The hypothesis assumes that:
“the observance and recording of the pathways of the sun, moon and possibly venus provide a calendar that is expressed in a diagram. This diagram has become anthropomorphized and it variants are expressed in many cultures across time.”
Early man was capable of observing the sun, the moon and possibly venus and other planets against a background of other stars. Creating a simple solar calendar based on the shadow of a stationary stick would have been easy enough. Not observing the analemma becomes impossible then if you are marking out high noon every day.
The same goes for the path the moon takes in southern sky. if early man marked out the high point of the moon in the southern sky every night, it would result in a series of six declining rings to the left, and six declining rings to the right of the southern central vertical axis.
Early man was capable of recording information. We know this from their etchings in rocks and paintings in caves. We may not know exactly what they were writing, but we know they were writing none the less. I believe early man codified their calender knowledge into a diagram. This diagram subsequently gets antropomorphised into a face or a figurine, drifting away from its visualised origins as it travels over the globe and through time.
There is also enough food for thought when it comes to viewing this hypothesis in an independent invention motive. Because the solar analemma, solar graph and moon paths are observable around the globe, independent cultures could have all adopted the same shapes as they observe the common sky. The fact that the southern analemma is upside down seems to be confirmed in rock drawing from the australian continent.
The motive has a number of principles that must be expressed.
- The motive has a vertical or tapered shaft
The vertical or tapered shaft represents the vertical space the sun occupies at high noon. the shaft may have two small sundiscs near its lower end. These are often represented as nostrils in a face. - The motive has three eyes
There is at least the main sun disc in the centre top, and two sun discs slightly lower to the left and right. these are the equinox suns. - The motive has a fountain component on the shaft
The fountain motive represents the largest bow the moon will make either to the left or the right of the central shaft. It indicates the equinox months. The fountain figure is often multi lined; instead of drawing 6 bows, spirals or multilines are used to indicate either half of the year. - The motive has two recurring circles; spirals; or sets of wavey lines or (multi linear) arcs
The moons are shown abstractly as two interweaving spirals or conjoined concentric circles. (Folkton drums) Or, the fountain is shown figuratively as eyes on a face or arms around breasts. - the motive has a circle or cocoon under the shaft
The mouth of the diagram represents the earth and a place of death and rebirth. It is a cave as well as a vagina or womb. In the solargraph it is the area under the solar graph that is always under the suns path, even at the suns lowest point in the year.
