Precession

Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization. Graham Hancock, Three Rivers Press, new York, 1995.

"... For some inexplicable reason, and at some unknown date, it seems that certain archaic myths from all over the world were 'co-opted' ... to serve as vehicles for a body of complex technical data concerning the precession of the equinoxes. "

See also: Jane B. Sellars, The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt.

12 = number of constellations in the zodiac
30 = number of degrees allocated along the ecliptic to each zodiacal constellation
72 = number of years required for equinoctial sun to complete a precessional shift of 1 degree
360 = total number of degrees in the ecliptic
72 x 30 = 2160 number of years required for sun to complete passage of 30 degrees along the ecliptic
2160 x 12 = 25,920 [also: 360 x 72] The Great Year or one complete precessional cycle
4320 = number of years required for equinoctial sun to complete precessional shift of 60 degrees
72
+36 [precessional shift of 1/2 degree)
= 108
108 x 100 = 10,800
108 divided by 2 = 54
54 x 10 = 540
Norse Myths: Valhalla's fighters = 432,000 - last battle against Fenrir Wolf

See: Hamlet's Mill: An essay investigating the origins of human knowledge and its transmission through myth. (or: An essay on myth and the frame of time) The two subtitles (cover and inner title page) in this David R. Godine edition from 1969, actually differ.
Giorgia de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend.
cosmology: p. 50
participation: p. 53
..............myth is essentially cosmological..............participation in ultimate things.......................