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If Metoro had read these glyphs, would he have mentioned Kuukuu?

H

P

Q

I doubt it. I think he was triggered by the sun with 'tattooed neck' in Aa1-11:

As the two lines across the 'neck' protrude at right the lines probably do not represent tattoos. Instead they may indicate threads or ropes. The difference in meaning between tattoo marks and lines of strings are not great. Strangling the sun and sinking him in the west implies that darkness will arrive, tattoos on the lower part of your body is a 'picture' of the same phenomenon - the dark season.

Hercules was "... bound to it [the T-shaped oak] with willow thongs in the 'five-fold bond' which joins wrists, neck, and ankles together ..." and in a footnote (in The White Goddess) we can read that the custom was used also in China:

The five-fold bond was reported from China by the Arab merchant Suleyman in 851 A.D. He writes that 'when the man condemned to death has been trussed up in this fashion, and beaten with a fixed number of blows, his body, still faintly breathing, is given over to those who must devour it.'

'Hercules' has other names too:

"To this type of Hercules belong such diverse characters as Hercules of Oeta, Orion the Hunter of Crete, Polyphemus the Cyclops, Samson the Danite, Cuchulain of Muirthemne the Irish Sun-hero, Ixion the Lapith - who is always depicted stretched out in a 'five-fold bond' around a Sun-wheel - Agag the Amalekite, Romulus of Rome, Zeus, Janus, Anchises, The Dagda and Hermes." (The White Goddess)

5 in the five-fold bond certainly must represent the 5 seasons (each with 72 days) in the ancient year circle. Hercules - the 'king' of the first half-year, when sun is progressing higher and higher in the sky - must be stopped at some point and that point was midsummer. After that the other (mirror) 'king' - who will move backwards in the sky - takes over until his fate arrives in midwinter.

The same type of logic may explain why there are two strangling ropes in Aa1-1, viz. that they represent two seasons. The five-fold bond - I think - represents the 5 extracalendrical days needed to reach 365. If exactly the same pattern ruled on Easter Island, we should draw the conclusion that there were 2 extracalendrical days in a year. 365 - 2 = 363, a number divisible by 3.

The X-area in Tahua contains 3 glyphs and now we have arrived at a reasonable explanation for that. 3 wives of the sun means 3 seasons for the year and 3 nights in the X-area. (121 is not a prime number but equals 11 * 11.)

Kuukuu was mentioned by Metoro and also by the old men who composed manuscript E:

"The first written version of the traditions of Ms. E goes back to the circle of the 'old ones' and to the years prior to 1914. It represents a link with the generation whose youth falls into the pre-missionary era and who had access to the traditions at a time when the island culture was still viable." (Barthel 2)

"... it is probable that most rongorongo experts and some rongorongo pupils actually escaped the devastating 1862-63 labour raids. Further, it is even possible that a few rongorongo experts and pupils survived the pandemics that soon followed.

Notwithstanding, what knowledge of script type and function was preserved after this in the 1870s and 1880s constituted a minimal bequest which the next generation wasted through loss, contamination, and invention. Indeed, a derivative replacement for rongorongo - the ta'u 'script' - was evidently elaborated at this time in order to fill the cultural vacuum - in Western pen and ink." (Fischer)

I think both Metoro and the 'old ones' understood Kuukuu as an aspect of the sun. To be more precise: The 'spider' letting go (tuku) is the sun moving down - the 'mirror' sun.

In Aa1-11 we have the same kind of 'head on upstretched arm' (GD32, toko te ragi) which we have seen during a.m. (e.g. in Aa1-18) and before midsummer (e.g. in Aa1-5):

For symmetry reasons a.m. sun and ante-midsummer sun ought to be represented by similar glyphs. Before midsummer we find 4 toko te ragi in all four rongorongo texts:

A

P

H

Q

 But the number of toko te ragi during a.m.varies:

 

A

H

P

Q

GD32 also appears in Ab6-42--57 (16 glyphs), probably a 'calendar for the week':

Sunday

Monday-Wednesday

Thursday-Saturday

-

Mars and Venus

Mercury and Saturn

The second half of the week has the hakaturu variant of GD32, marking a reversal compared to the first half of the week (and similar to the hakaturu glyphs at noon in the day calendars).

Mars (Tuesday) and Venus (Friday) have two 'faces'; 'weak' and 'strong' light in the case of Mars, 'morning' and 'evening' star in the case of Venus. Mercury (Wednesday) is qualified with a glyph showing GD33 (viri), a sign probably meaning 'solstice'.

Saturn has two glyphs showing 'elbows' pointing at right - which sign, we have learnt, probably indicates the 2nd 'season'. The open hand is similar to what we can see in the afternoon (in the day calendars) just before the sun 'dies'. Jupiter (Thursday) and Venus (Friday) have glyphs indicating hua, an appropriate sign for the 2nd 'season' ('autumn').

The 1st 'season' is the first half of the week, beginning with Sun and Moon, followed by Mars and Mercury. The bird in Monday has - we now understand - an uplifted wing converted into a moon sign. The bird in Sunday must be the sun. But the first glyph is most interesting. We see henua (possibly meaning both Sunday and the week) flanked by two GD32 signs. Or - to be more correct - one 'arm' ending in a 'closed fist' and one arm with 'open fist'. The 'closed fist' should rather be categorized as a 'sun without flames', i.e. GD12, than as GD32 (which never is completely 'closed').

The 'closed fist' probably indicates that the foregoing week just has ended (closed).

The head (and neck) of the Sunday bird (Ab6-43):

evidently exhibits GD32, i.e. we can count to 8 in this calendar of the week:

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Sun

Moon

Mars

Mercury

Jupiter

Venus

Saturn

am

pm

am

pm

4 open 'beaks' and 4 closed. (With 'am' and 'pm' I of course mean ante 'midsummer' and post 'midsummer'.) Sun has 2 parts: his growing half and his waning half.

I think we can now establish that Ab6-42--57 not only 'probably' is a calendar for the week, but that we 'know' it to be a calendar of the week. We may from now on securely stand on this sequence of glyphs - it has evolved into an 'axiom'.

I will continue to use the word 'axiom' for these firm 'rocks' to rely upon. The method used in this investigation is not 'logic' in the usual meaning of that word. The method used is instead more like that used for a jig-saw puzzle.

The four 'axioms' so far found are:

 

Glyph sequence

Content

1. Ca6-17 -- Ca9-2

moon calendar

2. Hb9-17 -- Hb9-58 (with parallel in P)

week calendar

3. Ab6-42 -- Ab6-57

week calendar

4. Aa1-16 -- Aa1-48 (with parallels in H, P, Q)

day calendar