TRANSLATIONS

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If the mouth incised on the ao face can be relied upon, we can draw a conclusion:

head in west (death) head in east (birth)
Gb5-10 *Yc1-3

The nose on the ao is above the V-formed upper lip. Therefore it should be at left in Gb5-10 and at right in *Yc1-3. (I have been able to ascentain with a high degree of probability that there are no glyphs missing earlier in the line.)

Gb5-10 probably represents day 364 according to my interpretation of the G text. The year is ending and this fact can be symbolically illustrated by an open 'mouth' located at the horizon in the west, where the old year now will vanish.

Vaha kai in *Yc1-3 is reversed compared to vaha kai in Gb5-10, and therefore also its meaning should be reversed. Its imagined head is pointing to the east, the direction of the rising sun. It ought to mean that sun is returning again, after having travelled under the earth from west to east during the 'night'.

This interpretation of *Yc1-3 can be shown to be true.

 

The V-formed upper lip can be located elsewhere too, e.g.:

head down
Rb1-104 Ha7-117 Ca12-17
head up
Qa7-116 Ka1-11 Ea3-9

Head down should be towards south and head up towards north.

The link 'shown to be true' leads to several pages, the first of which is:

 

The Paris Snuff Box (Y) has text on all its sides. Fisher says wrongly "Here a small part of a tablet inscription has been cannibalised in order to fashion a six-sided snuffbox." Such is not the case. The rongorongo texts on the box form a complete whole. Nothing is missing. This will now be proven (as far as such can be done with the means at hand).

First we have the number of glyphs and their distribution on the 6 pages (a-f):

I II III
Ya Yb Sum Yc Yd Sum Ye Yf Sum
6 7 13 10 8 18 4 4 8
8 8 16 6 - 6 6 4 10
7 6 13 16 8 24 10 8 18
21 21 42 42 + 24 + 18 = 84

There are 84 glyphs distributed in 3 different calendars (which I have labelled I, II and III). The number of glyphs in these calendars is determined by the structure of respective calendar and by the space on each side.

42 we can recognize as 7 * 60 = 6 * 70 (the '7th flame of the sun'). 24 is equal to e.g. our own idea of how many hours there are in a day. 18 easily can be imagined as the number of 'decades' of days in half a year. Other interpretations exist and they are equally valid. For instance is twice 21 also the number of the assessors which are helping Osiris to judge the souls of the dead in the Hall of Two Truths:

The creators of the rongorongo texts probably used such numbers which had been tried and found to be good by the ancients. No newly 'invented' numbers were used. That is what I think, because there are limits to what can be done with low natural numbers and 'simple' arithmetic. Though these limits encompass incredibly much more than we moderns are able to imagine.

There is no glyph line with an odd number of glyphs, excepting Ya3 and Yb1:

I II III
Ya Yb Sum Yc Yd Sum Ye Yf Sum
6 7 13 10 8 18 4 4 8
8 8 16 6 - 6 6 4 10
7 6 13 16 8 24 10 8 18
21 21 42 42 + 24 + 18 = 84

That was necessary in order to make calendar I reflect what happens according to its structure. 42 is the sum of 3 times 14 (6 + 8, 7 + 7, respectively 8 + 6). Calendar I covers a year with 300 days, yet it manages to describe this year in a consistent way with 42 glyphs distributed as 14 + 14 + 14. Remarkable!

It also hints that 300 is only half the whole cycle, because the lunar cycle is based on twice 29.5 nights, of which only 28 are to be counted (when moon is visible). 42 = 28 + 14 (1½ months). Pairs are to be used when calendars are constructed. 14 = two weeks and 28 = 2 * 14, etc. Therefore the whole snuff box should have 84 = 2 * 42 glyphs.

The structure of calendar I is not trivial. Indeed, it was a rather cumbersome task to piece it together. The information carried by the glyphs must agree with what the numbers are saying (and the planets, and our earlier experiences from other tablet texts).

Calendar I is presented here.

 

My arguments say that the whole cycle is 2 * 300 = 600 days, which is just what should be expected with solar time being a combination of 10 (the number of fingers on 2 hands) and a double-month similar to that of the moon.

3 weeks + 3 weeks = 42 days (calendar I), and 4 'six-day weeks' (II) + 3 'six-day weeks' (III) = 42 days.

(4 * 6 + 3 * 6) + (3 * 7 + 3 * 7) = 84.

Maybe we must try to unite calendar II with calendar III in order to find the other half of 600. If that is possible, then calendar I presumably represents the Underworld and calendar II + calendar III our own world. Time begins in the darkness below our feet.

The first pages of 'here':

 

First the glyphs lines are presented below without my added interpretations:

*Ya1-1 *Ya1-2 *Ya1-3 *Ya1-4 *Ya1-5 *Ya1-6
*Ya2-1 *Ya2-2 *Ya2-3 *Ya2-4 *Ya2-5 *Ya2-6 *Ya2-7 *Ya2-8
*Ya3-1 *Ya3-2 *Ya3-3 *Ya3-4 *Ya3-5 *Ya3-6 *Ya3-7
*Yb1-1 *Yb1-2 *Yb1-3 *Yb1-4 *Yb1-5 *Yb1-6 *Yb1-7
*Yb2-1 *Yb2-2 *Yb2-3 *Yb2-4 *Yb2-5 *Yb2-6 *Yb2-7 *Yb2-8
*Yb3-1 *Yb3-2 *Yb3-3 *Yb3-4 *Yb3-5 *Yb3-6

This will give the reader a chance to try for himself to arrange the 42 glyphs into some kind of calendar. I have given a clue: The year to be described has 300 days.

 
 

In the table below I have erased all asterisks (*) in order to save space. I have also divided the lines with 8 glyphs (Ya2 and Yb2) into two halves with 4 glyphs in each - without any intention of suggesting anything as to the meaning or the structure. I have done it only in order to facilitate the reading:

Ya1
Ya1-1 Ya1-2 Ya1-3 Ya1-4 Ya1-5 Ya1-6
Ya2
Ya2-1 Ya2-2 Ya2-3 Ya2-4
Ya2-5 Ya2-6 Ya2-7 Ya2-8
Ya3
Ya3-1 Ya3-2 Ya3-3 Ya3-4 Ya3-5 Ya3-6 Ya3-7
Yb1
Yb1-1 Yb1-2 Yb1-3 Yb1-4 Yb1-5 Yb1-6 Yb1-7
Yb2
Yb2-1 Yb2-2 Yb2-3 Yb2-4
Yb2-5 Yb2-6 Yb2-7 Yb2-8
Yb3
Yb3-1 Yb3-2 Yb3-3 Yb3-4 Yb3-5 Yb3-6

Then attention should be given to the two manu kake glyphs (Ya3-5 and Yb3-1). Such were used in order to show structure. Quickly it is discovered that there are 18 glyphs before the fish type of manu kake and 18 more to the bird manu kake:

18 15 3
Ya3-5 Ya3-6 Ya3-7 Yb3-1 Yb3-2 Yb3-3
36 6
42

This is evidence supports my statement that there are no glyphs missing in the text.

Furthermore, if these 42 glyphs describe a calendar for the year, then the short neck of the bird manu kake should indicate a 'low sky roof', meaning midwinter, while the longer neck of the fish manu kake will refer to the middle of summer. If that conclusion is correct, then vaha kai in Yb3-2 could very well be where the new year is being born - Yb3-3 is a glyph of the pito type, and pito means navel (etc).

 

If calendar I describes events in the Underworld, then the strange maitaki glyphs can be explained:

Ya3-101 Ya3-106 Yb1-106 Yb3-104 Yf2-104

Instead of the normal 'balls' we see rhombs. Such occur often otherwhere in the rongorongo texts, but then without the straight vertical center line.

Glyph lines Ya-Yb belong to calendar I and in the Underworld the 'balls' are changed into rhombs.

After a quick look for more 'rhombs on a string' I can find only two such instances. One is Va1-3 on the oar named Honululu 3622, where only a small part of the surface has been used and where the glyphs are rather unconventional:

Va1-1 Va1-2 Va1-3 Va1-4 Va1-5 Va1-6 Va1-7
Va1-8 Va1-9 Va1-10 Va1-11 Va1-12 Va1-13 Va1-14
Va1-15 Va1-16 Va1-17 Va1-18 Va1-19
Va2-1 Va2-2

The preceding henua with strings across indicates a dark time. Also other signs seem to signify darkness. It could be a description of the Underworld. But the pair Va2-1--2 are different, light is returning (Mercury) and the fat fish (Jupiter) has been caught, jammed against the sky roof.

Tagata in Va1-12 has 3-fingered hands! No thumbs are allowed in the Underworld.

The other instance is the pair Hb10-16--17 which has a single rhomb as head with a vertical string across:

Hb10-1 Hb10-2 Hb10-3 Hb10-4 Hb10-5 Hb10-6 Hb10-7
Hb10-8 Hb10-9 Hb10-10 Hb10-11 Hb10-12 Hb10-13 Hb10-14
Hb10-15 Hb10-16 Hb10-17 Hb10-18 Hb10-19 Hb10-20 Hb10-21

A dark time is seen also here (cfr toa in Hb10-2 and mea ke in Hb10-6--7). Tahana in Hb10-13 has been commented upon earlier:

 

Tahana in Hb10-13 is adorned with extra signs and resembles Hb5-20 more than the other tahana glyphs:

270
Hb5-20 (865) Hb5-21 Hb5-22 Hb10-13 Hb10-14 Hb10-15 (1140)
289 90 380

The shorter distance from one to the other is a quarter (91 days). The longer distance is 432 - 91 = 341 = 11 * 31.

The symmetrical arrangement at the bottom of Hb10-13 could refer to a solstice, where the forces of night and day weigh even. If Hb5-20 is at the end (only day number 290 is remaining) of old sun's journey, then Hb10-13 could be at the end of winter solstice (380 = 365 + 15).

Looking again at bottom left in Hb5-20 we can identify a short 'cut mark'. Maro in Hb5-21 probably means 'finished', and likewise the number group 5-22 (the cycle of 'fire' is completed) in the following glyph.

If we count with 13 months à 29.5 nights, we can locate the end of the year to night number 13 * 29.5 = 383.5, and in the center of day 383 there is a niu:

Hb10-16 Hb10-17 Hb10-18 Hb10-19 Hb10-20 Hb10-21
381 382
Hb10-22 Hb10-23 Hb10-24 Hb10-25 Hb10-26 Hb10-27
383 384

In Hb10-22 the numbers should refer to how the sun's (10) cycle (22) is 'fully grown (tagata) and in front is a haati (going away) sign. The miserable manu rere birds in Hb10-19 and Hb10-21 could depict the last remnants of the 2nd part of the year (they are two and their beaks refer to the moon). The moon is the 'year-builder', and in day 384 it is time for that.