Dana Scott > 03-03-2026, 11:40 AM
(02-03-2026, 08:16 PM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.IMHO, it's a coincidental similarity because they are not really the same symbol. When written properly, the Tibetan letter has "curved legs" intentionally turning outward. The quincunx legs are straight.
Also, there is the question of how the meaning of the symbol would have migrated from being a letter to a fraction used by Kepler? The terminology is Latin, but where does the "picnic table" glyph come from?
The real question is then, what is it doing in the VMs as a rare letter and as glyph #6 in the 4 x 17 symbol sequence?
Dobri > 03-03-2026, 03:07 PM
Dobri > 03-03-2026, 03:42 PM
eggyk > 03-03-2026, 05:10 PM
(03-03-2026, 03:07 PM)Dobri Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.What makes the x glyph unique is the vertical stem above the chevron so that the glyph looks like a vertical arrangement of Τ (Tau) above Λ (Lambda).
R. Sale > 03-03-2026, 08:59 PM
Dobri > 04-03-2026, 10:05 AM
(03-03-2026, 05:10 PM)eggyk Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Is that actually an attribute of the symbol? As far as I know, the only versions of x that have the vertical stem are those found on f57v, but that page also includes some without.
Most (all?) of the other instances elsewhere in the VMS have no vertical stem, like these.
Unfortunately it may not be possible to date anything based on the invention of the symbol in any case, as it's a fairly easy symbol to draw and may have been independently invented many times, similar to symbols that look like o.
For example, here's a similar looking symbol from a sculpture in "Kankali Tila" from the first century, which I doubt is related to the VMS:
R. Sale > 09-03-2026, 09:39 PM
Dobri > Yesterday, 08:23 PM
(09-03-2026, 09:39 PM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Here's something visually similar. It's an upper case "A". The last symbol in the first column and scattered above, but replaced by lower case in the rest of the table.In this context, the upper case "A" is the first letter of the word "Aureus" (golden) commonly used for the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. This leads to the alternative interpretation that the picnic-table glyph could possibly stand for You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
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