I must admit I have not devoted much research to various calendars yet. This bit from the wiki seems rather interesting as well:
"In the earliest Roman calendar, which the Romans believed to have been instituted by Romulus, the ten-month year began with Mars' month"
Is it possible that the VM calendar holds the middle between a ten month system and an optional 12 month one?
About the orientation of the VM cat's mouth, I have been pondering the same. One possibility is that, as you say, the eyes have been altered later to meet certain conventions - as we can see in some of the examples, large cats were deliberately shown with wobbly eyes. According to Diane, this was because the direct stare of even a large feline in a picture was seen as something to avoid. This alone would validate the placement of the eyes on the wrong place, be it originally or later.
Another option, however, is illustrated by the following picture, again from North Africa (A.D. 150-200, Hadrumetum, (now Tunisia)):
![[Image: 115630204.wPVkyK25.LAXJun09482.jpg]](http://m4.i.pbase.com/o6/93/329493/1/115630204.wPVkyK25.LAXJun09482.jpg)
We see how the lion has been given strange, almost sad, unthreatening eyes, but especially how its upper lip appears split and runs all the way up to the nose in a strange way. The depiction of the lion's body and the entire donkey (onager) is more realistic than the lion's face.
All we need to do to make this possibility a bit obvious in the VM feline is add a little nose. Pardon my lack of any skills:
![[Image: attachment.php?aid=485]](http://www.voynich.ninja/attachment.php?aid=485)
"In the earliest Roman calendar, which the Romans believed to have been instituted by Romulus, the ten-month year began with Mars' month"
Is it possible that the VM calendar holds the middle between a ten month system and an optional 12 month one?
About the orientation of the VM cat's mouth, I have been pondering the same. One possibility is that, as you say, the eyes have been altered later to meet certain conventions - as we can see in some of the examples, large cats were deliberately shown with wobbly eyes. According to Diane, this was because the direct stare of even a large feline in a picture was seen as something to avoid. This alone would validate the placement of the eyes on the wrong place, be it originally or later.
Another option, however, is illustrated by the following picture, again from North Africa (A.D. 150-200, Hadrumetum, (now Tunisia)):
We see how the lion has been given strange, almost sad, unthreatening eyes, but especially how its upper lip appears split and runs all the way up to the nose in a strange way. The depiction of the lion's body and the entire donkey (onager) is more realistic than the lion's face.
All we need to do to make this possibility a bit obvious in the VM feline is add a little nose. Pardon my lack of any skills: