u/pberrett

Hi everyone

I'm an independent researcher from Melbourne, Australia, and I recently published a preprint on what I believe is a previously unrecognised lunar calendar on the recto of Rongorongo Tablet C (Mamari).

By analysing recurring delimiter sequences and "staff and bud" glyphs, I've identified a second calendrical pattern (Lunar Calendar B) that aligns structurally with the known lunar calendar first identified by Thomas Barthel in 1958. Once you see it, it can't be unseen.

Progress on the decipherment of Rongorongo has been fairly static since Barthel's work, and I'm genuinely curious whether this finding might help move things forward.

I'd love to hear your thoughts — in particular, whether you think this is significant, and any critical feedback on the methodology.

Preprint: https://zenodo.org/records/19950107

Regards

Peter Berrett
Melbourne Australia

Hi everyone

I've just published a preprint on Zenodo proposing the discovery of a previously unrecognized lunar calendar on the recto of Rongorongo Tablet C (Mamari).

By applying structural analysis to recurring delimiter sequences and "staff and bud" glyphs, I identified a second calendrical pattern — which I call Lunar Calendar B — that aligns with the known lunar calendar first identified by Thomas Barthel in 1958 (Lunar Calendar A).

The new calendar contains 29 "buds," compared to the 31 "nights" in the traditional calendar. I propose this may represent an agricultural cycle, or an alternating 29/30-day lunar month used by the Rapanui people.

Full paper (open access, PDF): https://zenodo.org/records/19950107

Feedback on the paper is very welcome.

Please note that my correct email address is peter.william.berrett@gmail.com There is an error in the email on the published document and I have submitted a preprint with the corrected email address which should be published shortly.