A discovery made in our preliminary survey of the beginning of the back side of R is that we probably should - at least sometimes - begin to count the ordinal number of a glyph from the last glyph of side b instead of from the first one on side a, in which case rona in Ra2-9 would be number 40 and rona in Rb8-5 be at position 405:

39		187	177
	Ra2-9 (40)	364		Rb8-5 (405)

Moreover, we can be fairly sure that 364 glyphs in between indeed should be interpreted as 364 days. The main argument for this is based on reading a 'marriage' between Sun and Moon at midsummer in the following 4-glyph sequence:

Rakau (the Tree)
*Rb1-17 (244)	Rb2-1	Rb2-2	Rb2-3
17 Opata roa a mana aia.	18 vai tara kai u(a) a ngao roaroa a ngao tokotokoa.	19 hia uka a hakairiiri a hakaturuturu.	20 hanga ohiro a pakipaki renga.

Ordinal number 244 is probably here the result of adding 64 to 180. Furthermore, the important Hanga Ohiro I have allocated to Rb2-3, where its ordinal number 247 can easily be understood as pointing to the product of Sun (24) and Moon (7) - the everpresent 168 - and this 'in turn' ought to help us to define where the triplet of rona glyphs at the beginning of line Rb8 belongs:

246		153
	Rb2-3 (247)
400

Rb8-1	Rb8-2	Rb8-3
Rb8-4 (404)	Rb8-5	Rb8-6	Rb8-7

Rb8-8	Rb8-9	Rb8-10	Rb8-11
Rb8-12	Rb8-13 (413)	Rb8-14	Rb8-15

Tagata kai in Rb8-15 obviously refers to spring, and its position must be beyond winter solstice. The open mouth is announced already in maitaki (Rb8-1).

Hau tea in Rb8-13 has a single great mata in front and its position is 14 * 29.5 = 413 (Tama). By comparing with G it is evident that R cannot have Rogo in position 409, instead there are 2 'turtles' with fins in Rb8-8 and Rb8-11 (where 8 * 11 also is 88):

Gb6-26 (409)	Gb6-27	Gb6-28	Gb7-1	Gb7-2 (413)	Gb7-3	Gb7-4

In G the Rogo figure probably defines winter solstice, but in R winter solstice could be located in the last glyph line on side b, an odd line where hardly any glyphs are visible.

Manu kake in Rb8-3 probably stands at a cardinal point, and another manu kake has been located at position 264:

				...	...
Rb2-19	Rb2-20 (264)	Rb2-21	Rb2-22	*Rb2-23	*Rb2-24

If glyph number 264 marks day 264, then we should be able to add 100 to reach the end of the year, and the glyphs seem to agree:

	99
Rb2-20 (264)		Rb6-30 (364)	Rb6-31	Rb6-32
		6 * 30 = 180		6 * 32 = 192

However, there are 4 + 4 = 8 feather signs at right in Rb6-30, which probably refers to Moon (not to Sun). 192 / 29.5 = 6½ + ¼. Therefore we have at least two alternatives to read Rb6-32, e.g. either as 365½ - 365 or as 192 - 191¾. In both cases a complete glyph should not be drawn here.

A season of Moon (however it should be understood in detail) is ending at the beginning of line Rb8, and 2 of the rona glyphs are presumably to be read as a pair, with waxing first and waning following, maybe these:

Rb8-4	Rb8-5	Rb8-6	Rb8-7

The first in the triplet, we can guess, could then refer to rona in Ra2-9:

	187	174
Ra2-9 (40)	361		Rb8-2 (402)

But the numbers seem to tell us this alternative is wrong: 361 (or 362) carries no great weight. Maybe, instead, the Sun rona is Rb8-7:

	187	179
Ra2-9	366		Rb8-7

Rb8-7 is glyph number 180 on side b and it is also drawn without a full perimeter - it is not a true 'person' but only a rona. I have erased 40 respectively 407 (the ordinal numbers of these rona glyphs) because their ordinal numbers are not certain. If the total number of glyphs are to be counted as 451, then we can count 451 - 367 = 84 as a possible number for Ra2-9.

It is all very uncertain. 361 maybe should be understood as 9 * 29 + 100?

 

Much earlier and on the other side of the earth there once was a marriage between Sun and Earth at midsummer:

... Then I become aware of ... a presence - a faint, ghostly glimmering, like moonglow, that has appeared on the solstice stone. I don't know how long it lasts, a second or two only I would guess, but while it is there it seems less like a projection - which I know it to be - than something immanent within the stone itself. And it seems to function as a herald for it fades almost as soon as it has appeared and in its place the full effect snaps on - instantaneously. It wasn't there, and then it's there.

As Chris had described, the effect does curiously resemble a poleaxe, or a flag on a pole, and consists of a 'shaft', narrow at the base but widening a little towards the top, running up the left hand side of the solstice stone, surmounted by a right-facing 'head' or 'flag'. An instant later an almond-shaped spot of light, like an eye, appears a few centimeters to the right of the 'flag' and the effect is complete.

Weirdly - I do not claim it has any significance - this flag-on-a-pole symbol is the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph neter, meaning 'god', or 'a god' - and not to be understood at all in the Judaeo-Christian usage of that word but rather as a reference to one of the supernatural powers or principles that guide and balance the universe. Manifested here, in this strange Stone Age temple, it glows, as though lit by inner fire.'

This was at Mnajdra on Malta (cfr at hahe). Marija Gimbutas: 'To sleep within the Goddess's womb was to die and to come to life anew'.

In a system of reincarnation the old one must die in order to be reborn, of course. At midsummer Sun comes to a standstill, and this must therefore be the occasion when the 'flame of life' had to be transposed into a new body.

The station immediately beyond 'climbing the tree' is a station inside the earth:

I estimated the number of glyphs in line Rb9 to be ca 30. But there are only 8 visible, and none of them in full:

...		...
	Rb9-101
...				...
	Rb9-201	Rb9-202	Rb9-203
...			...
	Rb9-301	Rb9-302
...			...
	Rb9-401	Rb9-402
Barthel has no description of line b9 - it was too badly damaged for delivering any information. Fischer has, though, a photo which shows that the glyphs Rb9-201--203 are located near the center of the line.

Definitely the odd line Rb9 as such is a sign, because we expect the tablet to have twice 8 = 16 glyph lines. I no longer think there once were twice 9 = 18 lines on the tablet, 16 is a much better number, we have learned.

Counting from the last glyph space among these 30 in line Rb9 the number of glyphs in the text maybe was intended to be 451. But if we take away 30 + 1 = 31 (the number of glyph spaces in line Rb9 + 1 more because we have counted the last one twice) the length of the text will be 420. 420 = 14 * 30 is a reasonable number, and we can therefore guess line Rb9 should not be counted, presumably because it represents winter solstice.

(420 - 4) / 16 = 26 is an equation which we could imagine is stating that the 'Tree' has 4 glyphs and that for Sun (26) time stands still during these 4 days:

Rakau (the Tree)
*Rb1-17 (244)	Rb2-1	Rb2-2	Rb2-3
17 Opata roa a mana aia.	18 vai tara kai u(a) a ngao roaroa a ngao tokotokoa.	19 hia uka a hakairiiri a hakaturuturu.	20 hanga ohiro a pakipaki renga.

*Rb1-16 (243) would then be the last glyph (day) counted before time stops, and we must remember from G (cfr at honui):

	243		63
Ga6-24 (165)		Gb6-26 (409)
244 = 4 * 61		64 = 4 * 16

243 and 244 are numbers which evidently are connected with the solstices. 6-24 and 6-26 could, maybe, point to the front side of the year (24) respectively to the back side (26). But rather the other way around because Rogo in Gb6-26 is probably the first glyph of the new year. In R we have provisionally reached 226 and 224 glyphs for the front side respectively the back side of the tablet.

At rau hei we guessed that 243 (= 9 * 27 = 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3) stood for the period of 'pregnancy' before rebirth:

If Gb8-30 is counted only once:
	226			242
Gb6-26 (408)		Ga6-24 (164)	Ga6-25
228			243
471

228 (= 12 * 19) from Rogo and winter solstice at Gb6-26 up to and including Ga6-24 equals the number of glyphs on side a of G.

408 and 164 are better numbers than 409 and 165:

40 * 8 = 320 and 16 * 4 = 64 = 320 / 5.

40 * 9 = 360 and 16 * 5 = 80, but 360 is not a multiple of 80. Furthermore 360 is a day which belongs to the old year, it is not the first day of the new year.