In conclusion I would call attention to the fact that the last hieroglyph on page 48 is very peculiar. As on pages 51, 52, 61 and 69 it has the meaning of 18,980 days and consists of an Imix with a comprehensive superfix; its prefix is a 7.
But what is the meaning here of 7 × 18,980 = 132,860? When we recall the statement made above that the whole section of pages 46-50 embraces 130,520 days, or, according to another calculation 135,200 days, it is a striking fact that 132,860 is exactly the mean of the two numbers, being separated from each by 2340 days = 9 × 260. Can it be an accident that on the next page (page 49) the fourth Venus revolution is reached, for 4 × 584 = 2336, i.e., almost 2340? The hieroglyph discussed here would not be so extraordinary on page 50. I will not venture to assert as to the 511 in 132,860 = 511 × 260, that it is connected with the 511 which will appear as the difference on page 58.
Before leaving these pages, I will give a brief survey of the two signs of the screech-owl and the Moan (hieroglyph c and the lower part of d) which occur on these pages with such marked frequency.
In spite of obliteration, the first of these two signs is distinguishable in the top groups on pages 47, 49 and 50, in the middle groups on pages 47, 48, 49 and twice on page 50, in the lower groups on page 46, twice on page 47, once on 49, twice again on 50, making 14 times in all. A few additional cases might be added to these where the similar hieroglyph of the moon may have been set down instead of the one in question.
On the other hand the second sign, always provided with the same prefix and suffix as the first, occurs in the top groups on page 48 and 50, in the middle of pages 46, 48, 49 and 50, and in the lowest on pages 46 and 50, 8 times in all.
Since the subject here is astronomical, it is suggestive less of a deity or a sacrifice than of a period of time to which the allied page 24 has already referred (see page 110 of this book). The inner meaning of these pages is of course still enveloped in mystery.
Pages 51a—52a.
I shall begin the discussion of this very peculiar section with the remarkable fourth column on page 52, which, very possibly, the scribe ought to have placed at the beginning; for it looks like a repetition of the section on pages 46-50, while everything else on the left and right of it, apparently belongs together.
If we omit the two hieroglyphs at the top, which I regard as belonging to the two rows of hieroglyphs extending over these two pages, we shall have the following result, according to my point of view:—