Page f85v2
[f86v6] [index] [f86v5]
Identification
Title: "nine-rosette diagram"
Page: f85v2 = NC+ND+NE+NF+NG+NH (Rene) = p169 (Stolfi)
Folio: f85+f86
Panels: f85v2+f86r4+f86r6+f85v1+f86r3+f86r5
Bifolio: bN1 = f85+f86
Quire: N (Rene) = XIV (Beinecke)
This is the top left panel(?) of the main face of a 12-panel foldout.
Panels 85v2, 86r4, 86r6 (top), and 85v1, 86r3, 86r5 (bottom)
comprise a single logical page, here called f85v2, which is the
main face of a 12-panel fold-out. This is the only face that can
be entirely seen when all folds are opened. All the panels
obviously belong to the same bifolio, which is bound at the
vertical fold between panels 85v1 and 86r3.
Attributes
Language: B (Currier)
Hand: 3 (Currier)
Subsets: C (Rene), cos (Stolfi)
Subject: cosmological
Colors: ??? (Reeds), blue("T"_of_"TO"_map) (Reeds)
Description
This face of the fold-out contains an elaborate diagram consisting
of nine main circular diagrams or "rosettes" connected by things
that resemble roads, rivers, tubes, etc. Using compass directions
as labels for the rosettes, the general layout is roughly like this:
*
= NW----N----NE
= | \ | / |
| | |
W--- Ctr----E
| * | |
| / | \ |
SW----S----SE
o *
(The right 1/3 of this design is incomplete and based on verbal
descriptions by others, and relatively low-resolution images
provided by Dennis.)
The top and bottom rosettes lie one in each of the six panels,
roughly centered. The rosettes in the middle row sit on top of the
horizontal fold. The center rosette is the largest one while the
mid-side ones (N, E, S, W) are the smallest.
There is a ring of text around each rosette, and dozens of labels
all over the place. Some text rings, perrhas all of them, are
bounded by two faint, mechanically drawn circles.
Several object in this diagram seem to be covered by tongue-like
"scales" or sprouts (see glossary). In several places these scales
pile up into a small conical mound or "fountain", which seems to emit
a small "jet" (which looks like a tuff of stiff hair).
The NW rosette (panel f85v2):
The ring of text surrounding this rosette (unit "???") has a wide
gap at 09:30. Inside this ring is a band of scales turned
inwards, giving the impression of a hollow spherical shell with
closely-packed finger-like buds sprouting from the inside
surface. The band of scales is fringed with a band of hairs,
also pointing inwards, and a circle of small dots.
At the center of this "shell" is a round (slightly oblong)
object, also decorated with scales, hairs, and tiny dots
but pointing outwards. The object seems to have a opening shaped
like an eye on its side, as if a slice had been cut from a
melon. The interior of the object seems to be hollow. The edges
of the hole are fringed with many small "teeth" or "flames",
sharp and curved, directed inwards. On the right edge of the
cut, on the boundary between the scales and the flames, there is
a single word.
North, East, and South of the NW rosette there is a complex of
scalloped and hatched areas that suggests a very rough surface.
Cutting through this hatching, and apparently higher than it, are
some flat areas that resemble broad wawering roads. One "road"
connects the rosette to a wide flat "plateau" North of it, that
extends beyond the panel's edge. Another road goes East to the
N rosette (panel f86r4) and a third road goes South to the
W rosete (split between panels f85v1 and f85v2).
The East-going (NW to N) road narrows quickly, and is
interrupted halfway by a round court. (Actually the court is
foreshortened to an oval; this part of the diagram is drawn as
seen from due West, high above the road.) Two narrow
paths---slightly convex, with parapets---connect this plaza to
the N rosette. The trapezoidal space between the two paths could
be a hole or a flowerbed. The road and plaza are edged by an
artificial-looking wall, interrupted by a few square columns or
towers of the same height. In the middle of the road there is a
round multistory tower, with a sharp conical roof.
The South-going (NW to W) road sports five labels: one at each
end, one in the middle, and one on each side, outside the road.
It is apparently drawn as seen obliquely from the South.
Five straight tubes exit from the NW rosette's outline, directed
Southeast towards the center rosette. They seem supported at
their base by a rampart with multiple scalloped outline. The
tubes are arranged symmetrically, with one in center and four,
slightly narrower, around it. They stop in mid-air with flat
open ends, as if all were cut with a single stroke. There is a
label further ahead of the tubes and aligned with their axis.
Further nortwest of this rosette, right next to the panel's
corner, there is a small sun with long sinuous rays. West of the
rosette, squeezed against the left edge of the panel, is a
narrow text with two paragraphs of 4.0 (or 5.0?) and 4.0 lines.
The NE rosette (panel f86r6)
The ring of text (unit "???") surrounding this rosette is
interrupted at 00:00 by a rectangle, about half as wide as it is
tall, spanning the width of the text band, and decorated with
two vertical rows of dots.
Inside the text ring is a broad band, spanning almost half the
radius, and surrounding a starry field. Most of the band is
covered by a texture of closely spaced scalloped lines, on which
are superimposed several objects shaped like fat ostrich
feathers, curled up on themselves; the whole vaguely suggests a
a stormy sea with huge breaking waves. The "stormy sea" is
interrupted at 06:00, 09:00, and 01:30 by extensions of "roads"
that reach the text ring from the outside. There is one
"breaking wave" in each of the 06:00--09:00 and 09:00--01:30
sectors, bending counterclockwise; while the sector 01:30-06:00
contains four small "breaking waves" and a medium-size one, all
bending clockwise.
The interruption at 09:00 is an extension of the "road" leading
to the N rosette. The road intersects the text ring between
08:30 and 09:45, and is broadest at that point. Once inside the
text ring, the road narrows abruptly, and is only 1/3 of its
maximum width by the time it reaches the starry field. This
part of the road is bordered by two concave walls, looking down
on rocky cliffs that to rise from the sea. The end of the road
is blocked by by a castle in perspective view, with "up" towards
West. The castle consists of a square wall, twice as high as the
road walls, with M-shaped merlets all around the top edge. A
dark dot in the middle of the front wall may be a door. Two rows
of elongated dots on the wall could represent windows. Near (or
right against) the back wall, close to the left corner, there is
a tower. The tower is twice as tall as the walls, reaching
almost to the text ring. It has a vertical row of three dot-like
windows, a narrow parapet around the top, and a conical roof. To
the right of the tower there is a building of some sort. Just
outside the castle, where the South wall of the road begins,
there is a second tower, similar to the first but only half as
tall, with a dark globular roof (or is that an ink blot?).
Outside the text ring, the road connecting the NE rosette to the
N rosette is almost a mirror image of the road from NE to N: a
broadening road, edged by artifical walls with square posts or
towers. [CHECK] However there is no flower bed dividing the road
in two, as there is on the other side. There is a label on the
road, just outside the ring, reading North.
The road from the NE to the E rosette starts on the edge of the
starry field, between 04:30 and 07:30, then quickly narrows, and
crosses the text ring between 05:30 and 06:30. Where the road
starts, at 06:00 right on the edge of the starry field, there is
yet another tower. This tower is like the first one but shorter;
it has two dot-like windows, one above the other, and a blunter
conical roof. Outside the text ring, the road maintains
basically the same width until the E rosette, wandering a bit
off the straight line. This road, like most of the others, has a
flat surface, surrounded by a band with scalloped texture that
sugests a rocky cliff. On the road's surface there are two
scalloped lines, with each lobe decorated by a dot, constricting
the road [COMPLETE]
The SW rosette (panel f85v1)
The ring of text bounding this rosette (unit C1) has gaps at
01:30 and 07:30.
Inside the text ring is a "plateau" with scalloped boundary,
with 8 extensions or "passages" leaving in different directions.
Each passage has a peculiar outline, sort of a pair of trumpets
joined at their narrow ends by a "bulb-like" swelling. The passages
are flat like the plateau but are surrounded by a several wavy
lines, sugegsting cliffs. One "passage" goes North, one West, two
South, three East, and one (narrower, with two swellings, each
with a dot inside) goes SouthEast. The passages going North and
East are more or less aligned with the roads between the SW,
W, and S rosettes, that start just outside the text ring.
However the match is not perfect, as if the text ring marked an
ellipsis or a change of scale.
Inside the scalloped area there is an elliptical "flower bed"
surrounded by a band of scales. The scales are either painted
yellow or dark green, or left uncolored. At the four cardinal points, the
scales pile up into four fountains, whose jets point at nothing in
particular. The elliptical flower bed is filled with 24 tiny flowers or
stars. In the center there is a yellow flower-like object with 6 round
"petals" and a doubly-traced outline.
There are several labels (unit B1) on or near this rosette.
One label in the scalloped-outline area, at 07:30, seems
associated with the area itself, or the flower bed inside it.
Another 9 labels seem associated with the 8 "passages" leaving the
scalloped area, and perhaps with the fountains at the corners of
the flower bed. Two more labels lie on the "sea", between the
text ring and the scalloped area, at 08:00 and 11:00. Four more
labels, reading radially outwards, lie just outside the text
ring, between 04:30 and 06:00; they may be associated with the
passages going Southeast (although they are not aligned with
them).
Outside the text ring, Northwest from the rosette, there is a
roundish textured area surrounded by several wavy lines,
resembling a small "island" with steep coastline. A broad,
slighlty divergent band with wavy outlines, resembling a
torrential stream of water, goes from the island to the edge of
plateau (passing under the text ring). Two curves lines of text
are written along the stream's axis, and a third is written
along its Southern edge. On the Northeast side of the island
there is a tuff of curved hairs, so that the island looks like
an onion with its roots.
On the opposite side of the rosette (07:30), also outside the
text ring there is a small circle (with double outline decorated
with 8 sets of three cross-hatches). The circle is surrounded by
a short ring of text (half clockwise and half counterclockwise).
Inside the circle there are three dots connected into an "L"
with equal arms. Two labels, reading radially towards the the
rosette, lie on each side of the small circle. A "dock"
resembling a double-traced squarish "U" extends out of the SW
rosette towards the small circle.
Connecting the SW and W rosettes there is a "road", looking like
a causeway bordered by artificial-looking walls. The road is
actually a diamond-shaped loop, with slightly concave sides. The
North and South corners of this diamond connect to the two
rosettes; the West and East corners of the diamont open into
small round courts. Around this diamond are some wavy lines that
suggest steep rocky cliffs. Surrounded by the road is a small
diamond-shaped well or monument, tinted yellow. The four corners
of the diamond are labeled, and there are two more labels in the
"sea" on both sides (all in unit B1 too).
The SW and S rosettes are connected by a broad bowtie-shaped
"isthmus", apparently with steep rocky shores. A thick
"fortified wall", fringed with "M"-shaped merlets on both sides,
runs along the Southern "shore" of the isthmus. North of this
wall are two triangular "fields", taking up most of the
isthmus, covered by parallel lines and many vertical sticks or
poles. There is a label just north of the wall, and another
just off the Northern "shore".
The SE rosette (panel f86r5)
For most of this panel I have only an image with relatively low
resolution.
On panel f86r3 one can see half of the connection between
rosette SE and rosette S. This connection too is a bow-shaped
isthmus. The multiple wavy outlines suggest steep shores on both
sides. There is a narrower bowtie-shaped "road" on top of the
isthmus, next to the South shore cliff. This road has no
parapets or merlets, but its edges are scalloped outwards.
Between the road and the North shore cliffs there is a band of
scales, pointing seawards. There are two labels (unit B3) just
off the shore, one on each side of the isthmus.
The rosette itself is touching the vertical fold bwterrn
panels f86r3 and f86r5, which is disintegrating.
The rosette is framed by a ring of text (unit "???"),
broken by a gap and two short radial lines at 05:30,
and obliterated by the crumbling fold between 08:00 and 10:30.
Inside the text ring there is an irregular arrangement of drawn elements
and text. At the center is a square, tilted some 10-20 degrees
counterclockwise, divided into four triangles by a light "X",
outlined with thick black strokes. The four triangles are
paited with some faded (now brownish) color. At the very center, where
the arms of the "X" come together, is a
small circle with a dot in the center.
A textured rectangle extends the square in the 11:00 direction,
up to to the surrounding text ring. Its texture consists of
several transverse "furrows" with finer perpendicular hatching
in between, resembling a woven mat or a ploughed field. The
boundary between the rectangle and the square is marked by four
short posts. A fringe resembling a palisade runs along the right
edge of the square-and-rectangle area, interrupted and bounded
by six tall poles or towers, pointing. Paralellel to this
square-and-rectangle are are five lines of Voynichese text (unit
"???"), two on the left side and three on the right side, the
latter interrupted in four places by the towers of the palisade.
The text reads towards 11:00 (i.e. vertically, slightly upside-down).
A fan-shaped area, resembling a mountain with concave sides,
connects an arc of the text ring between 06:00 and 08:00 to the
lower left corner of the central square. The base of this
"mountain", adjeacent to the ring, is covered with several rows
of inward-pointing scales, which apparently cover the whole
mountain. Some of the scales are painted dark green, and green
dots are sprinkled over the mountain slope. The remaining free
space just North of this mountain, just inside the text ring,
between 08:30 and 10:30, is filed with dark dots.
Another fan-shaped "mountain", similar but broader, connects the
text ring from 00:00 to 04:30 to the last line of the text
to the right of the central square. The base of this
"mountain" too is covered by several rows of colorless scales,
but the mountain slope further up seems bare and lines with
many ridges running down the slope.
A dotted triangular area, with straight sides, extends inwards
from the text ring between 04:30 and 05:30, and ends just before
reacing the bottom right corner of the central square. This
dotted area has no outline, and is framed by 6.7 lines of
Voynichese text (units "???"), three on the left side and 3.7 on
the right side, all reading inwards.
Dennis [???] points out that, Southwest of the rosette, there is
a small drawing of an animal with a long tail curled up, four
thin and dark legs, large roundish ears and a long and narrow
muzzle. Rene [04 Apr 1999] could not see it, but he didn't get
to unfold the diagram.
To the right of the "animal", South of the rosette is an
undecipherable drawing with a fan of dark strokes, pointing West
and Northwest, edged by finer, almost invisible detail. A faint
line seems to extend from this item towards 02:00. The whole
might be the tail of a large fish. Where the "body" of this fish
should be, one finds a label (unit "???"), upside down.
Further to the right, South and Southwest of the rosete and
right against the edge of the panel, there is a textured band
apparently in golden hues; Dennis suggested [???] that it may be
a closely-packed school of fish, facing left. Rene [04 Apr 1999]
says it doesn't quite look like fish.
Above the "school of fish", right against the left edge of the panel,
is a small sun with narrow, sinuous rays, painted yellow. Inside the
sun there seems to be some symbol or simple diagram.
Between the SE and the E rosettes there is another bowtie-shaped
isthmus, containing a bowtie-shaped "raised road", surrounded
scalloped "cliffs" on both sides (the inner cliff being much
wider than the outer one). I cannot tell whether the road has
any walls or parapets. Two labels (unit "???") lie next to the
narrow part of the road, one on either side, both upside-down.
The N rosette (panel f86r4)
This rosette is surrounded by ring of text (unit V2). The ring
is fairly round but the presumed guiding circles are not
visible.
Just inside this ring there is a band of scales, as in the NE
rosette. However there are no hairs or dots. Instead the scales
seem to pile up into 13 conical "fountains" (11 visible and 2
inferred), pointing inwards.
The fountains seem to be blowing or spraying a "windmill" that
takes up most of the space inside the rosette. Each fountain
points into the notch between consecutive "blades" of the
windmill. In each sector, between consecutive fountains, there are
10 labels, aligned with the tips of the windmill blades, reading
radially inwards. (Two of the sectors are hidden by the
"waterfall", see below.)
The central "windmill" resembles the central structure of the
diagram in <f68v1>. It consists of a fat star (or toothed disk)
divided into 13 "blades" or sectors shaped like narrow kites.
Each sector is split lengthwise into a solid dark-colored half
(the most clockwise one) and a "starry" half. The latter
contains many tiny stars against a colored background. The
approximate star counts, clockwise from North, are
sector 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
stars 11 10 10 10 09 10 11 10 11 10 11 10 10
The actual counts may be one or two higher. Thus there are
133 stars, perhaps a little more. This is almost exactly twice
the total number of stars in the windmill of <f68v1> (66-67).
A "flow" of some sort seems to be taking place between the
windmill's South edge and the central rosette. The flow has
triangular or conical shape, and is marked with stream lines and
many small circles suggesting droplets. It is not entirely clear
which way the flow is moving; but its South end has smaller
"droplets", and exits or enters a hole at the top of a conical
pile of scales, similar to the fountains inside the N rosette
but larger.
A narrow stick or tube, with a round swelling near its tip,
extends Southwards from the center of the windmill, for about
half its radius. (It is probably perpendicular to the windmill's
plane, but drawn as if looking from a North-South direction.)
The S rosette (panel f86r3)
This rosette, like the others, is framed by a ring of text (unit
"C2") between two faint mechanically drawn circles. There is a
wide gap in the text between 06:00 and 06:45.
The space inside the ring is largely occupied by a "windmill"
object somewhat similar to the one inside the N rosette. This
windmill too has the outline of a fat star divided into 13
narrow kite-shaped sectors. However, instead of being bisected
into dark and light halves, here the sectors alternate between
dark solid color (blue-black in one reproduction) and starry sky
pattern. The necessary exception is the sector at 08:00, which
is bisected by a wavy line that slaloms between two rows of
dots; the clockwise half is starry, the other is solid dark.
Three of the starry sectors have a light yellow background, the
rest are uncolored (or faded away). The star counts per sector,
starting and ending with the split one (01 and 14), are
sector 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14
color wh bk YE bk YE bk wh bk wh bk YE bk wh bk
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
stars 12 -- 19 -- 25 -- 24 -- 26 -- 22 -- 24 --
i.e. 152 stars.
There is no tube at the center of the windmill, only a
faint circular marking, possibly containing two Voynichese
letters.
At the tip of almost every sector there is a small round bulb,
and attached to almost every bulb is a fan-like structure
of varying width. When present, the fan starts from a small
pointed spike at the at distal end of the bulb, and stops at the
surrounding text ring. For the broadest fans, the spike seems to
have opened to a crown of points. More precisely, starting from
the split sector at 08:00 we have
sector 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 ** 12 ** 13
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
bulb at tip Y Y Y Y ? ? ? Y Y Y Y Y ? Y Y
spike(S)/rown(W) S S S S ? ? ? S S S W ? ? ? W
fan width(N,0..2) 2 ? ? N N N N 0 N 0 1 2 2 2 2
The two "**" entries above refer to a pair of "extra" fans that
start from narrow stalks growing from the notch between two star tips.
Some of the bays between consecutive star tips contain labels
(unit B2), reading radially inward. One of them, at 07:30, is tilted
at 45 degrees to the radius, almost vertical.
Symmetrically to the N rosette, there is a big fan-shaped flow
between an aperture in the central rosette and the whole North
edge of the windmill. The flow is marked with stream lines
(diverging from the North vertex) and small chevrons pointing
South, towards the windmill. The flow seems to emanate from a
bottle-shaped nozzle on the wall of the central rosette.
The W rosette (on the fold between panels f85v1 and f85v2)
This rosette is similar to the North and South ones, in that it
has a ring of text (unit N1) surrounding a "windmill", which
is sprayed by a "flow" emanating from the central rosette.
However the fold and the poor copy quality prevent us from
checking many of the details that are visible in the other two.
The text ring is interrupted at 09:45 by a decorated rectangle
(a laterally compressed version of the "notched square" marker).
The West windmill is smaller than its North and South
companions. It is divided into 18 kite-shaped sectors,
half of them solid light yellow, and half of them filled with
many small stars. Clockwise from 09:00, the star counts are
sector 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
stars ?? -- >6 -- 07 -- 05 -- ?? -- 10 -- 09 -- 09 -- 10 --
So there are more than 56, probably around 80 stars on this windmill.
About two dozen thin beams or "stalks" emanate from the windmill
(both from the tips of the sectors and from the throughs between
sectors). the stalks end in round bulbs. These in turn are
connected to a scalloped circle that resembles a ring of round
arches. Every two normal arches there is an extra-tall one.
The "flow" is somewhat smaller than the North and South ones,
and consists of several tinsel-like strands with the barbs
pointing towards the windmill; it is similar to the South flow,
but the barbs are pointing in the opposite sense. The
strands converge on (or diverge from a point on the wall
of the center rosette---which is unfortunately obscured by the fold.
Between the text ring and the arches there are 8 labels (one of them,
obscured by the fold), reading radially inwards (unit M1).
The E rosette (on the fold between panels f86r5 and f86r6)
For this rosette I have only a low-resolution image, so the description
is incomplete and possibly incorrect.
This rosette too is framed by a text ring (unit "???")
with a gap around 09:00.
Inside the text ring is a patterned band, with two or three rows
of roundish objects (details not visible).
Inside this band is a wheel with about 12 rounded lobes,
each attached to the wheel by a narrow neck. There may be
some texture, labels, or designs on the wheel. At the center there
is a small round hub, yellow-tinted.
A "flow" comes out from the central rosette and spreads over the
lobed wheel.
The central rosette (on the fold between panels f86r3 and f86r4).
The usual text ring (unit N2) is surrounded in this case by a
complex band, entirely covered with outward-pointing scales and
other structures. Exposed scales are seen to have a dark (green?) spot
near the middle. The band of scales is edged on the outside with
many narrow yellow "flames" like sun rays, each ending with a
dark dot. The inner edge of the band has a row of
elements like shallow conical cups, with dark green interior
(similar to the "flowers" of f???). also pointing
outwards. From among the scales thre arises at regular inervals
a group of five or six tubes (a wide one at the center, with
smaller and shorter tubes surrounding it). All tubes have
an open, clean-cut end; their hollow is painted dark (red?).
Inside the text ring there are two additional concentric bands
of outward-pointing scales. The outermost of these two bands
is fringed by hairs, also pointing outwards. In the innermost
of these two bands, some scales are painted dark green.
In the annular space between the text ring and the the second
band of scales there are 19 labels, reading radially inwards ---
all between 17:30 and 02:30.
Around the North half of that annular space there is also a thin
semicircular line that is interrupted several times by
triple-scalloped indentations.
The inner band of scales is a bit flattened, like a disk seen in
perspective. Inside the band there are half a dozen "mushrooms"
in a circle. Each mushroom consists of a "stalk" and a "head",
topped by a "spike". The stalk is a chubby cylinder with its
bottom half encased in a short "sock" with a swelling just above
ground level. The "head" is spherical and featureless. The
"spike" is shaped like an upside-down trumpet, with thick lip,
and ends with a sharp point at the top. The spike and/or stalk
of some mushrooms is painted yellow.
Further inside the mushroom ring there is a ring of unidentified
shapes (perhaps resembling human silhouettes), with their
"heads" painted dark blue-green. Inside this ring is a dotted
area, about level with the mushroom "heads".
Between the two nearest mushrooms there are a few words of text
(also in unit M2).
Comments
LOW-LEVEL INTERPRETATION
I.e. what objects was the artist trying to draw?
The hatched areas outside the rosettes could be sea waves, rocky
terrain, flesh, clouds, cave walls, and many other things. However
the details of the NW to N road sugegst they are cliffs rising
from the sea.
The object inside Nw rosette could be a cutaway view of a hollow
shell, with a layer of "scales" on the outside, and
inward-pointing flames or spines on the inside. (Compare however
with the flower on f40v). The label seems to be applied the shell
itself.
The opening could also be a mouth with teeth; but the shape,
curvature, and slant or the "teeth" are not correct. It could also
be eye with eyelashes; but the same objection applies, and there
is no hint of iris and pupil.
The tower-like structure on the N to NE road could be a fountain.
There are faint markings South of it that could be a puddle of water,
or a standing person (with one arm on the "fountain"), or...
The two roads connecting the N rosette to the plaza West of it
could be either bridges or, two lanes separated by a flower bed.
The knobs at the corners of the SW-W road could be towers seen
from dead above (the apparent perspective for this part of the
drawing), dropping straight down to the sea level. But they could
also be landing pads at sea level...
The grooved areas North of the wall on the SW-S isthmus could
represent plowed and planted fields, or vineyards.
HIGH-LEVEL INTERPRETATION
I.e. what is the purpose of this picture?
The sun in the NE corner suggests a cosmological interpretation.
On the other hand, the tubes suggest anatomy, or (less likely)
plumbing, while the roads and tower suggest a map.
The whole diagram may be a graphic equivalent of the description
of the cosmos given in 1 Enoch and other ancient texts, where
natural phenomena like planetary motions, rivers, winds, rains,
springs, etc. are said to be produced in some "cosmic factory".
Alternatively, it could be a "biological factory" explanation of
human physiology.
Perhaps this diagram is an attempt to draw the mysterious device
described in the Cabal, or the apocalyptic vision of Ezra, or
Heron's hydraulic gadgets, or...
Just to cover all the bases: it could be a report from a time
traveler or UFO abductee: the NW rosette is a fusion reactor, the
pipes leaving it carry steam for heating, the N/S/W/E rosettes are
steam turbines, the bulb-headed towers in the center are
rockets... 8-)
Another possibility is that it is a "fantasy island", like many
kids like do draw (and grown-ups too---consider Tolkien's maps of
Middle Earth)
References
[1] Smythe, Frank. "A Script Full of Secrets" and "The Uncrackable
Code" in "Mysteries of Mind, Space & Time: The Unexplained", pp.
3062-3069. H. S. Stuttman, Inc., Westport, Connecticut, USA.
Copyright 1992 by Orbis Publishing, Inc. [Originally published in
"The Unexplained" in the UK.]
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