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DISCUSSION (WEEK) In order to understand the rongorongo texts we have seen that it is necessary to carefully note all details. Without attention to structure, however, all these details will lead us nowhere. Take for example the structure which I have chosen as a starting point for the investigation, the 7-day week beginning with the day of the Sun and ending with the day of Saturn. Recognizing this structure of the week in Hb9 17-58 (with parallel glyphs in Pb10 19 -- Pb11-105) enables us to focus on the details of the rongorongo text. And we can evaluate these details with the help of our known structure (or 'map'), since we think we know what a week is. We imagine we can recognize this 'map'. But we must of course always be prepared to accept if our map and the rongorongo texts should totally disagree, because then we must have made a mistake - the structure we had in mind was not the correct one. In the example of the week, however, our 'map' and the texts do not disagree totally. Many points seem to agree, at least after some efforts trying to understand. Our map of the week is clearly, however, quite inadequate. Many details in the rongorongo text are absent from our own map. Some of these we can immediately accept and add to our map, e.g. the phases of the Moon in Monday. Many on the other hand seem just to leave us with question marks. Most important, though, is my feeling of making progress in the study of the miroglyphs and their meanings. I hope you too will enjoy some of this. On the other side of the earth there are structures (maps) which seem to be quite unknown on this side. Now we will continue with one of these, a map which I believe is necessary for a deeper understanding of the week.
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