PREVIOUS CONSIDERATIONS

My first step was to make a drawing of the group. The builders of the Pyrenean stone circle —henceforth often referred to as the Psc— used concepts which were clear, empirical and easy to understand.

• The diameter of a circle is proportional to the brilliance of the star it represents.
• The different witnesses of each circle are related to the star symbolized or to the astronomical ephemeris which inspired the group in a landscape framed by visible geographic features.

And little else: astronomy, cosmography, religion, etc., of the period which, given that we are talking about the Pyrenees in protohistory, have to be studied based on other sources, searching for similarities and analogies.

The Pyrenean stone circle is above all something which I can demonstrate with physical proof and presence, i.e. I am not making empty deliberations based on fantasy, but am working according to a transcript of the work produced by those who portrayed stars with circles, which reads thus: the circle is a replica of the firmament; its alphabet, let’s say simplified, is still visible, and its order moreover follows the stellar sequence.

The physical presence of these circles is established in my drawings of the group, from which we can deduce their astronomic interpretation. It is obvious that correct interpretation of the circles can only be achieved when based on a precise schematization of the group, which is not always possible. On occasions we have to make do with what we have been left by the passing of time; in this regard, when drawing a site, it is better to respect that which really and truly exists today than to add hypothetical circles which may have existed in the past. The circles which, despite certain deterioration, are very clear with respect to their position and diameter have been drawn with a continuous line, while those of unsure definition have been drawn with a broken line. The witnesses have been drawn with radial lines, the thickest of which indicate the witnesses considered most important because of their size, shape, carving, etc. The topographic reading of this group was started in May 2001, and presented in February of last year (2003) in the shape of a provisional work urgently issued in an attempt to stop the excavation which was damaging the group. Subsequently, on 29 and 30 April of the same year, having cleared the scrubland preventing schematization of the southern subgroup, I got down to work, revising the overall layout of the whole group. The schemas presented here, given the limited means used, while not absolutely precise, are acceptable in order to give us an idea of the intention of those who built them. They are the same as the previous ones in the central group, are somewhat different in the northern subgroup, and a little more so in the southern group. The schemas are as follows:

Drawing 1, general sketch of the group, on a scale of approximately 1:1000
Drawing 2, sketch to a scale of 1:500 of the northern subgroup.
Drawing 3, sketch to a scale of 1:500 of the central and southern subgroups.

All three are shown together with a star chart —1— indicating the celestial position of the group, and another three additional —2, 3 y 4— related to the celestial sector represented in each of the subgroups.

The drawing of the southern subgroup, has experienced a series of changes since February with the appearance of the occasional new circle and the change of status, from obvious to doubtful, of others, which nevertheless has no effect on the general interpretation of the subgroup.

The LANDSCAPE was decisive in the choice of site for the stone circles and is one of the keys to their decoding, a fact I state by way of a very definite affirmation. Anyone heading for The Crowns today in search of views has got another think coming. The dense coniferous wood in which the site is located cuts off any visibility whatsoever. This said, anyone trying to find the hidden meaning of these stone circles is obliged to overcome the difficulties hidden by the horizon and, with the help of a map, to try and reconstruct them in their minds. Guarrinza and its surrounding area houses a zone rich in stone circles standing in a landscape of outstanding beauty. The Psc’s of The Crowns, standing in the Oza Forest, at the entrance to the valley of Guarrinza, also seem to stand on a site with a beautiful horizon. More or less, looking towards the north and continuing in a clockwise direction: Arraya de las Foyas, Chanzonal, El Campanil, Las Piernas de Oza and Castillo de Acher, La Faja de Agüerrí, Punta de la Cuta, La Faja de Aguas, Lenito – slicing through the nearby horizon at an altitude of around 20º - Atxar de Forca, Rincón de Alano, Estrivella, Txipeta Alto and, through the Barranco de las Ferrerias, towards Atxerito, Sobarcal, Petrechema and Ansabere, continuing along the star and stone circle path until coming to the Pico de Orhi and the Bay of Biscay.

Given the large number of circles in this group, their astronomic interpretation is only possible based on the total certainty, acquired in other sites, that all Pyrenean stone circles represent stars. I would not otherwise have worked so hard to find their keys. Looking backwards and at the stages of unmasking the meaning of these stone circles, it is unimaginable to think that such a number of circles, in a thick wood to boot, therefore completely unable to see the landscape and sky that inspired them, could have proven the stone circle = star postulate. On the other hand, the ascent to axiom of this proposal, made in other places, has encouraged me to persevere in the search for the hidden meaning of these circles.

This group, the most important as far as the number of circles is concerned of those interpreted to date, meant a challenge and the culmination of proving the Psc = star idea forged over several years. How could all of the groups of stone circles found until now represent stars and yet not this one? This option was at one time considered to be impossible.

I, the author, blushingly admit that the first indication, advising a search for Fomalhaut, Sirius and Arcturus among the circles of the group, as explained at the end of the exposition appearing in the section “Historical name of the group”, was arrived at in a rather unscientific manner, resulting from the actual toponymy of “Crown of the Dead”, and of its perhaps mistaken interpretation (Ku or ona, Ku or un, Ku or an?) by an empiricism which has taken years to forge and which implies, among many other things, that in the Pyrenees, Fomalhaut was Ku, and Or, Sirius. Arcturus, for its part, was suggested because of its witnesses, its diameter, and various analogies with the stone circles of Elutxa Arrai, Etelako Arritxuriak, Eteneta II, Antxista, Unamene and Okabe in the background. It was likewise thought that the accumulation of so many stone circles could be due to the representation of a calendar showing the annual cycle divided into three seasons; in this case, given that the surrounding landscape conceals the horizon, except to the south, the creators of the Psc’s may have taken account of the passage of certain stars through the point of southern culmination. One fact often repeated for a single star in other places and, in view of the examples found and the residual place name, giving me a first hypothesis, which today, after having studied the subject, would seem to be correct, is that the three stars which could have divided the year into three approximately equal parts were Sirius, Arcturus and Fomalhaut.

Having transferred the proposal to a computer and my astronomy program —MacStronomy 2.0.3— we can see that, in 540 BC, the following times passed between the culminations of the three stars:

• Between Ku and Or, 8 h 25 m 19 s
• Between Or and Arcturus, 7 h 25 m 26 s
• Between Arcturus and Ku 8 h 9 m 15 s

Totalling these figures, we of course get 24 hours. A daily measurement which, transferred to the year, gives us an annual division of three seasons of practically equal duration, lasting for approximately 4 months each, and about which we will talk at the relevant moment. In The Crown, we see, on transferring the previous culminations of Fomalhaut, Sirius and Arcturus to star chart 1, and on drawing a line from each of these stars to the approximate pole of the time, shown in blue in chart 1 for Ku, in red for Or and in green for Arcturus, the shape of a goose foot or leg, the appendices of which are the lines Ku-Pole, Or-Pole and Un-Pole. On-site, the three said celestial areas, with certain particularities, are represented with precision, drawn with stone circles which can be matched to the stars around Fomalhaut, Sirius and Arcturus on the firmament.

The group, as well as the said Fomalhaut, Sirius and Arcturus, represents northern stars and stars not very far from the ecliptic. This fact, in a first approximation, indicates or insinuates that this could be a kind of calendar of months, or, perhaps even, of moons, given that, as we will see, some of the stars appearing as a reference are a little far from our ecliptic. However, except for the three referred to and those belonging to the north, they belong to the Path of the Moon mentioned on the Mul-Apin tablets or to the historic lunar paths such as the Indian —mainly Vedic—Nakshatras, the Arabian Manazils and the Chinese Sieus.

Summed up as a working hypothesis, I imagined that the Psc of The Crown could represent a division of the year into three seasons, and that each one of the three stars, Arcturus, Fomalhaut and Sirius, divided the year into three equal parts, linked by the sequential culmination of each one. It is difficult to establish after so much time at what point an idea makes the shift from hypothesis to fact. The representations, those which I had believed or others similar to them are given at the end of the work. It was after or at the same time as these that I came up with ideas that started to make sense and were connected to one another. First of all I came up with the hypothesis of Ku, followed by Or and some time later by Arcturus. With this hypothesis came the question, what do the three circles Ku, Or and Un have in common? To cut a long story short, their southern witnesses, i.e. those which may well be indicating the different culminations. In the mountains, including The Crown, it is no use measuring time with the observations of heliacal risings and settings or acronyc idem, given that the landscape hides them hence spoiling the knowledge acquired; on the other hand, the southern witnesses indicate the culmination of the stars, i.e. the point at which they culminate, which is easy to measure with the help of a good reference.

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