who is oldest?

[Tar-Elenion]

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Sure, but it's 'which Durin' that is important. All the Durins awoke, you know,
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Actually we dont *know* that. App. A states that "five times an heir was born in his House so like to his Forefather that he received the name of Durin". It notes Durin I as sleeping alone until the awakening of the Dwarves and then goes to Kheled-zaram.

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and we don't know how much time passes during the song. Which Durin in Khazad-dum are they talking about?
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We do know that the Durin of the song is Durin I. The Durin of the song is the one who names the nameless hills and dells. This would be the Durin who awakes and comes to Azanulbizar in App. A. Thus the Durin of the song is Durin I who wakes. And he wakes with an unstained Moon in the heavens to be seen.


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When were the lamps made with the light of sun, star and moon trapped within them? This is not known.
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I have not been addressing the lamps, only the fact of the Moon when *there was no Moon*. But since there was a Moon then the Sun is not out of the question and the lamps made with their light in Durin's Day, which by Men's mythology was before Sun and Moon were made.


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It seems unlikely to me that Tolkien should have had any sort of scientific mythology in his head when he was writing the LotR. Didn't this arise much later, in the late sixties or early seventies?
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No. The essays in Myths Transformed are from ca 1960 as is the Athrabeth, both of which deal with a 'scientific' cosmology (CT gives dates ranging from 1955-1960, but indicates the later is more likely correct). Thes are of course post LotR. However there is the Ainulindale C* text. According to CT the evidence suggests that C* was extant by 1948. The C* text is a 'scientific' version.


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When they were drawn makes all the difference! You can't take different writings (or illustrations) from different time periods and throw them together, that won't make for consistency.
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Yes, I can. Especially when JRRT himself reconciles it, noting that the 'astronomically absurd' making of the Sun and Moon are Mannish Myth, while the Eldar know better. Thus allowing for Finwe to have a Sun as his device (and it making more sence for the device of Elwe to be a Moon).

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Finwe with a Sun for his device obviously belongs to the period of the scientific mythology. If I accept the more primitive mythos, than I of course do not accept the devices which contradict it.
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That is your choice of course, though I try to reconcile 'apparent' contradictions before rejecting anything out of hand, with an attempt to use the published canon (LotR, RGEO and The Hobbit) as a guideline to consistancy.