ASTRONOMY PRESENT IN THE PSC

Representing stars with stone circles requires preliminary knowledge and technique.
The Pyrenean stone circle demonstrates the astronomy of its period of construction. As indicated by numerous studies and the position of the stars represented by the Psc, they must have been built around 600 BC. It seems unlikely that the astronomy reflected by the Psc was born in the Pyrenees themselves; there is no evidence of this, plus the fact that local visibility is often extremely poor and the area is virtually impossible to access in win-ter; as a result, we have to consider the contemporary astronomy of other places such as Mesopotamia, Greece and Egypt, which would seem to be at their origin. The Psc reflects an empirical astronomy, not mathematical but precise, expressing the kind of knowledge reigning in Homero's Iliad and Odyssey, in Hesiod's Work and Days, in the Mul Apin tab-lets, and in the poetical astronomy of divulgation: in the work of Aratus, Higinius, Gemi-nus, Manilius or Germanicus. These are the dawnings of astronomy before mathematics converted it into a science.
The astronomic concept most often reflected in the Psc is related to simultaneous ephemeris, whether these be risings, settings, risings and settings, the passage of a star over a certain mountain while another star crosses a certain orientation of the compass, etc. The synchronisms are varied and, on occasions, complex. The Greek word paranatellonta is perfect for understanding part of the historical background of this empirical astronomy.
As far as simultaneity is concerned, this concept is reflected for the first time in tab-let no 86378 of the B.M., column III, lines 13 to 33 of the Mul-Apin tablets, giving a list of 16 simultaneous risings and settings, the most outstanding of which with respect to the Pyrenees are those appearing in lines 17 and 18: Kaksisa, the Lance, -approximately Canis Major-, the Snake Mush -Hydra- and Urgula, the Lion -Leo- rise while, si-multaneously, the Great -more or less today's Aquarius- and the Aquila are setting; this is the Pyrenean paranetallonta par excellence, due to its repetition and the fact that it is conceptually fundamental. It has been shining ever since the beginning -year 2000- at the top of this page and appears for the first time in the study of the Pagolleta stone circles, causing an about-turn in my systematic studies of the Psc in the basins of the rivers Uru-mea and Oyarzun, as reflected in On the Pyrenean stone circle (the astronomical decoding of a forgotten religion).
Of similar historical interest with respect to the Psc are the star calendars, known by the Greeks as parapegma, indicating a sequence of successive risings of different stars. An antecedent of these was also reflected for the first time in the Mul-Apin tablets on which, in column II, lines 36-47, and column III, lines 1-12, mention is made of the heliacal rising of a series of stars and constellations throughout the year, followed by in column III, lines 34-50, a list, together with another two astronomical ephemeris, of 15 differences in time between the risings of certain conspicuous stars and constellations, thus:
In line 34: from the rising of Kaksisa, the Lance -simplified, the Can Mayor- to the rising of the star of Eridu, Nun.Ki -according to some authors, a Carinae, Canopus; but ...-, there is a break of 55 days.
In line 36: from the rising of Kaksisa to that of Shupa -Arcturus- 60 days pass.
In line 37: from the rising of Shupa to that of the Seed-Furrow Absin -our Virgo-, 10 days pass, etc. All of this data provides historical backing for and helps us to understand important, well-preserved groups such as the centre group of Okabe presented in the 3rd instalment. In fact, one of the clearest meanings in the Psc is that of indicating the seasons of the year.
The star taken into most account was Sirius, which appears in numerous places with different names and epithets of astronomic or religious meaning. Sirius was represented at its rising, its culmination and its setting.
While the stone circle, its astronomic and religious meanings were still in use, the year was divided into three seasons, as it was in Egypt and Crete. Passing from three to four seasons was traumatic everywhere, it marked the passing from matriarchy to patriar-chy, due to the loss of importance of the original mother goddess and of all of the class privileges she defended. In Greece, according to Robert Graves and other authors, the "ideological" abandon of the three-season year culminated with the rape by Zeus of the goddess of the earth, Rea, an untruth making it seem alright for the worshippers of Zeus and his priests to take charge of all of the agricultural and funeral ceremonies.

In the Pyrenees, the move from 3 to 4 seasons is not yet clear. It could be that this factor was put on hold and not formally solved until the arrival of Christianity.
The clues leading me to consider this line of research are manifold; one of these, the agotes, cagots -who were forbidden, among other things, to climb the mountain and who were obliged to sew a red painted goose foot to their tunics as a sign of humiliation and punishment lasted for years. Among the many explanations for this long sentence is the belief that the agotes had secret knowledge, and some even say that this knowledge was astronomical, which raises the question of whether it was perhaps this people -considered in the sense of priests given to the Chaldeans- who made the Psc possible.
The goose foot could have been a sign of the division of the year into 3 seasons -I have reason pushing me to believe this theory which I have not given here due to their surpassing the length of these notes-, just like the chrismon of 6 divisions, and the multitude of symbols present in the Romanesque art accompanying the Way of St. James, particularly in the little chapels bordering the limits of the Psc at the start of the Road. We will comment at a later stage when dealing with San Miguel de Aralar.
I would dare to advance that part of the symbolism reflected in the Romanesque part of the Way, the goose foot, the 6-armed chrismons, the Christ portrayed in a "Y" shape, the tau, etc., synthesize the religious belief that the year is divided into 3 seasons by divine command written in the skies; a concept related to the rising of Sirius and with the original mother goddess, who could have been the last residual standard of Pyrenean astral paganism. This and other beliefs must have been so deeply rooted in a good part of the population that it favoured the spreading of the syncretisms facilitating generalized, definitive Christianity.

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