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Re: Ariadne's thread
Posted:
Nov 19, 2011 4:17 AM
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The origin of the name Minos was Mi-Nu-The,
given in Hierogylphic Minoan and Linear A
and Linear B as head of a bull for Mi, as visual
pun of a bull leaper on the feet hands feet for Nu,
and as tree of life for The. A beautiful fresco shows
a bull leaper on the animal, above and below the
scene two rows of 16 scales each, together 32
scales that go along with an early definition of
the lunar year or lunation or synodic month.
15 and 17 lunations counted in the 30 29 30
29 30 29 30 ... mode yield 443 and 502 days
respectively, together 945 days for 32 lunations.
A lunisolar calendar based on these numbers
was encoded by a rosette of eight petals with
a small circle in the center on beautiful Kamares
ware and on the Phaistos Disc, as a rosette of
eight petals or a star of eight points in Sumer,
and as a star of eight points in all of Mesopotamia,
in cuneiform signs abbreviated to a cross with
an indication that one has to double and turn
the cross in order to get a star of eight points.
I call these signs emblems of the dingir calendar
The dingir calendar combines a short and a long
cycle. In the short cycle, each petal or point
represents a long month of 45 days, all petals
or points 360 days, the small circle in the center
of the rosette or the center of the star 5 more
days, in all a year of 365 days. In the long cycle,
each petal or rosette represents a year of 365
days, all petals or points 2920 days, the small
circle in the center or the center of the star 2
more days, in all a long dingir cycle of 2922 days,
rounded average of 8 solar years and 99 lunar
years and 5 Venus years. You can rely on the
8 solar years, while the 99 lunar years are
roughly two days too long, and the 5 Venus
years two days too short. A more reliable way
for counting lunations was provided by the above
numbers: 21 continuous periods of 45 days or
105 long weeks of 9 days are 945 days and
correspond to 32 lunations, mistake less than
one minute per lunation, or half a day in a lifetime.
The dingir calendar of Mesopotamia goes back
to the Göbekli Tepe calendar whose basic numbers
are these. A month had 30 days, a year 12 months
plus 5 and occasionally 6 more days (three days
of midsummer, two and occasionally three days
of midwinter), while 63 continuous periods of 30
days are 1890 days and correspond to 64 lunations.
The Egyptian Horus eye - lunar eye of the Horus
falcon - implies the same definition. It is composed
of six elements whose numerical values are 1/2 and
1/4 and 1/8 and 1/16 and 1/32 and 1/64, or simply
'2 '4 '8 '16 '32 '64. Multiply an Egyptian month of
30 days by the series of the Horus eye and you
obtain one lunation of 29 '2 '32 days, or 29 days
12 hours 45 minutes (modern average from 1989 AD
29 days 12 hours 44 minutes 2.9 seconds).
Cyrus H. Gordon and Walther Hinz identified Mi-Nu-The
with Ebla in northern Syria, called mi-nu-ti-um by the
Eblaites already in around 2 200 BC, Ugaritic mnt, and
Minnit in the Bible (Ezekiel 27:17). We may assume
that the Minoans came from Ebla, where also a Minotaur
was known. They would have brought the Göbekli Tepe
calendar and the dingir calendar with them, and would
have developed them further at Knossos and Mallia.
Next time: a comment on the Maya calendar
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