Marco Merlini Canary altars blessed by the stars

BIBLIOTHECA BRVKENTHAL LXXIII In honorem Prof.univ.dr. Sabin Adrian Luca Istorie şi destin 1 2 MINISTERUL CULTURII ŞI IDENTITĂȚII NAȚIONALE BIBLIOTHECA BRVKENTHAL LXXIII Raluca Maria Teodorescu Alexandru Constantin Chituță Adrian Georgescu Anamaria Tudorie (coordonatori) In honorem Prof.univ.dr. Sabin Adrian Luca Istorie şi destin Editor: Dana Roxana Hrib Editura Muzeului Național Brukenthal SIBIU, 2019 3 Editor: dr. Dana Roxana Hrib Coordonatori volum / colectiv de redacție: dr. Raluca Maria Teodorescu (Muzeul Național Brukenthal) dr. Alexandru Constantin Chituță (Muzeul Național Brukenthal) Adrian Georgescu (Muzeul Național Brukenthal) dr. Anamaria Tudorie (Universitatea „Lucian Blaga” Sibiu) Descrierea CIP a Bibliotecii Naţionale a României OMAGIU. LUCA, Sabin Adrian In honorem prof. univ. dr. Sabin Adrian Luca : Istorie şi destin / Raluca Teodorescu, Alexandru Constantin Chituţă, Adrian Georgescu, Anamaria Tudorie ; ed.: Dana Hrib. - Sibiu : Editura Muzeului Naţional Brukenthal, 2019 ISBN 978-606-8815-36-7 I. Teodorescu, Raluca II. Chituţă, Alexandru Constantin III. Georgescu, Adrian IV. Tudorie, Anamaria 378 929 ISBN 978-606-93273-0-2 Concept grafic: Dana Roxana Hrib Tehnoredactare coperți I-IV: Chris Balthes Foto: Alexandru Olănescu, Adrian Luca 4 CUPRINS CUVÂNT ÎNAINTE Prof.univ.dr. Gheorghe Corneliu Lazarovici In Honorem Prof.univ.dr. Sabin Adrian Luca la 60 de ani 9 CURRICULUM VITAE Sabin Adrian Luca Curriculum Vitae 13 Binecuvântare 47 Dr. Paul-Jűrgen Porr Preşedinte al Forumului Democrat al Germanilor din România Sabin Adrian Luca – managerul 49 Daniela Cîmpean Președinte al Consiliului Județean Sibiu La Mulți Ani! 51 † Dr. Visarion Bălțat Episcopul Tulcii Rector spiritualis 53 Marin Cârciumaru Profesor Emerit Prietenului meu, Sabin Adrian Luca 55 Ghiţă Bârsan Comandantul (Rectorul) Academiei Forţelor Terestre „Nicolae Bălcescu” Sibiu Mesaj adresat domnului Prof.univ.dr. Sabin Adrian Luca, Directorul Muzeului Național Brukenthal, cu ocazia aniversării zilei de naștere 57 Mihaela Grancea Universitatea Lucian Blaga Facultatea de Științe Socio-Umane Parcursul firesc al unui intelectual de excepție 59 OMAGIERI † Dr. Laurenţiu Streza Arhiepiscopul Sibiului şi Mitropolitul Ardealului TABULA GRATULATORIA 61 PARTEA I: ARHEOLOGIE Elena-Cristina Nițu, Marin Cârciumaru, Ovidiu Cîrstina, Florin Ionuț Lupu, Marian Leu , Adrian Nicolae Caracteristici generale ale locuirilor gravetiene din situl Poiana Cireșului-Piatra Neamț – noi contribuții la cunoașterea paleoliticului de pe valea Bistriței 65 Gheorghe Lazarovici, Cornelia-Magda Lazarovici Transylvania' salt resources and connections with Neolithisation process in Central and Southeastern Europe 77 Georgeta El Susi Date preliminare asupra exploatării animalelor în așezarea neolitică timpurie de la Tășnad-Sere, județul Satu Mare 109 Ion Tuțulescu, Carol Terteci Locuirile sitului arheologic de la Copăcelu, județul Vâlcea 119 5 Corneliu Beldiman, Diana-Maria Beldiman Artefacte eneolitice din materii dure animale descoperite la Turdaş-„Luncă” (2011) 133 Florentina Mărcuți Evoluția geografică și culturală a industriei litice în preistorie. Orientare generală în tehno-tipologia artefactelor litice din Polonia şi Slovacia studiu de caz 149 Adela Kovács, Maria Diaconescu Bucrania from the collections of the Botoșani County Museum.The discoveries from Vorniceni-Pod Ibăneasa and Roma-Balta lui Ciobanu, Botoșani County 191 Nicolae Ursulescu „Cetăţuia” – toponim reprezentativ pentru aşezările tipice culturii Cucuteni 209 Victor Sava, Florin Gogâltan Bazinul Mureșului de Jos la începutul bronzului târziu (1600/1500-1400 BC) 223 Adrian Georgescu Obiecte preistorice din bronz descoperite la Poplaca, județul Sibiu 235 Raluca Teodorescu, Claudiu Munteanu Bronze and Iron Age pottery found at Pelișor, Sibiu County 241 Marco Merlini Canary altars blessed by the stars 249 Gheorghe Vasile Natea Morminte de perioadă romană descoperite pe autostrada Sebeș - Turda, Lot 1 271 Wolfram G. Theilemann, Alexandru Gh. Sonoc Un fragment de stelă funerară romană descoperit la Jibert, Județul Braşov, şi câteva consideraţii etnoarheologice cu privire la habitatul de aici 281 Coriolan Horațiu Opreanu Cohors i ituraeorum sagittariorum milliaria la Porolissum. Precizări cronologice 301 Augustin Ungureanu, Adrian Georgescu Ceramică provenită din așezarea romană de la Micăsasa, județul Sibiu 307 Ioan Aurel Pop Despre vechimea și specificul românilor 315 Zeno Karl Pinter, Claudia Urduzia Mărturii de locuire medievală în zona Tărtăria 321 Ioan Opriș Arheologia din românia între tradiție și reconceptualizare – un punct de vedere 345 Ovidiu Calborean Biserica ortodoxă cu hramul Adormirea Maicii Domnului din Săsăuş, (comuna Chirpăr, Judeţul Sibiu) – un monument care lasă calea deschisă cercetării 357 Ioan Ciorbă A înhuma și a deshuma în Transilvania celei de-a doua jumătăți a secolului al XIX-lea. Două contribuții documentare 367 PARTEA a II-a: MUZEOLOGIE 6 Alexandru Constantin Chituță Tripticul Deisis din patrimoniul Muzeului Național Brukenthal. Istorie, iconografie și considerații actuale 375 Gheorghe Faraon Contribuţie la istoria Țării Făgăraşului. Istoricul şi patrimoniul Muzeului Țării Făgăraşului „Valer Literat” 389 Claudiu Munteanu Situația tezaurelor monetare din colecția Muzeului Național Brukenthal 399 John Nandriș The Erechtheion and the Hunter on the Acropolis 409 Irmgard Sedler Museale Positionen in den 1980er Jahren. Die beabsichtigten „Systematisierungs“-Pläne für Agnita/Agnetheln im Harbachtal 413 Anda-Lucia Spânu, Delia Voina Vederi generale ale Sibiului din colecțiile Muzeului Național Brukenthal Sibiu 419 Î.P.S. Laurenţiu Streza Simbolul liturgic în arhitectura bisericii, locaş de închinare 433 În loc de încheiere: Muzeul Național Brukenthal. Un nou destin 441 INCHEIERE Dana Roxana Hrib Cărţi tipărite în colecţia BIBLIOTHECA BRVKENTHAL 7 449 Canary altars blessed by the stars Marco Merlini The Institute of Archaeomythology (USA); Euro Innovanet (Italy); University of Sibiu (Romania). [email protected] Abstract The prehistoric and protohistoric Guanche population settled in the Canary Islands performed fire sacrifices on altars positioned on remote summit of mountains, rocks, ridges and cliffs that stand out for their peculiar shape. These propitiatory rites aimed at triggering human communication with Heaven and at gaining the support of the powerful spirits of the celestial bodies. In the present article, it will be inquired the connection of the fire-sacrificial arae with astronomical evidence, documenting how these architectures expressed the meaning of the world as interpreted by the native Guanches, and were catalysts of their religious-cultural organization. Keywords Archaeo-astronomy; sanctuaries alignments; Canary Islands; Guanches; fire sacrifices; archaic-Berber From prehistory to protohistory, to prehistory again The compact and volcanic Canary archipelago, composed by seven main islands, is located in the Atlantic Ocean, facing the western Saharan coast of Africa. Geographically it belongs to the African continent. African Atlantic areas were explored at least since Cardial Neolithic time through the sea route running down the Atlantic coast of what are now Morocco and Mauritania, and its natural resources were exploited even during the Middle and Late Bronze Age2. (Fig. 1) In the Canary Islands, aboriginal people were uniformly known as “Guanches” at the time of NormanCastilian occupation in the XV Century3. Although research in recent decades has consolidated the CanarianAfrican relationship, there is still no consensus in terms of when/how the first pioneers disembarked and when/how the islands became populated and colonized 4. The oldest chronometric datings are situated in the III and II millennia BCE, pointing out the first human presence and early settlements within a Megalithic/Bronze Age context. Two C14 datings have been obtained from organic sediments unearthed at El Bebedero site (Lanzarote). They are 4022 BP (2622-2470 BCE cal. - 2546 BCE cal.),5 and 4199 BP (2871-2799 BCE cal. - 2835 BCE cal.).6 The third C14 dating is from snail shells recovered in Caldereta de Tinache site (Lanzarote). It is 3400 BP (1880-1530 BCE cal. - 1690 BCE cal.).7 The geographic proximity of Lanzarote to the African cost triggered the colonization process in this island ahead the rest of the islands8. Under demographic pressure, the aboriginal colonizers deployed primitive boating skills to venture further away from Lanzarote to the next western island at sight. However, it is under discussion if Lanzarote early dates might be representative of the entire archipelago9. Prehistoric Atlantic Europe, North Africa and Canary Islands belong to related cultural and genetic groups 10. Massive emigration after Sahara desiccation may have reached some of the Canary archipelago in addition to Western Europe and other regions, participating to the generation of Atlantic and Mediterranean Megalithism in Late Bronze Age11. However, the population wave to Canary Islands was of low intensity and erratic. If prehistoric findings have been discovered in other Macaronesia Islands such as Azores, 1 The author made field investigations on Canary rock art and archaesemiotic in May 2017 and in February 2019. Atoche Peña, Ramirez Rodriguez 2017, 276 3 Abreu-Galindo 1977 [1602]. 4 Atoche Peña 2013 5 It is Beta-214128 Standard C14 from Caldera Tinache 05 PN3-4/V-2 . 6 It is UBA-31.980 AMS from El Bebedero 12 PF/V-4. 7 It is UBA-31.979 AMS from El Bebedero 12 PF/V-3. See also Delgado-Darias et al. 2005 8 Atoche Peña, Ramirez Rodriguez 2017 9 Farrujia de la Rosa 2013, 9, note 4 10 Arnaiz-Villena et al. 2017; Rodríguez-Varela et al. 2018 11 Arnaiz-Villena et al. 2015; Id., 2017; Medina, Arnaiz-Villena 2018 2 249 Madeira, Selvagens12, Canary archipelago lacks of megalithic archaeological patrimony based on absolute objective methods13.14 Neither literary sources (Ethno-Historic, Punic, classic Greco-Latin, etc.), nor archaeological artifacts document actual human activity in the Canary Islands prior to the X century BCE 15. A wide sequence of radio-carbon dates clearly establishes the proto-historic colonization of the Canary Islands to somewhere close to the change from the II to the I millennium BCE16. This is consistent with datings obtained by thermo-luminescence on pottery fragments modelled on a wheel discovered in the islet of La Graciosa C. (1096 ±278 BCE, 950 ±277 BCE)17. These results match entirely with the most ancient age of human occupation in the archipelago as deduced from mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) 18 and Y-chromosome analyses19. According to archeological, anthropological, genetic and linguistic data, the earliest populations that certainly explored, appraised, and colonized Canary Islands were formed by Paleo-Berbers with roots in the Mediterranean and North African koine20. Their magical-religious practices were associated with the religions of the ancient Amazigh groups who settled in the nowadays so-called Tamazgha region21. In the current state of archaeological research, the oldest level of occupation is 2810 BP (1010-910 BCE cal. - 960 BCE cal.), dated from some charcoal discovered at Buenavista site (Lanzarote).22 Evidence from the early IX century BCE comes from Tenerife: 820 cal. BCE - Cueva de Los Guanches, Icod.23 A Saharan cultural influence dated around the X or IX centuries BCE has been suggested also for the western island of La Palma24. However, it is not clear whether the islands were colonized by one or by several proto-historic migratory waves and whether migrations between islands were frequent or not25. Subsequent extensive exploitation of the resources of the Canary Islands and economic intensification26 characterized historical phases dominated by non-natives. They were: Phoenician sailors and merchants (from circa X century to VI century BCE); Punic groups and Lybic-Phoenician communities who controlled and monopolized the economic resources on the other side of the Columns of Hercules (from circa VI century to II century BCE)27; and the Romans, the original “globalizers” (from circa I century BCE to IV century CE)28. After the political-economic crisis that affected the Roman Empire in the III century CE and the forsaking of much of its province of Mauritania Tingitana, Canary Islands suffered for severe reduction of external economic relations, progressive isolation, and abandonment (from circa IV century to V century CE). These regressive drives were followed by a phase dominated by a wide-ranging pastoral and agrarian economy based on an economic-social autarchy due to complete closing off from the outside world (from circa V century to XIII century CE). Fertile soil and seasonal lagoons made up ecologically favorable environments for a subsistence economy based on low-intensity livestock and farming, right as in the prehistoric beginning of the colonization of the archipelago. Therefore, the economic development in forced isolation generated insular cultures immersed in a “Forced Neolithic” technological state29. It implied no knowledge of seafaring techniques and very little communication between islands.30 12 Ribeiro et al. 2015, 2017; Rodrigues et al. 2015 Atoche Peña, Ramirez Rodriguez 2009 14 Medina and Arnaiz-Villena list prehistoric Atlantic petroglyphs, mummifications, pyramids, and buildings as belonging to the megalithic culture (Medina, Arnaiz-Villena 2018). 15 Atoche Peña, Ramirez Rodriguez 2017 16 Onrubia-Pintado 1987; Atoche Peña, Ramirez Rodriguez 2017 17 García-Talavera 2003; González, del Arco 2007, 206; González, del Arco 2009 18 Rando et al. 1999; Maca-Meyer et al. 2004 19 Flores et al. 2001; Flores et al. 2003 20 Onrubia Pintado 1987, 653-678; Mederos 1997; Guatelli-Steinberg et al. 2001, 173-188 21 Hachid, 2000, Chafik 2005; Farrujia, 2014 22 It is Beta-251.322 AMS from Buenavista 08 D9/II-3 Base. It was recovered from the base of the outside wall of structure E1 (Atoche Peña 2011; Atoche Peña, Ramirez Rodriguez 2011, 153-156). See also Atoche Peña, Ramirez Rodriguez, 2017, 275. 23 González, del Arco 2007, 54. See general consideration in Billy 1982 and Onrubia-Pintado 1987. 24 Mederos, 1997, 447–478 25 Fregel et al. 2009a; Fregel et al. 2009b 26 These processes were based on dependence on the outside world and unequal trade. 27 López Castro 1992 28 Atoche Peña et al. 1995; Atoche Peña 2008; Atoche Peña, Ramirez Rodriguez,2017, 276-277 29 Atoche Peña et al. 1997, 15; Atoche Peña, Martín 1999 30 This poses the unresolved dilemma of whether the first settlers reached the easternmost islands themselves, and after that lost their sailing skills, or if they were transported by seafaring people. See Mercer 1980. 13 250 Fire sacrificial altars on high sites Guanche inhabitants shared a religious and mythological common ground throughout the islands, including a small number of supernatural beings organized according to some degree of hierarchy.31 The polytheistic and animist religion was based on male/female duality. A remote, celestial, male god/force was at the head of the native “pantheon”. He was the omnipotent, eternal father who created water, land, fire, air, and all creatures. The Supreme and Creator Being resided in Heaven, caused the stars to move and sustained Sky and Earth. However, he was sustained by a feminine principle32. Consistently, Canary natives exploited remote summits of mountains, rocks, ridges and cliffs that stand out for a peculiar shape as to perform propitiatory rites aimed at triggering human communication with Heaven33. It was in ritual centers and altars placed on orographic highest points, Axis Mundi, that intermediation between Earth and Sky was much favorable through vertical references34. Sometimes, aborigines revered high mountains, rocks or boulders as sacred places themselves being materialization of the celestial essence of benign deities. The Guanches utilized sacrificial altars, locally known as pireos, to perform rituals on prominent geological locations such as mountaintops or cliffs. These are dry stone constructions shaped as an oval-circular enclosure with one or more small cavities, where the act of burning food offerings was performed. The sacrificial arae were exploited in a standardized way from the III-II century BCE up to the XV century CE. Pireos, as well as lithophones,35 are an outstanding and distinct element of the Canary archeology but their systematic study started only in the Nineties of the XX century. (Fig. 2) Archaeologic surveys have established that the sacrificial altars are the customary type of evidence on the summits, but other built structures have been detected there too. Unfortunately, their function is still completely unknown. (Fig. 3) The sites with pireos spread in the archipelago have common features. In order of priority, they have: i) dominant altitude and prominence on the environment; ii) visual domain over the territory; iii) location next to the abyss and verticality; iv) inter-visibility with other analogous sanctuaries; and v) occurrence in more or less large groups. These qualities are more pronounced in spots with greater archaeological complexity. Burnt offerings recovered in the excavated pireos are almost the same in the entire archipelago. The spectacular act of ritual burning played the key role in a complex liturgical event aimed at activating communication with divinities36. Only certain products, essential for survival, were sacrificed. Animal specimens include calcined bones of goats and sheep, pigs to a lesser extent, and occasionally fauna of marine origin (ichthyofauna and malacofauna)37. Not the entire animal was offered, but portions of it containing less meat. Specifically, paws and parts of the skulls show a high rate of thermo alteration due to repeated exposure to fire. The task of dismembering victims in such a systematic manner required precision and experience of specialized work. Ritually slaughtered, dismembered, and incinerated domestic animals functioned as intermediary agents for connection with the superhuman sphere38. Wild fruits, cultivated cereals and other vegetal resources played a significant role during the fire ceremonies. Residues of food plants provide the first direct evidence of agriculture before the Spaniard conquest39. Some lithic pieces have been unearthed from the ritual fire cavities. They were collected, 31 However, distinguished features were established on each island mainly due to the multifaceted external influences. Vandenbroeck 2012, 119 33 Tejera Gaspar, González Antón 1987, 152 34 Mederos 2007-2008, 1257-1272 35 Lithophones had a deep significance for the natives. They are volcanic rock formations endowed with a special sonority, similar to that of a bell, when struck with a stone or another object. Thanks to the natural acoustics of the landscape where they are located, the sound can be heard at considerable distances. Lithophones had a social and cultural solid place in the Stone Age native culture. They offered rhythmic or a-rhythmic sound production within the proscenium for sacred acts exploiting the magic-religious power associated to chthonic female divinities. Lithophones were struck rhythmically also to support dances and make musical competition during social events (thanksgivings and royal consecrations). Other lithophonic structures with commanding view and within acoustically reinforced setting had a different vocation, serving mainly to warn inhabitants of external threats and aggressions. Thanks to a field investigation, the author inquired some rock art sites hinged on the most significant lithophones. (Merlini 2017; Id. 2018; Id. 2019). 36 Alberto Barroso et al. 2015, 159-179 37 Mederos et al. 2001a, 103 38 Alberto Barroso et al. 2015 39 Merlini 2018 32 251 manufactured, used, and finally abandoned in the burning cavities once they had fulfilled their function exclusively for the fire-sacrificial arae. The lithic utensils were a category of offering40. We have already investigated fire-sacrificial stone platforms on high places in the different islands of the archipelago41. In the present article, we will inquiry their connections with astronomical evidence, documenting how these architectures expressed the meaning of the world as interpreted by the Guanches, and were catalysts of their religious-cultural organization. Natives built their ceremonial centers in the open air. Their roof was the infinite cosmos, to keep track of and pay reverence to some celestial bodies, stars and constellations capable of supporting the different aspects of pastoral and agricultural life. In particular, they were considered responsible for marking the arrival of rainfall, and even to propitiate it 42. “They were ruled by the sun during the day and by some stars during the night, according to their experience on their raising and setting at sunset, at midnight, or at dawn”43. In the Canary pre-Hispanic societies, subsistence was conditional to the existence of pasture for livestock and the survival of agriculture in a mainly dry land. Therefore, sun, moon, stars, and constellations as regulators of natural flow, acquired an extraordinary role. Natives were aware not to have the power to govern the natural phenomena. However, they organized the space in a way to establish direct links with some entities of the firmament. In particular, they synchronized the fire sacrifices with the ritual observation and worship of specific celestial bodies, recognizing a link between their position/motion and significant locations in the topography. By doing so, they tried to harmonize the different periods of the year, synchronize their life with the forces that guide the cosmic rhythm, and gain the support of the powerful spirits of the celestial bodies. The mountains were privileged places for this kind of worship and were worshipped as sacred agents. They were cornerstones of the world and the cosmos (supporting the latter on the former) and a milestone of the cosmos order. The native religious worldview was not only a system of beliefs in a set of divinities and their command, but a cosmovision, i.e. a much deeper cosmogonic scheme based on patterns of cosmic behavior and rhythm that governed in perfect harmony all the vital aspects of the world and gave full meaning to them. The animal sacrifice on El Alto de Garajonay as a plea for rain to the Pleiades In La Gomera, the hub of the religious, cultural and social network was the great insular-scale sanctuary on El Alto de Garajonay. As we know, it is the most complex, solid and articulated sacrificial construction on the island. This mythical structure was located far away from any stable human settlement. Moreover and most important, it towered from the center of the island that has a roundish form and was the apex of it. El Alto de Garajonay is the highest mountain of La Gomera (1,487 m.) and is located in the geographical center of it. It crowns the central plateau, enjoying formidable sights in a 360º panoramic view over primary laurisilva forests, commanding visual over most of the island and even the surrounding islands such as Tenerife, La Palma, and El Hierro. El Alto de Garajonay was a suitable place to build a bridge between reality and transcendence. Between 2002 and 2005, archaeological investigation dig three sacrificial fire sanctuaries of larger dimensions than in the rest of the island.44 Here natives addressed their supreme god Orahan and the other supernatural beings, as they felt closer to Heaven. According to oral information, a number of structures occurred making up a complex ceremonial centre. Unfortunately, the archaeological inquiry was not so easy from the perspective of an integral study, since the set of ancient structures is affected by the construction of a track and other infrastructures. At present, only one compound is visible, and part of another one is hidden under a recent pavement45. They are distant just about 40 m. The structure A was built on the southern side of the Alto de Garajonay, slightly below the summit. It is a construction similar to a tumulus of 13x7 m, which surface is divided into two terraces by a small stair. The lower platform, organized with four pireos, was reserved for sacrifices, while the upper terrace, facing the northern wind, was used to assist the ritual. The excavation of one of the fire cavities unearthed two remains C14 dated from 430 to 650 CE cal. and from 340 to 600 CE cal. (Fig. 4) 40 Hernández Gómez, Rodríguez 2005 Merlini 2018 42 Merlini 2018 43 Sosa 1849 [1678] 44 Systematic archaeological excavation followed Juan F. Navarro Mederos discovery in 1974 and the project Garajonay: archeology of the mountains in 1994. 45 Mederos et al. 2001a, 103 41 252 Well documented is a ceremonial ground with a sacrificial altar built right at the top of El Alto de Garajonay (conventionally, denominated structure C), which means that it is the highest point of the island. This dry stone construction appeared as a double enclosure with an oval shape. Its current form is the result of successive renovations. An altar similar to the aboriginal one was reconstructed in modern times, said to be made of stones from the ancient complex and to be built over the original. (Fig. 5) This structure was built with stones larger than those of the lower set. It covers a surface of about 56 m 2 and is between 0.30 m and 1 m high. It has two well-differentiated areas. The first is a perimeter platform made of small and medium stones, circumscribed by large ellipsoidal blocks up to 130 cm. The second is a central platform, elevated about 50 cm from the previous one and similarly delimited by large stones. In origin, the construction had three small combustion structures: one in the middle of the central platform and two on the southern side of the perimeter surface (corresponding to the last modification of the construction). The last two pireos have been investigated by archaeological surveys. C14 analysis established a dating of 900-1160 CE cal. and 910-920 CE cal46. The sacrificial altar on the very top of El Alto de Garajonay was used systematically and uninterruptedly to perform ritual celebrations hinged on fire during the long period between the IV and the XII century CE47. (Fig. 6) From the upper ceremonial center at the Alto of Garajonay, the appearance of the Pleiades (one of the most conspicuous groups of stars in the sky, even if faint) occurred behind the peak of the Teide volcano in the first centuries BCE and CE, moving through the mountainous silhouette of the northern side of Tenerife Island. At present, the passage diverges about 8º azimuth and 15 days. The heliacal rising happened in midOctober at dusk and in mid-May at dawn. The first date coincided with the beginning of the rainy season; the second date marked the end of the rainy season and the start of cereal harvesting. In mid-October, the animal sacrifice at the top of El Alto de Garajonay was a plea for rain clearly directed to the Pleiades. The arrival of the constellation pulled the most abundant rainfall in the Canary Islands, which forced the germination of nutritious grass for cattle, irrigated fields, and marked the start of the season of sowing. "After the first waters of winter, they gathered to plow the earth with sticks set by goat horns. Removing swards and clods, making holes, singing song and shouting together, they plowed and sowed...” 48 . The pyres in mid-May were agents of a sacred connection, reciprocity and harmony with the natural forces: Guanches implored the deities for abundant pastures and crops, to protect them against drought due to the end of the rainy season. Then, they expressed gratefulness for the accomplishment of the invocation. The cereal harvest campaign begun in the second week of May, marked by the dialogue of complementary opposite celestial bodies on the horizon during twilight: the raising of Vega and Rigel Kent, on the one side, and the setting of Sirius and Capella (behind the summits of La Caldera de Taburiente, island of La Palma), on the other side49. The fire sacrificial ceremonies in early autumn established a pact with the Powers of Fecundity of animals and Fertility of soil. In the middle of May, they expressed gratitude to their benevolence and support. Sun and Moon had strongly marked apparitions. At the Winter Solstice, the Sun concealed behind the profile of the island of El Hierro, whereas in the same season the minor Lunastice occurred when the full Moon rose sighting the base of the Teide volcano in Tenerife, an event that happens every 18 years. In mid-October, a precise double synchrony was visible at twilight from the lower structure located about 40 m away to the South: the Ursa Major appeared from the corner of the Garajonay Mountain at the same time when the Pleiades came into view from the peak of the Teide. The marking of this yearly passage, so important for the weather expectations, explains the construction of this second structure in a very precise location on the hillside. At that time of the year, animal parts and/or vegetable food were combusted within a number of pireos on El Alto de Garajonay, playing a key role within a ritual aimed at establishing a sacred connection with the divinities, and sealing a pact with them. Weather forecasting and establishing a calendar based on the Pleiades movements The observation of the movements of the Pleiades played a pivotal role in the agricultural calendar and for weather forecasting in the other islands of the archipelago too50 (). On the Gran Canaria western horizon, the majestic view of Mount Teide on Tenerife Island is spectacular. The Pleiades were hidden behind the 46 Mederos et al. 2016 Alberto Barroso et al. 2015, 12-13 48 Marín de Cubas 1986 [1694]). 49 Martín González 2016 50 Barrios García 2004 [1997]; Belmonte, Hoskin 2002 47 253 volcano at dawn in the first days of November, just at the beginning of the rainy season. This astronomical and topographic event marked the beginning of cereal planting. As this constellation traces a cycle in the sky changing in axial orientation, its trajectory varies by half a degree every 100 years. Then, the Guanches had to move consistently their sanctuaries. A new ceremonial center on another high point of the island was established approximately every two hundred years, as to re-synchronize the periodic concealing of the Pleiades behind the Teide Peak. Nowadays, the Pleiades are commonly known as Las Cabrillas (the Little Goats) in most of the archipelago and as El Siete (the Seven) in Tenerife. Their function still exists in the memory of local farmers and shepherd as markers of the proper times when certain tasks have to be undertaken. The traditional sowing date is between the days of Santa Catalina (Saint Catherine, November 25 th) and San Andrés (Saint Andrew, November 30th), coincident with the setting of the Pleiades at dawn, i.e. their morning disappearance. 51 The reappearance of this asterism (possibly referring to its heliacal rising, close to June 13th) is used as indication for starting the harvest52. In Fuerteventura, traditional farmers are still aware that the maximum of rainfall occurs in the month of December, just after the cosmic setting of the Pleiades, pointing to the best moment to start the planting time. It currently occurs at November 30th (Saint Andrew), and 400 years ago occurred towards the 25th of this month (Saint Catherine). In arid North African regions, the Pleiades act as markers of time and allow anxious consultations for meteorological conditions and seasons. As a multi-symbolic astral archetype, they symbolize the resurgence of life as it is related to the arrival of rainfall. Josué Cabrera points out that the ancient Amazigh population, connected with the Guanches, marked the arrival of the summer heat and the thirst through the disappearance of this star cluster in the firmament at the end of April. This was preceded, just a few days before, by the heliacal sunset of Canopus, known as Wayyaarmenna by the Guanches. Then they celebrated an animal firesacrifice in the attempt of twinning the community with its invisible but powerful Benefactors. It was the reminder, through an advanced payment, of the pact established with the Powers of Fertility during the autumn sacrifice. The effort was to capture their attention and propitiate harvesting, because the next agricultural cycle was far off and subsistence depended on stocks. The Tuareg Berbers living in the desert of North Africa call the Pleiades "daughters of the night". According to their traditional memorial significance, the cold and rainy season is arriving when this asterism rises from the east with the sun; the hot and dry season is coming when it "falls" with the sun on the west53. The Pleiades are connected with rainfall and its seasonal cycle in other African cultures54. The Masai of Eastern Africa call them “the stars of the rain”, or “rain bearers”, as the faraway Khoikhoi tribe (South Africa) does. The Zulu farmers (South Africa) celebrate the Pleiades as the digging stars, since they are used as a harbinger of the first rains and indicate the appropriate time to plow the soil (Heifetz, Tirion 2017). 55 Other South Africans used the Pleiades and the first rains for marking the beginning of a new year. The worldwide relationship of the cycle of the Pleiades with weather and rain is multi-layered and multifaceted. In the southernmost point of Japan, the Yaeyama Islands off Okinawa, they are called Murubushi, or “cluster of stars” 56. The Murubushi can be seen in the east at the start of November. It gradually rises higher each day after sunset. The cluster of stars is almost directly overhead until by February. At the beginning of May, the Pleiades can be seen low in the western sky at sunset. The six-month period when the stars of Murubushi appear in the evening sky indicates the seasonal time for planting and cultivating wheat and barley. When the Murubushi first appears in the night sky in November, light rains provide an appropriate time to sow plant seeds. This light rainfall is ideal for these seeds, which otherwise would be washed away by heavy showers. When the Murubushi is in the western sky at sunset — towards the end of May — the final stage, harvesting, occurs. In May, the asterism of Murubushi is in the east and cannot be seen as it disappears into the morning brightness. After this phenomenon, in mid-May, the rain begins. The Murubushi appears again at daybreak at the end of June. This period marks the end of the rainy season57. The Maori people of Aotearoa (New Zealand) were aware of the importance of the Pleiades in heralding the rains that brought abundance of food. They commemorated it in songs and festivals where women lovingly greeted 51 Before the Gregorian Calendar reform, this phenomenon occurred on November 18th. Cabildo de Gran Canaria 2017, 229 53 Bernus, ag-Sidiyene 1989 54 Pâques 1964 55 Snedegar informs that typicall the Zulu agriculturists start plowing only after the first rains (Snedegar 1995). 56 Bell 1998, 491 57 Andrews 2004, 305-306 52 254 them with much aroha (love) in their hearts58. Maori invoked the Pleiades as Matariki (“the little eyes of heaven”)59 to watch over and protect their crops60. In the Andean regions, rainfall usually starts in October. For hundreds of years, farmers have observed the apparition of the Pleiades in June. If they shine brightly, farmers can start planting their potatoes in October, as there will be adequate rainfall during the critical months of December through February. However, if the Pleiades look dim, planting is delayed until November61. In the ancient Greek natural knowledge, the relationship among the visibility of Pleiades, the intensity of seasonal climatic phenomena, the clearness of the atmosphere and the amount of clouds is recorded in the text On Weather Signs, traditionally ascribed to Theophrastus of Eresus, dated on IV century BCE62. The earliest known reference to the Pleiades and their connection with the agricultural seasons is in Works and Days by Hesiod63. Ancient farmers watched the Pleiades to be informed when to sow and harvest their produce, when the copious rains would arrive and when to perform the related sacred ceremonies. Both agricultural and sacred calendars utilized the positions of the Pleiades because their movement was symmetrically opposite to that of the sun64. Their "navigation" on the night sky of Temperate Zone opened and closed the seasons of good and bad weather. Their rising in mid-May marked the opening of the Mediterranean Sea to sailors, and their cosmic setting marked navigation interruption (around the beginning of November)65. The ancient Roman Varro, in 100 BCE, advised that sailing was safe between the heliacal rising of the Pleiades (beginning of May) and the heliacal rising of Arcturus (middle of October)66. On the other side of the world, in the Maya culture and in other Mesoamerican civilizations, the association of the Pleiades with the creative powers of the Sun and the serpent emerged by their heliacal rising in the morning sky on the 25th of April. It announced the first annual passage of the sun across the zenith, a phenomenon said to be responsible for the fertilization of seeds67. The early morning raise of the cluster portents the coming of rains and fixes the first day of planting68. The appearance and disappearance of the Pleiades was observed with great concern by the Inca, who associated these events with maize production. This custom continues today as villagers scrutinize the brightness of the Pleiades to predict time, quantity and quality of the maize harvest69. The association of the Pleiades with meteorological conditions and rain is rooted into its symbolism of water element in all its various forms (rain, flood, frost, snow, ice, oceans, lakes, rivers, and creeks). This is constant in myths, legends, and prophecies. In Greek Tradition and in circum-Mediterranean areas, the Seven Sisters (the Pleiades) were also known as the ‘Water Girls’ or the ‘Ice Maidens’, due to their association with water, be it sea, rivers, rain, hail, snow, ice, or frost. These divinities were often personified as ocean or sea nymphs. The Pleiades have such a strong relationship with rainfall to be associated with the destruction of numerous civilizations due to various deluges that have plagued humanity throughout history. A passage in the Talmud explains that when God wished to cause the Deluge, he simply removed two stars from this constellation. When he wished for the waters to abate, he simply replaced them70. A parallel Aboriginal matrice from Ooldea (Nullarbor Plains of South Australia) narrates how the Minmara (the Bird Women of the Pleiades) stemmed the floodwaters of the Southern Ocean from 'eroding the mainland71. In conclusion, many different cultures marked their seasons by the Pleiades’ rise and setting. The fire sanctuaries on El Alto de Garajonay and their seasonal sacrifices condensed meteorological knowledge on life waters collected over centuries of broad observation under ancient skies. The above-mentioned instances from different areas of the world provide an analytical framework for decoding how Guanches understanding about astronomy, meteorological meaning, water as generative of life and re-life, environmental signs, and pastoral-agricultural seasons was comparable to that of the most advanced ancient civilizations. According to 58 Andrews 2004, 254 Best 1922, 31 60 Heifetz, Tirion 2017 61 Orlove et al. 2000; Laoupi 2006, 8 62 Theophrastus of Eresus 2007, 29, 43 63 Hesiod 2004, 384, 616 64 Laoupi 2006, 8 65 Theophrastus of Eresus 2007, 6-7 66 Davis 2001, 36–37 67 Aveni 1980, 34 68 Andrews 2004, 351 69 Urton 1981, 119 70 The Babylonian Talmud 2013, 223, 1 71 Andrews 2004, 27 59 255 it, the yearly cycle of the Seven Sisters was used to calculate time for organizing farming activities. Guanches kept track of their yearly calendar and invoked their blessings because they were associated with abundance or scarcity of food supplies. Sacrificial arae connected to the sky A cult center with about twenty-five altars for fire sacrifices and related stone altars occurs on La Fortaleza de Chipude (The Fortress of Chipude) in La Gomera. It is a volcanic red basalt tabletop mountain located in the SW of the island (Vallehermoso).72 The mount is an imposing, high natural tower of 1,243 m. Its vertical walls culminate on a flat elliptic plateau that is 300 x 170 m wide.73 (Fig. 7) The Guanches chose La Fortaleza de Chipude as a main worshipping center. The site sacredness was probably due to the concentration of key attributes: i) symbolic shape, ii) imposing height, iii) greatness, iv) robustness, v) isolated location but surrounded by significant population centers, vi) large truncated horizontal roundish summit platform, vii) visibility from almost everywhere, viii) command over the southern slopes of the island, and ix) difficult access that gave it the properties of inaccessibility and defensibility (it is only approachable through a small dangerous path along vertical rock walls). Over the time, the mountain became a place of legends, refuge, conspiracies, witch-dances, battles, and massacres. It enjoyed a special consideration as a sacred space, according to oral tradition, ethnographical written resources, and chronicles of the Spaniard conquest. Leonardo Torriani informs us that, in 1424-1425, the last Gomeros were forced by the conquerors to take refuge on the top of the Fortress of Chipude. The aborigines felt to be sheltered by its height, verticality and limited access only on one side. Above all, they were sure about the protection by their gods. It was a massacre74. The Fortress of Chipude is one of the best cases documenting the survival of ancestral ritual practices on La Gomera that date back to the island’s earliest inhabitants. Still in c.1774, a letter sent by the vicar of Chipude, Don José Fernández Prieto y Salazar, to the bishop of the Canary Islands expressed a deeply upset. He complained because his parishioners went up to the flat peak of La Fortaleza “practicing exorcisms” and animals sacrifices to defeat a plague or a drought75 (). Unfortunately, we do not know the answer of the bishop. Still nowadays, the tabletop of this emblematic mountain is a central place in the popular imagination of the islanders. The ceremonial place on the plateau of La Fortaleza de Chipude is also one of the most important preHispanic archaeological excavations of La Gomera due to number, typological diversity, and relevance of its deposits. Its relevance is also due to the quantity and importance of research carried out so far. The sacrificial altars, concentrated on the north and south edges of the precipice, where the first to be dig, studied and interpreted on the island. Recent archaeological surveys carried on by Juan F. Navarro Mederos76 locates a stone walkable platform. Its perimeter is delimited by big stones and several pireos. The subsequent investigations documented the mountain as being the religious emblem of the aboriginal settlers in the region of Chipude. They organized the plateau as a complex ceremonial center hinged on twenty-five circular or oval dry-stone structures with a diameter up to 13 meters. Their essential elements consist on one or more internal small cavities used to to burn animals and other food products. The most complex pireos have an interior composed of several separation walls and a number of combustion niches. Very fractured, charred and calcinated animal bones have been recovered within these chambers, mainly skeletal remains from sheep and goats exposed for a relatively long time to a temperature higher than 400º 77.78 On the summit of La Fortaleza de Chipude, the autochthons synchronized the fire sacrifices with the ritual observation and worship of the Sky. The places of observation were the sacrificial altars; auxiliary points of the horizon were Garajonay peak and Gua mountain; and the observed celestial objects were the Sun (that converges at the arrival of the summer solstice) and Canopus (Alpha Carinae). Canopus is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina (within the large constellation Argo Navis, the Ship), and the second-brightest star in the firmament, after Sirius. Canopus is well below Sirius 72 La Fortaleza de Chipude is located up to the village of Pabón, near the neighborhood of Chipude (Vallehermoso), from which it receives its name. It is a natural fortress, artificially reinforced, that aborigines wrongly considered of unquestionable impregnability. 73 La Fortaleza de Chipude has flat top and tremendously steep walls, similarly to El Calvario and dissimilarly to the monumental rocks of the Roques de Agando and La Zarcita. 74 Torriani 1959 [1594]. 75 Mederos et al. 2001a, 91-126 76 In 1992, J. F. Navarro Mederos published a synthesis of his thesis on the archeology of La Gomera redacted in 1975 (Mederos 1992; Mederos et al. 2001a; Mederos et al. 2001b). 77 Mederos et al. 2001a, 104, note 8 78 These features of the bones affect their anatomical identification and study. 256 and farther south. It is the brightest star in that part of the sky, and it never gets very far above the horizon due to its extreme southern declination. This slightly bluish supergiant is about 200,000 times more luminous than the Sun, is located 60-80 pc away from the Earth and points towards the geographical south. The Guanches shared the North African cosmogony centered on Canopus.79 They believed that Canopus was the main star of heaven, the oldest, and the mother of all stars (The “star of the South", as a sort of cosmic egg (combining male and female, dryness and water), exploded in remote times and generated the original universe80. The Guanches exploited Canopus as a reference for the organization of their lunar calendar. 81 This star was so important in the religious-cultural milieu of the natives that underwent a heavy process of Christianization82. Several appearances of Marian images to the indigenous population are mentioned in the history of the Canary Archipelago. These are Christianization of the previous cults. The most important icon is the wooden carving of the Virgin of Candelaria worshipped in Tenerife and La Gomera. The image was probably brought by friars from Mallorca, and officially discovered in a cave of Tenerife. The Virgin of Candelaria is "the one that carries or sustains the firmament". She was identified with and overlapped the native Chaxiraxiue (divinization of Canopus), the mother of the Sun, Magek, that was transformed into the figure of Christ as Undefeated Sun.83 Chaxiraxiue was also invoked by the Guanches as Ta-ghir_agh (“The one who holds the firmament” and “The Princess of Great Goodness"). (Fig. 8) Keeping track and worshipping the dazzling star Canopus to fix the calendar A large cave located in media res along the southern slopes of the Fortress of Chipude was consacreted to San Blas by the European colonizers. The tradition assimilates a concavity at the bottom of the cavern to a kind of natural niche where once a statue of the saint was installed, hence the name of the place. In preHispanic times, the cave was the worshipping site of Canopus because of its privileged site for the observation of this star. The cavern, which is empty of archaeological remains, is perfectly faced to the South and offers an astronomical vision on Canopus and Sirius, the two brightest stars in the sky 84 (Fig. 9) Due to its orientation, it is impossible to detect the heliacal and acronychal rising and setting of Sirius. Therefore, the observation of this star did not play a predominant role for the ancient astronomers scanning the firmament from the cave. The astronomical horizon of San Blas cavern is ideal for monitoring Canopus. This star follows a very limited trajectory over the horizon. It rises and moves in a narrow band centered on the astronomical South and reaches only little height above the horizon. In an island as La Gomera, very mountainous with many and irregular peaks, it is not very easy to find an appropriate place to observe this elusive star throughout its period of visibility. San Blas cavern is a favored observatory for following Canopus motion in the sky, because the marine horizon between its rising and setting is uninterrupted, in absence of both the surrounding land and the neighboring islands. Given these circumstances, keeping track of the phases of Canopus from this privileged site allowed ancient astronomers to establish a sidereal calendar hinged on this star. Canopus heliacal rising, that is the reappearance of the star on the horizon after the yearly period of invisibility, occurs around mid-August. It would have served the natives to mark the first Moon of the calendar and synchronize the sidereal calendar with the lunar calendar and the cycle of seasons 85. Celebrations of the New Year took place on 15 of August 86.87 The star is visible in the Canaries up to mid79 This system was documented, in the last century, in large parts of Northwest Africa (Barrios García et al. 2016). Barrios García 2004 [1997]); Pâques 1956; Id. 1964 81 See Cubillo Ferreira investigating the local calendar in relation to the astronomical knowledge of ancient Egypt and ethnographic data on modern Berber populations, mainly on Algerian Tuaregs (Cubillo Ferreira 1985). 82 Cubillo Ferreira 1985; Barrios García 2004 [1997]; Barrios García et al. 2016 83 “[...] y adoraban â Díos, â quien llamaban Guaraxíraxí. y â Santa Maria despues que les aparecío la llamaban Chaxíraxí. [...] Y Chaxíraxí, quiere decír, la que carga al que tíene al mundo” (Abreu Galindo 1977 [1602], 300-301). “Sabido ésto por los moradores de las dichas Islas, la comenzaron a tener en grandísima veneración [a la Virgen de Candelaria], llamándola ‘Madre del Sol’” (González De Mendoza 1944 [1585], 92-99). Espinosa (Espinosa 1980 [1594], 42) records the expression: “Achmayex, guayaxerax, achoron achaman”, or ”La madre del sustentador del cielo y tierra” (Espinosa 1980 [1594], 42). 84 It contains also the points of sunrise and sunset at the winter solstice. The sunrise is marked by a distinct point on an irregular mountainous horizon. The sunset is indicated by the western slope of the island of El Hierro. Given the marked astral character of the aboriginal religion, the cave of San Blas was used to observe and celebrate the winter solstice. See Barrios García et al. 2016, 7-8. 85 Cubillo Ferreira 1985; Barrios García 1996; Id. 2004 [1997] 86 Cubillo Ferreira 1985 80 257 April, overlapping with the rainy season. The best time to observe it is in September, before dawn, when Canopus is suspended on the southern sidereal horizon. Its mirage vision, together with the stunning "Mareas del Pino" (the high equinoctial tides),88 announces the beginning of autumn and the rainy season, i.e. the blessed part of the year. According to the native beliefs, the apparition of the Stellar Mother of the Universe and of Earth (Chaxiraxiue-Canopus) and the arrival of rain was not a temporal coincidence, but marked a distinct magical relationship between the astral occurrence and the weather change. The spirit of Canopus protects against the prolonged drought at the end of summer. In the first days of February, the appearance of Canopus on the sidereal horizon is around sunset, indicating the end of the heavy rainy season and the start of flowering of fruit trees and mating of animals. Hence its importance for aboriginal societies, which fully depended on agriculture and livestock for their subsistence. From mid-April, when Canopus becomes invisible, a problematic part of the year sets in, due to the risk of the arrival of arid weather. However, in the lucky case, the first part of this period is blessed by the cereal harvest campaign. The period of invisibility of Canopus represented a “dead” time when the fields lay fallow between last harvest and first planting. The first settlers of the island recognized astronomical understanding as a pillar of the sacred knowledge, which their world, their presence within it and the sense of life were based on. Situating themselves in a cosmically organized world, they mirrored terrestrial actions into the celestial ones. Therefore, in the apparition of the star Canopus in the firmament they saw not only the beginning of a new year, but also its blessing. The powerful Stellar Mother of the Universe and of Earth watched and took care of them amorously from above. The ethnographical sources indicate the existence of a religious order responsible for the worship of Chaxiraxiue-Canopus. A sacred herd composed of more than six hundred goats was under the protection of the goddess. The animals were donated by each menceyato (kingdom) of the island89. The appearance of Chaxiraxiue-Canopus caused jubilation and the observance of the so-called Beñesmer (or Beñesmen) festival, the harvest fiesta celebrated on the August Moon. The Guanches demonstrated their skill and strength through competitions and the menceys (kings) of the island agreed a truce in their disputes to share the meat of the sacred livestock90. The mother Chaxiraxiue-Canopus manifested herself for about half year, then left and gave the faithful the hope of witnessing her providential return91. The cosmogonic organization, the calendrical system, and the mother-centered beliefs defined a set of rules that ordered all aspects of traditional life, included the political, territorial and social organization. The division of La Gomera into four regional kingdoms92 could correspond to a symbolic partition of the island based on canopial cults, as evidenced by the studies of V. Pâques for Northern Africa93. Still nowadays, the local tradition gives calendrical and religious connotations to the cave of San Blas. According to oral tradition, on the morning of San Juan (summer solstice), the inhabitants of the neighboring villages meet at the tabletop of La Fortaleza to welcome the sunrise and then they go down to the cave. Up there, they hold a party throughout the day with drum music and dances94 (). Unfortunately, the access to the place is currently made difficult by landslides and lack of the path maintenance95. Ancient documents and collective oral memory record the existence of an old hermitage sacred to Candelaria "La vieja" ("The old woman") in a ravine near La Fortaleza. It is a stone structure with a heavy damaged 500-600 years old wooden cross, dedicated to the divine personage96. The ruined retreat could provide evidence to the first contact between natives and conquistadors and the direct filiation of the cult of the Virgin of Candelaria from the pre-Hispanic spirituality97. It was one of the first Catholic buildings on the 87 Within this context, it is worth mentioning the ancient Berber festival of the Tagdudt, described by M. Khawad (Khawad 1979) as well as M. Morin Barbe and M. Hawad (Morin Barbe, Hawad 1985). This ancient celebration, now almost disappeared, was held at the end of August in the south of Morocco, and other areas of the Berber koine, following the heliacal apparition of the star Canopus. 88 They are the most important high tides of the year that occur during the full moon and new moon of September, sometimes at the end of August. 89 Espinosa 1980 [1594] 90 Bethencourt 1881, 303, note 50 91 Juárez Martínez, Sánchez Álvarez 2017, 2 92 According to ethnohistorical sources, they were: Hipala, Orone, Agana, and Mulagua. 93 Pâques 1956; Id. 1964; Barrios García et al. 2014, 1332; Barrios García et al. 2016, 10 94 Perera López 2005; Barrios García et al. 2016, Documentary annex 95 Barrios García et al. 2016 96 Darias Príncipe 1982 97 Díaz Padilla, Rodríguez Yanes 1990 258 island and was strategically located next to one of the largest nuclei of the indigenous religious system in a moment when the Guanche koine was still predominant on the central plateau of the island.98 The apparition of Canopus at dawn in August and at evening at the end of January / beginning of February coincides with the two Candelaria festivities (the first popular and folkloric; the second Catholic and institutionalized). It consolidates the thesis that the cult of the Virgin of Candelaria is the Christian appropriation of the ancestral native worship related to the "Star of the South". The aboriginal celebrations of the beginning of the New Year marked by the heliacal apparition of Canopus survive in the popular current observance of La Candelaria in mid-August. The Gomero residents on the island and the returning emigrants go in pilgrimage to Chipude (by feet in the past, now by car) and gather there to celebrate the fiesta according to their ancestral traditions. San Blas is celebrated on February 3, the day after the official Catholic ceremony honoring the Virgin of Candelaria, one of the most important religious events on the island. The celebration is related to the appearance of Canopus after sunset99. The defining act that embedded Chaxiraxiue-Canopus into the Virgin of Candelaria took place in 1559, when Pope Clement VIII named her as the Patron of the Canaries100. The icon of the Virgin disappeared in a storm in 1826.101 Sequences of strange letters, visible in old photos, were carved on the waistband of her neck, on the left sleeve, on the lower part of the tunic, on the belt, on the right arm of the mantle, on the left hand, and on the back of the belt. According to the philologist Ignacio Reyes, the lettering engraved on the original wooden carving of the Virgin of Candelaria has been unveiled by its restoration in Seville in the XIX century. They included phrases composed in the aboriginal language Insular-Amazigh, which no longer exists. The inscription links names of people of the guanartémico lineage -the rulers in Gran Canaria- with the native cosmogonic model, which is hinged on a myth of creation based on two divine girls called "The Lady of Heaven" and "The Lady of Creation"102, i.e. the primordial star Canopus that exploded in original times to create the firmament and the world103. In addition, Vicente Jara Vera and Carmen Sánchez Ávila interpret the expression engraved on the wood You are like a gleaming moon as referring not to our satellite but, according to the insular-Amazigh cosmogony and theology, to the star Canopus104. Previously, the letters incised on the statue were thought to be acronyms, decorations, or figurations. The reverence to Canopus as idolized celestial body was common within the entire archipelago. Archaeological excavations in La Palma,105 El Hierro106 and in other sites of La Gomera107 confirm it. The instances in La Palma are especially remarkable. There are more than 30 rock engravings in Malpaíses, on the coast of Villa de Mazo. They face south, in the direction of Montaña del Azufre, coinciding with Canopus at its maximum height above the volcanic cone, and in perfect alignment with it. Eight panels of petroglyphs are located in Roquito de la Fortaleza, on the summit of San Andrés y Sauces. They look towards the sunset of the Canopus star on the west end of Bejenao Peak. Ten panels with more than twenty rock art motifs occur on the upper edge of the inner face of La Caldera de Taburiente (rock art site of Los Andenes I). Their orientation coincides with the decline of Canopus on the horizon. Five panels of rock art engravings are located above the previous ones (rock art site of Los Andenes II). They are organized in two sections aligned with directions on the horizon where Canopo appears and disappears during the year. (Fig. 10) The already-discussed archaeological, ethnographical and religious evidence points to the presence in the Canary Islands of the antique North African cosmogonic system centered on the star Canopus. The ethnography and archaeo-astronomy of the last century well documented it.108 According to it, the visibility 98 Consistently, José Barrios García, Juan Carlos Hernández Marrero, and José Miguel Trujillo Mora advanced the possibility that its foundation was due to the evangelizing action of the newcomer Franciscans settled in San Sebastian (Barrios García et al. 2016). 99 Barrios García 1996, 151-162 100 Juárez Martínez, Sánchez Álvarez, 2017, 3 101 The best facsimile is preserved today in the town of Adeje. 102 Reyes García 2013 103 Pâques 1956; Id. 1964 104 Vicente Jara, Carmen Sánchez 2017 105 The island of La Palma has c. 30 rock formations aligned with the motion of Canopus, among which four important sites of rock engravings we mention in the present article (Martín González 2018). 106 The site of El Julan (El Pinar) is oriented to Canopus (Martín González 2018). 107 The site of Las Toscas del Guirre points to Canopus (Martín González 2018). 108 Canopus star is called Suhayil in Arabic, Rouchet (= August) by the Tuaregs of the Adrar), Wadet by the Tuaregs of Ahaggar. See Charles de Foucauld (Foucauld 1952, 1693, 1912). 259 of Canopus, between October and May, marks the lucky part of the year because of its relation to the rainy season109. Canopus blesses the beginning of the New Year at daybreak, in the south, approximately two weeks after the flowering of the Canopus reed (Urginea maritima), a plant in the family Asparagaceae. During the first days of May, when Sirius stops hanging above Canopus and the Pleiades while Aldebaran and Orion do not rise anymore, the unlucky period of the year sets in, due to the extremely hot weather110. The worship of "the Star of the South" as a cosmological axis, the main star of the sky, the oldest, and the Mother of all stars as well as the dazzling star of the rain, was possibly imported into the Canary archipelago from continental Punic-Berber antiquity with references in the Carthaginian goddess Tanit. In The Cairo Calendar of the Egyptian Nineteenth Dynasty,111 the dates announcing the going forth of the early ancient goddess Neith, who was the prime creator, are based on astronomical events involving the bright star Canopus112. Ptolemy associated this star with royalty113. In ancient Egypt, Canopus was the Star of Osiris. Osiris-Canopus, also known as Osiris-Hydreios, was a Roman form of Osiris that enjoyed particular significance in Egyptian religion between the first and the trird century CE 114. The Kaaba in Mecca, spiritual center for the various Bedouin tribes of the area prior to the spread of Islam throughout the Arabian Peninsula, is aligned with two celestial phenomena: the major axis is oriented towards the rising of Canopus, and the minor axis points towards the rising point of the Sun at midsummer (Hawkins , King 1982).115 (Fig. 11) Conclusion Ancient Guanches performed ritual celebrations on sacrificial altars located outdoors at the summits of mountains, rocks, ridges, and cliffs. Here various products, essential for their survival, were offered in sacrifice. A standardized behavior imposed the sacrifice of domestic animals with a rigid selection of skeletal parts. In that process, the fire sacrifices on peak ritual centres played a key role allowing proximity to the spiritual or divine world and acting as meeting points between heaven and earth, which gave them the status of axis mundi. The annual movements and the major events of some celestial bodies tied to seasons orientatated the ritual architecture. The ceremonial centres based on pireos functioned as sighting devices for locating celestial phenomena. The systematic observation of the sky originated knowledge about weather conditions, particularly rainfall, and a precise calendar based on the seasonal count. It was intimately associated with the first intense rains, the germination of grass, agricultural and shepherding cycle. On top of giving predictions and practical advice on the pastoral-agricultural cycle, constellations such as the Pleiades and Ursa Major and stars such as Canopus, Sirius, Vega and Rigel Kent inevitably found their way into mythology and periodical ceremonies designed to keep the world and their lives in harmonic stability with the universe and its periodical renewal. 109 Cubillo Ferreira 1985; Barrios García 1996; Barrios García 2004 [1997] Steiner 2017, 246-247 111 It is an Egyptian almanac from the Nineteenth Dynasty that lists religious feasts, mythological events, favorable or adverse days, forecasts, and warnings. 112 Hardy 2002/2003, 48-63 113 Belmonte, Shaltout 2009, 70 114 Thomas, Robinson 2016, 133, 236–237 115 António Rodrigues stresses the orientation to the lunar cycle (Rodrigues 2008). 110 260 References Abreu Galindo 1977 [1602] Abreu Galindo, Fr., J., de, Historia de la conquista de las siete islas de Canaria, (edición de Alejandro Cioranescu). 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In: Coomans T., De Dijn H., De Maeyer J., Verschaffel B., Heynickx R., Loci Sacri, KADOC Studies on Religion, Culture and Society, Leuven University Press, Leuven (2012). Carmen Vicente Jara V., Carmen Sánchez Á., Linguistic Decipherment of the Lettering on the (Original) Carving of the Virgin of Candelaria from Tenerife (Canary Islands). In: Religions, 8, 135 (2017). List of illustrations Fig. 1 Map of the Canary Islands. Map template is modified from Google Earth (https://www.google.com/earth/). Fig. 2 Lanzarote, Litófono de la Peña de Luis Cabrera. Photo A. Bulgarelli. Fig. 3 Altar on The Fortaleza de Chipude. Photo The key structures utilized by the aborigines to perform rituals on prominent geological locations such as mountain tops or cliffs were fire-sacrificial altars, locally known as pireos. Photo M. Merlini. Fig. 4 Plan of structure A on El Alto de Garajonay, illustrating the location of the hearths. Alberto Barroso et al. (2015), p. 163, Fig. 4. Fig. 5 An altar similar to the aboriginal one was reconstructed in modern times on the summit of El Alto de Garajonay, said to be made of stones from the ancient complex and to be built over the original. Photo M. Merlini. Fig. 6 Reconstruction of the altar for sacrifices (structure C) on the top of El Alto de Garajonay. The majestic view of Mount Teide on Tenerife Island is on the horizon. Fig. 7 The height and verticality of La Fortaleza de Chipude with the entry only on one side did not protect the aborigines against the Spaniards. Photo M. Merlini. Fig. 8 Nuestra Señora de Candelaria, de Chipude, La Gomera. https://www.bienmesabe.org/noticia/2012/Octubre/nuestra-senora-de-candelaria-de-chipude-recibira-lacoronacion-canonica Fig. 9 Astronomical horizon of San Blas cave. The image shows the horizon framed between the eastern and western walls of the grotto consecrated to Saint Blaise (both the walls are visible at the edges of the photograph). Barrios García et al. (2016), p. 6, image 6. Fig. 10 Petroglyph with Canopus in Malpaíses (Villa de Mazo, La Palma). http://prehistorialapalma.blogspot.com/2011/09/el-culto-la-estrella-canopo.html Fig. 11 Possible representation of the Canopus star in Yagur (High Atlas, Morocco). http://ondatagoror.com/relatos-y-otros/la-tradicion-a-la-virgen-de-candelaria-se-basa-en-el-culto-guanche-acanopo/. Graphic elaboration M. Merlini. 266 Fig.1 (left); Fig. 2 (right) Fig. 3 Fig. 4 267 Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Fig. 7 268 Fig. 8 (left); Fig. 9 (right) Fig. 10 Fig. 11 269 270