next page

previous page

up

home

According to the structure I have come to believe exists in the day calendars, the glyphs should be read as they are (daytime) or as they would look after having been turned around in different ways (nighttime):

If true, then this discovery qualifies as a major breakthrough in the efforts to understand the rongorongo texts.

1. My axiom that the sequences of glyphs which I have named 'day calendars' really also are calendars for the day still remains in force. It has turned out to be a fixed point from which important results emanate.

2. One such important result was the very probable interpretation of Qa5-47 and similar glyphs as compounds, the components of which are more fundamental than the compounded glyphs:

3. Another important result is that the short explanatory words of Metoro, as documented by Bishop Jaussen, give clues to what the glyphs mean. Example:

     ko te ahi - hakaturou

The word hakaturou (hakaturu) means 'to cause to descend, to lower, to take soundings' and therefore strengthens the interpretation of this glyph as located at noon, the point at which the sun will turn around and start to descend (turu).

 

I needed to document these successful results of my efforts here. The difficulties because of the obviously different ways of describing day and night in the four texts sometimes feel as impossible obstacles to overcome.

Moreover, the sequences of glyphs in a given text, e.g. in Q, give many different possible interpretations - maybe intentionally to allow the reader freedom of choice.

 

To turn some of the glyphs around in your mind not only takes effort, but also is a challenge for the reader's decision making. What glyphs are intended to be turned around in your head and how much?

I believe that the glyphs themselves give us clues as to if and how much they should be turned around:

An arm illustrating eating (kai), as that in Qa5-47, has bones, tendons and muscle to enable an upright position.

The dorsal henua fins in Qa5-27 and in Qa5-39 are, as we now can see, on the outside of the day-and-night cycle. Inside means 'female' and in Qa5-27 we find confirmation in the 'shark' form of the fins on the inside of the cycle. Sharks signify darkness (female), henua signifies position in the light (male).

In Qa5-39 the arm appendix has no elbow (illustrating bones etc) as in kai. Instead there is a curved haga as if the 'arm' was flowing backwards in the water, which at 3 quarters is above the back of the fish.

In the phase '1 quarter' the glyphs inside our minds should be viewed like this:

Not only have we turned the glyphs a quarter to the left (counterclockwise), but we have also arranged the glyphs in the opposite order from that in which they appear in the rongorongo text. We follow the sun towards left, we are immersed in the watery sector of the cycle and in the deep below us there is darkness.

In the '3 quarter' phase the glyphs should be read like this in our minds:

Five fishes once again, but this time with their backs are turned toward the dark deep and their ventral sides prepared for the coming new daylight. They swim under us towards east. The direction east is the same direction as that in which the glyphs are arriving in the rongorongo texts and we do not have to reverse the order of the fishes (as we did in '1 quarter').

All the time the fishes are 'incarnations' of the sun. It is as we were reading a comic magazine, each new picture (towards right) in the strip is to be read as a later stage in the evolution of the story. But in a comic strip we have only one difficulty to overcome: at the end of the line we must jump one line down and to the left to read the continuation of the story.

In the rongorongo story we never have to jump like that, but we have other difficulties. First: when following the story and reaching the end of our line of glyphs we shall continue one line above (not below) and instead of making a jump to the left we must turn the board 180^o around.

We will there continue to read from left to right and with the glyphs oriented in the same way as in the previous line. (The glyphs had been upside down if we had not turned the board around.)

Secondly: when the story makes a quarter turn, that is to be seen in the signs of the glyphs, but the glyphs are not turned that quarter around. Instead we ourselves are to imagine that quarter turn.

From this description it is clear that in the '2 quarter' phase we have to invert the glyphs encountered in the rongorongo text, i.e. we have to make (in our minds) a quarter turn from the '1 quarter' phase:

The henua staff at midnight is symmetric and does not change its appearance in the new upside down position. In '1 quarter' and '3 quarter', on the other hand, it would have been horizontal.

But the henua sign in Qa5-33 points inwards in the day-and-night circle, which cannot be correct. We must transfer this glyph (and therefore also Qa5-34) into the '3 quarter' phase for a correct reading:

There are 7 glyphs at '3 quarter', which added to the 5 of '1 quarter' give us the sum 12.

The now lying down henua staff implies complete annihilation of the male characteristics, and it must be located at midnight.

Qa5-32 has two henua fins in opposite directions and this arrangement agrees with what is seen in the glyphs of '1 quarter'. After having transferred 'the two midnight glyphs' to '3 quarter' we surely have to transfer Qa5-32 to '1 quarter':

6 glyphs in '1 quarter' + 7 glyphs in '3 quarter' = 13 glyphs for the night. In the '2 quarter' phase no glyphs are visible, it is completely black.

Here it would have been nice to end this part of my text. However, we should remember that hakaturu at noon. The sun makes a quarter turn so to say at noon. In Q that made the writer stop. There is no room for more than 4 quarters in a full cycle. No wonder the writer of Q quitted at noon and omitted describing the p.m. period.