun also 'dies' at autumn equinox because then he emigrates to the other side of the equator.

The reason why the turtle is needed also when a new fire is to be alighted is not difficult to understand: The turtle has 'taken' the fire and he must now return it. In nature everything takes and gives, there must be a balance.

Finally, fires have flames which rise towards the sky while water instead runs downwards. Heaven (up) belongs to the birds (gods) and the sea (down) belongs to the sea creatures. We live in the middle. The Mayan concept of the turtle as a creature of the middle world does not apply to sea turtles.

There are two sun seasons over the year, when he is present and when he is abroad. The 'turtle' must be his symbol when abroad (long away across the water in the north). The other sun season is when he returns like a 'snake' lifting up the sky roof again and '... from the body of the worm flowed a salted sweat which collected in the lower half-shell and became the sea ...' which he presumably had swallowed on his voyage in the north.

The 6 glyphs probably symbolize sun in his different aspects over the year and we can group the glyphs pairwise:

 

pair 1 pair 2 pair 3
Ka4-6 Ka5-8 Kb2-1 Kb2-4 Kb3-1 Kb4-15
13 31 *60 *63 *78 *108
3 11 18 22 30
8 - 8
18 3 30

The first pair illustrates how the limbs disappear. 18 presumably symbolizes a half-year and in period 11 the first decade of periods in the calendar has passed away. Though only 8 periods have passed beyond Ka4-6.

We can guess that honu without limbs means the dry season, when the 'turtle' does not need to swim (and therefore has no need for limbs). Let us look again at the glyphs around Ka5-8:

10
Ka5-6 Ka5-7
11
Ka5-8 Ka5-9 Ka5-10
12
Ka5-11 Ka5-12

I have regarded these 3 periods as a group, which is suggested by way of the raised arms in Ka5-6 and Ka5-11. However, in Ka5-7 there is a double maro (4 + 6 = 10), which - together with the period number - implies the end of a season.

The triplet group of periods has a 'turnover' in period 11, the center of the group. 'Decapitation' is illustrated first in Ka5-10 (with a 5-feather maro) and then in the 12th period in Ka5-12 (both henua are strangely designed).

The separate little 'elbow' in Ka5-6 may indicate how a cardinal point has been reached, how the season is fulfilled (no open part in the elbow sign).

Ka5-8 and Ka5-9 belong together, indicating the kind of season. A balance has been reached between right and left, up and down. The 'sunmit' is visualized by 2 'eyes' ('ears').

A new season lies 'a-head' - i.e. a 'decapitation' has occured, the results of which will appear later in the calendar.

My idea, earlier suggested, about the limbless state in hakaua illustrating how a child has been swaddled, does not find support here. The new season is not yet born.

Rather, limbless means not moving. Sun does not move at summer solstice. If so, then Ka4-6 has appropriately been furnished with limbs because the time is just after spring equinox.

In Ka5-11 the legs are curiously straight without knees, probably another way of illustrating 'standing' (not moving). Possibly the (nearly) straight arms in Ka5-10 similarly illustrate how the sun is (nearly) not moving. The nearly straight arms are slightly covex (upwards). In Ka5-12 the arms have grown elbows - the 'sunmit' has just passed away (the forearms are very short). In Ka5-7 the forearms are fully grown.

Moving on to the 3rd pair (avoiding the middle pair for the moment), we can observe how sun takes on his natural and true form from an obviously 'spiritual' (not really present) form:

The 'ghostly' state is illustrated in the non-real henua (Kb3-2) too:

 

21
Kb2-111 Kb2-112 Kb2-113
22
Kb3-1 Kb3-2 Kb3-3 Kb3-4 Kb3-5 Kb3-6
23
Kb3-7 Kb3-8

According to my interpretation of periods 17-24 as a time when sun has left and moon taken over, the ghostly state is easily understood. The land lies in shadows.

The overall pattern in this triplet is similar to what we have seen in the triplet 10-12. In the center is a statement about the kind of season (e.g. sun not present), while in Kb3-8 the short forearm tell us about how the (low) midpoint has passed away and a new season has began to grow.

This triplet is located 10 periods ahead of the first triplet. The end of the 2nd half year is 'drawn to its close'.

The reappearance of sun - as if arriving by canoe in his two half-year forms (Kb4-18) - follows in period 31:

 

31
Kb4-15 Kb4-16 Kb4-17 Kb4-18

The 'zero' with 'moving balance' in Kb4-17 informs us that the 1st half of the new year (only 1 'eye') now has begun, the form of the sun is no longer 'spooky' (in Kb4-15). He is seen as clearly as the full moon (15).

A quite different state of the sun is pictured in period 18:

18 ...
Kb2-1 Kb2-2 Kb2-3 Kb2-4 Kb2-101 Kb2-102
*60 *61 *62 *63 *64 *65 *66

In Kb2-2 the changing state is illustrated in a way similar to that in Kb4-17 - though as if in a mirror (where left changes to right and the reverse). But in a mirror up does not change to down.

Kb2-3 illustrates the opposite to solstice - running.

It is a time of turbulence (Kb2-4), where 'winter' does battle with 'summer' (just as at spring equinox). Sun has, however, already moved away (ghostly leg in Kb2-1). In Kb2-4 the right 'eye' is ghostly too, while the left (moon) is OK.

I think the calendar structure, based mostly on number and counting, now has been partly confirmed by the glyphs and their interpreted meanings:

K calendar
period no. number of glyphs
1, 2, 3 14 14
4, 5, 6 8 22
7, 8, 9 6 28
10, 11, 12

summer solstice

7 35
13, 14, 15 8 43
16 *13 *56
17 3 *29 *85
18, 19, 20 *7 + 4 + 4 = *15
21, 22, 23

winter solstice

3 + 6 + 2 = 11
24, 25, 26 2 + 3 + 3 = 8 30 *115
27, 28, 29 5 + 4 + 5 = 14
30, 31 4 + 4 = 8
32, 0 3 + 3 = 6 6 *121

There is an intended mirror structure with one triplet of periods (10-12) reflected in another triplet (21-23) and with a single period (16) reflected in another single period (17).

However, the imagined triplets 13-15 respectively 18-20 have not yet been closer investigated and are so far not confirmed.