It strikes me that the top part of
koti is not much different from the top part of Aa1-20 (which indeed
formally seen should be a koti glyph by cause of the vertically
division in two parts):
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Aa1-20 |
Aa1-21 |
Aa1-22 |
Aa1-23 |
Earlier I have wondered if it was
a sign of marama or if it was a sign of haga rave. The form is
like an upside down canoe, but that cannot be what is intended. It is rather
a sign of growth (living), the kai gesture is in agreement with its
location in the calendar for the daylight.
If we begin
counting from Ab1-1, then Aa1-20 will be 664 + 20 = 684 = 584 + 100, as if
to say that sun, the morning star, is rising. 684 = 19 * 36. If we assume 3
glyphs per day, then 684 = 12 * 19 = 228 days.
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2.
Venus is the most brilliant of the planets and the
regular intervals with which she appears every morning, then
suddenly vanishes, later to return for an equally long time in the
evening sky, must have drawn the attention of early man.
Here was a regularity which could be relied upon for keeping the
time, a 'person' who like the moon had two 'faces' and like the
moon was invisible for a while.
We know the new moon was welcome when she returned. Likewise we
can expect the return of Venus as morning star (comparable
to the arrival of new moon) as a day to be celebrated. New
moon defines the beginning of the month, and the
return of the morning star could define the beginning of another and longer period of
time, the cycle of
Venus.
Possibly the rongorongo writers may have used the following division (koti)
of the 584-day Venus cycle into phases:
|
phase |
observed periods |
periods in the 'map' of
Easter Island |
|
morning star |
263 |
313 |
284 |
316 |
|
black |
50 |
32 |
|
evening star |
263 |
271 |
260 |
268 |
|
black |
8 |
8 |
|
sum |
584 |
584 |
The difference between H and P in their description of Friday may be
due to what they had in mind:
|
morning
star and evening star |
 |
the orbit
of Venus is
divided |
 |
|
Hb9-50 |
Pb10-54 |
|
The pentagon in the sky has 360 +
180 = 540° as the sum of the internal angles,
and Pb10-54 could allude to that fact (because 10 * 54 = 540).
Venus perhaps was feared by the Mayas
due to 540 = 20 * 27 (where 27 = 3 * 9, a thrice-ominous number).
Hb9-50 should have been Hb9-60 if 540
was important. 9 * 50 = 450 = 18 * 25 = 15 * 30 = 2 * 15 * 15.
With the pentagon measuring 540,
there is a resemblance with 360, because 364 is 360 + 4 and 540 + 4 = 544 =
284 + 260.
544 = 400 + 12 * 12 and 364 = 400 - 6
* 6.
I decide to add at the end of the
page:
The number for Pb10-54 maybe
alludes to the fact that a pentagon (which Venus describes in the sky,
visiting only 5 of the zodiacal constellations - Taurus, Sagittarius,
Cancer, Aquarius, Virgo) measures 360 + 180 = 540° (equal to 10 * 54).
Moreover, if the suggested
division of the Venus cycle is correct, then 284 (morning star) + 260
(evening star) = 544 - which by being 4 more than 540 resembles 4 * 91 = 364
(4 more than 360).
544 / 4 = 136 = 2 * 68.
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3.
In such a glyph as *Ha9-39 we can imagine a combination
of moe with a koti 'star' at bottom right
But it cannot be
Venus, because there are 6 'feathers' around the star which
normally indicates Sun.
It is
not obvious why the morning and evening stars in Hb9-50 have
been drawn with 7 feathers (rather than the expected 5 of the
Venus pentagon in the sky). But the glyph appears in a calendar
for the week, and time tended to be counted in fortnights
(double weeks).
The head of moe has been transformed from
its normal shape into what could be an allusion to the top half
(the 'cap') of koti. A new season is making itself felt (moe).
Presumably the 'cap' head refers to the old season and the new season
will then be the little star at bottom right -
corresponding to the bottom half of the koti
'eggshell' (the 'cup'). Even we use a little '6-feathered star'
(*) as a sign for the date of birth.
At first I guessed the moe head meant the 'morning star'
(spring) phase of
Sun and the 'star' the autumn phase. The Venus
pattern of morning and evening star would be easy to use
also when describing the 'orbital phases' of the sun.
"...
[in] a
contemporary Mopán Maya tale in which Lord K'in (the sun) goes
from his home in the east to the center of the sky and then back
to the east again ... it appears that he goes clear across the sky
because he has placed a mirror at its center. To interpret the
movements of the sun in this manner is to model it on Venus as
morning star, which both rises and sets in the east." (The
comments to Popol Vuh)
But a marama (moon, night) sign is at top
left (in *Ha9-39). It should not be interpreted to say that the
moe bird is the moon, because the marama sign is
drawn as a separate sign.
Rather it should mean that the moe bird is not what
otherwise would
be assumed - viz. the 'morning star' phase. It should instead be the 'cup' ('evening star') season. |
