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TRANSLATIONS
According to the pictures in Barthel side a of H is damaged in two places, while side b is depicted as intact:
On the other hand, the pictures of the text indicate damages also in four of the lines on side b (blackmarked below):
The glyph at the beginning of line Hb11 is marked as damaged by Barthel, but it is partly seen in Fischer, and the number of glyphs in this line is therefore certainly (and presumably significantly) 53:
The number of glyphs in line b8 can be said to be 54 + 0, meaning that one of the glyphs is marked as missing both according to Barthel and Fischer, not engraved where it is expected:
Certainly the engraver has left the position 'open' for some reason. The parallel text of P supports this view, because the glyph is an extraordinary one, a pito:
I think the open position in H should not be counted, it is 'in the dark' (like the blackened parts of side a). Glyph line Hb1 seems to be of the same kind as Ha6-Ha12, blackend by fire. On side b then remains only line Hb12, a special case, because Barthel and Fischer have left out one glyph position at the end of the line, but I think (for numerical reasons) we should count two:
Uncertainty rules here, because 648 glyphs on side b can be accomplished either by having 2 'lost' glyphs at the end of the text (as above) or by having a single glyph beyond Hb12-49 (where 7 * 7 = 49) and instead counting with 1 glyph also at the vacant place of pito (between Hb8-15and -16). The text on side b cannot stop at 1292, that would be unlucky. There must be 'one more'. Also, 12 * 50 = 600. 495 = 5 * 99 (as if alluding to the 5-fold star of Venus), and 495 + 1 = 496 = 16 * 31 (= 432 + 64). That was a discussion of side b. But we need to consider side a, where so much damage has more or less destroyed (it seems) many glyph lines (also including Hb1). The destruction from fire, resulting in blackened wood, possibly was there already before the writer started with his work, I have guessed. According to the picture of side a in Barthel there is also a damage between lines a5 and a6. Fischer: "... on line 6 of the recto there is one deep black gash and one small knot-hole ...":
The end of the day is changing into the end of the solar year (either counted as 300 or as 364 days long). Darkness is falling in both cases, and the deep black gash has been used optimally, I think. A renewal in the text flow - and in time - then comes with Rei in the center of day 366, when life is returning (beyond the 'crack'):
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