Re: what is etymology? (linguistics and biology)

Ovals BCD of Goebekli Tepe as lunisolar calendars
part 2, a simple algorithm of calculating lunations

Why archaeology in sci.lang? I would never dare go for
a paleolinguistic expermient such as my reconstruction
of Magdalenian without a solid background in literature,
art history, archaeology, and my knowledge about
symbols in all three disciplines. And I wouldn't dare
come up with my bold archaeological interpretations
without a solid knowledge in mathematics.

Let me repeat the basic features of my Halafian lunisolar
calendar. 12 periods of 30 days yield 360 days. Add 5
and occasionally 6 days, thus you get a solar year of 365
and sometimes 366 days. 63 continuous periods of 30
days equal 1890 days and correspond to 64 lunations
or lunar years (e.g. from one to the next full moon).

Meanwhile I have reasons to assume that this calendar
goes back to the Azilian period of time, and was already
known to the builders of Goebekli Tepe. Which raises
a new question. How could a shaman observe and
measure lunations precisely enough to establish the
above (practical) equation?

Answer: the equation was found by means of a simple
algorithm which I rediscovered a couple of years ago,
and for which I found evidence in the Lebombo bone from
Central Equatorial Africa, 35 000 BP, and in the Lascaux
cave (see my Lascaux thread for both calendars). Lay out
30 pebbles, add 29 pebbles, 30 pebbles, 29 pebbles, 30
pebbles, and so on. You get 30 59 89 118 148 177 207
236 266 295 325 354 384 413 443 472 502 ... days or
nights for 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 ...
lunations.

Now you can play with these numbers or amounts of
pebbles. 15 plus 17 white pebbles equal 32 pebbles,
double them and you get 64 white pebbles for as many
lunations. Add 443 and 502 black pebbles for nights,
and you get 945 black pebbles. Double them and you
get 1890 black pebbles for as many nights.

64 pebbles can be arranged as a square of 8 by 8 pebbles.
945 pebbles can be arranged as a rectangle of 21 by 45
pebbles. Double them and you get a rectangle of 42 by 45
pebbles. Arrange them differently and you obtain a rectangle
of 63 by 30 pebbles ... (Laying out squares and rectangles
are an easy way of handling large numbers.)

63 lines of 30 black pebbles each correspond to 64 white
pebbles. 63 periods of 30 nights equal 64 lunations. These
are the basic numbers of my Halafian calendar which I now
ascribe to the builders of Goebekli Tepe. Having established
these numbers, the shamans of old could observe the moon
for decades, and centuries, and test the ratio 64 L / 63 M
(64 lunations equal 63 months of 30 days). They may have
tested several equations or ratios. In the end this one must
have prevailed.

Next time: part 3, oval B of Goebekli Tepe

Regards to those who agree that the study of language
can be more than just grammar and orthography and
stately processions of parading phonemes

Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch


Ovals B C D of Goebekli Tepe as lunisolar calendars
part 1, Halaf, Egypt, Crete and Greece

This here is preliminary work for a long fable I will tell
in my Lascaux thread, presumably. I have to add a word
on the name of Abraham, explained in the Genesis as
"father of nations." The actual meaning of the name is
something like this: He is great in connection to God.
This goes along with my explanation "God's right arm."
Carrying out God's will, being God's right arm, raising
his club, making it tower over the head of the Lord,
so to speak, makes him really great ...

Now for the Halafian lunisolar calendar I reconstructed
one year ago. A month has 30 days, 12 months plus 5
and occasionally 6 days yield a solar year of 365 and
sometimes 366 days. From the numbers of a beautiful
dish from Tell Arpachiyah I derived the following ratio of
regular and leap years: 6 leap years of 366 days on 25
normal years of 365 days (6 leap years plus 19 regular
years in a period of 25 years i.e.), yielding a solar year
of 365.24 days, actual value 365.242... days.

A month in ancient Egypt had 30 days. Horus was
the Celestial Falcon, his one eye the sun, his other
eye the moon. Seth destroyed the lunar eye. Thoth
healed it, and called the restored eye the Whole One.
It consists of six parts with numerical values: 1/2, 1/4,
1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, or simply '2 '4 '8 '16 '32 '64. Add
them, and you get 63/64 - a little less than 1, not a
whole number. Why, then, was the restored eye called
the Whole One? My explanation: multiply the month of
30 days by the Horus eye series '2 '4 '8 '16 '32 '64 and
you obtain 29 '2 '32 days, or 29 days 12 hours 45 minutes,
not even one single minute longer than the actual duration
of a lunation (for example from one to the next full moon)
which lasts 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes 2.9 seconds
(modern value from 1989). The Whole One meant not the
moon as celestial body, but a whole cycle, a lunar year,
a completed lunar cycle. Year, in early times, had the
meaning of a completed cylce, Latin annus for year,
annulus for ring.

A variation of that calendar is found in Middle Minoan
Crete and in the Middle Helladic Argolis: a flower of
8 petals with a small circle in the center, one petal
representing a period of 45 days, 8 petals yielding 360
days, the small circle representing 5 and occasionally
6 days, while 21 periods of 45 days correspond to 32
lunations (same numerical definition as above).

Now I have reasons to assume that my Halafian calendar
was already known to the people of Goebekli Tepe, 11600
to 9500 BP. How could they possibly have established
such a calendar, with very simple methods? That will be
answered in my next message, but first my killrater must
shoot off this message.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Magdalenian experiment (continuation)
    ... as many pebbles as there are notches on your ... The Paleolithic way of calculating lunations ... calendar, 63 continuous periods of 30 days ... PIR GID 2 30 days ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Magdalenian experiment (continuation)
    ... represents a solar year, the glorious rotunda ... A second calendar is encoded in the niche ... I read this diagram as encoding of eleven lunations ... pebbles, and the diagram of 365 days by 5+4+5 ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Magdalenian experiment (continuation)
    ... The Paleolithic way of calculating lunations ... was to lay out pebbles in a syncopic way: ... the lunisolar calendar from the ... PIR GID 2 30 days ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: what is etymology? (linguistics and biology)
    ... Here again the basic Azilian lunisolar calendar from Goebekli ... periods of 30 days yield 1,890 days and equal 64 lunations. ... moon NUL, 3 days for the young moon, 6 days for the waxing ... But consider that the empty moon is close to the sun, ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Magdalenian experiment (continuation)
    ... into 360 degrees), while the tree of life in the center, ... accounting for a regular solar year of 365 ... the calendar in sync with the four seasons. ... I read this diagram as encoding of eleven lunations ...
    (sci.lang)