[PW] Dogon timepiece

[Ivan Van Laningham]

Hi All--
I've been told that this picture,

http://www.pauahtun.org/extra/DogonTimepiece1C.jpg

is of a Dogon timepiece.  My partner & I would like to know more about 
it, in particular how it could be used as a timepiece.  There are 19 
knobs on stalks with an empty slot, and 8 "petals" surrounding the 
central hole.  If it had 29 stalks and one empty slot for a total of 30 
positions, I could see how it could easily be used as a lunar calendar, 
but not with a total of 20.

We've googled extensively, and have come up with quite a bit on the 
Dogon, but nothing useful on Dogon timekeeping or calendar.

This is for a museum exhibition, which my partner is co-curating, in a 
couple of months; if there's information to be had, it would be included 
in the exhibition.

Metta,
Ivan
-- 
Ivan Van Laningham
God N Locomotive Works
http://www.pauahtun.org/
http://www.python.org/workshops/1998-11/proceedings/papers/laningham/laningham.html
Army Signal Corps:  Cu Chi, Class of '70
Author:  Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours