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TRANSLATIONS
Large St Petersburg Tablet
(P)
We begin with P because it has all the 10 periods of daylight.
These three glyphs describe the 1st period. In Pa5-32 we can see the sun stretching up 'his arms', in Pa5-33 we have a measure of the light, and in Pa5-34 tapa mea, 'red hue/count', which identifies these three glyphs as a period of the day. "There seems to have been a little difficulty at first in getting the machinery of the sky into smooth running order, for some maintain that Ruddy Sun and Waxing Moon disputed in a brotherly fashion. The Sun desired the Moon to accompany him and suggested they travel in daylight, while the Moon insisted they make their rounds during the night. So they agreed, not too amicably, to separate, the Moon saying pettishly, 'Very well! You go by day and have the servile job of drying women's washings!' And the Sun retorted, 'And you go by night and be terrified by food-ovens!' The quarrel must have been made up later, for the Moon visits the Sun for a day or two each month." (Makemson) In Pa5-32 the 'arms' of the sun terminate in Y-shapes to show that the sun is still not 'born' but below the horizon. Though the eastern sky is being lit up, whereby the sun is making himself known. The arms terminate not with hands but with a sort of Y-shape used for hands in darkness. Hands in light are written with four fingers, the thumb and three of the rest. Hands in darkness are written with this Y-sign. In Pa5-33 we see 'light', three vertical straight lines, and a short horizontal line (like the horizon) cutting off part of the light at the bottom. But this 'horizontal' line is not really showing the horizon (more than as a pun). It is a line of defining, giving limit (in the pun: in space, otherwise: in time) to the light. This type of limit for the light is later in the day used as the two short ends of henua. Time is measured (in the time when it is light - when it is possible to observe with the eyes) by defining limits for periods of the sun by using (or rather: with the help of) the sun. Between such measured limits there are time-space parcels, henua, governing the events which are due. In the 'calendar' of daily light these parcels contain two hours. In Pa5-34 tapa mea has nine marks towards the right. The two marks at bottom are longer than the following seven, though they increase in length upwards. Are the two at bottom representing two 'quasi hours' in this the first period? Such 'quasi hours' might also be seen in Pa5-33. Light and period of time in the light are closely related not only as concepts but also in the rongorongo glyphs. Three vertical lines are easily transformed into two henua (in this 'calendar' = double-hours). Periods of time when light is not present, periods in the dark, are not written with henua. Light and darkness are opposites. The number of marks on the 10 tapa mea in P show this pattern (the parentheses are mine): (9 + 7) + (7 + 7 + 7 + 7) + (6 + 6 + 6 + 6) = 16 + 28 + 24 = 16 + 52 = 4 * 4 + 4 * 13 = 4 * 17 These numbers invite to play, e.g.: 7 * 52 = 364 = 13 * 28 There are four weeks in a month (= time when moon is visible, the only nights a sun worshiper should acknowledge). Number seven represents the week. There are four quarters in a year. Number six represents the sun, because there are six double-months in a year. (This explains why we have 24 hours in a day, 4 * 6. A quarter should have the same shape as the whole.) There are 52 weeks in a 364-day year equaling 13 four-week months. |
