TOPONYMY

Taking the Pyrenean toponymy into consideration is essential when studying the Pyrenean stone circle. If Psc's represent stars, symbolized by religious symbols, indicating seasons or geographical boundaries, we can presume that some of them, the occasional astronomical ephemeris, the occasional god, the occasional geographical reference to this past, will have been reflected in the toponymy.
Before we head into such delicate territory, it's important to point out that I am fully convinced of the dangerously misleading nature of place names. However, after years of studying the Psc, the impression is that there have been traces in the toponymy surrounding the stone circles which when studied one at a time might seem coincidental, but when ex-amined as a whole seem to be dependable enough to warrant investigation. A year ago John Bostrom wrote these words to me on the subject: "I agree etymology is a dangerous game, but having said that, it does hold clues - the problem is that the clues are subjec-tive. And, the experts in etymology are not generally interested in other subjects, particu-larly stone circles I would guess, so they are not going to spend time on it. Also, they seem to rely exclusively on published documents over time to track word changes, instead of taking what I would call a 'holistic' approach which takes into account ALL the facts available to them, not just published documents."
I think John Bostrom was right, but not only with regard to the etymology associated with Psc's; it also holds true with other disciplines in which etymology comes into play. In an earlier e-mail Bostrom wrote: "c) You also seem to hint that what you have published does not represent your full theories, just a sample and perhaps only that which people would find more "acceptable"? I would be very much interested in hearing your unedited thoughts on the matter."
I would say, although I'm not as certain as I am that Psc = star, that the Psc origi-nated in the Middle East.
The name inherited by the mountain range -Pyrenees- could come from Sumer-ian. I am not an expert in linguistics, but I do think I'm pointing in the right direction. A person can be a competent etymologist and not know for sure that the stone circle he is stepping on is Sirius; therefore, he might be indifferent to local toponymy, which can cer-tainly be an argument in favour of Canis Major's alpha. It appears that originally the moun-tain chain was called the Auna range, which supported by a number of phonetically un-evolved place names all along the range -Valle de Anué, Anie, Anayet, Auñamendi, Aneto, Villanua, Belanua, etc.- alludes to the Sumerian-Akkadian god An-Anu. In other words, initially the range was called the Anu Mountains, and could later have been influ-enced by Sumerian, going from Bir or Pirig to Piri-Aneu, 'Brillant-Anu', and Pyrenees. This idea began to take shape after verifying that in the western end of the Pyrenees and its stone circles the stars belonging to Anu in the Mul-Apin tablets went in the direction of Izarraitz -star rock in Basque language-. The stars of Ea, particularly Fomalhaut, marked the southern limit in the place which is both the western limit of the Psc and the beginning of what is now the province of Guipúzcoa, in an exact N-S alignment that con-nects the city of San Sebastián to the chapel of San Miguel de Aralar. In fact, Fomalhaut -Ku- is a constant southern marker throughout the region of the Pyrenean stone circle.
We are told that in its origin San Sebastián was called Easo and Donosti or Donostia. At one time I thought: The most prominent hills around the city are: Igueldo, a simplification of the Basque word Iguel-to = big frog, in other words Fomalhaut; Urgul, an abbreviation of the Sumerian word for lion, Urgula or Leo; and Ulía, from the Sumerian, Ul or Mul = star and Ía = Ea = Aia, in other words Ul-Ía = star of Ea, or Fomalhaut from the Mul-Apin tablets. Therefore, I thought it seemed reasonable to think that Easo and Donosti, in Basque-Sumerian linguistic syncretism, might come from Ea-so and Don u On-osti, which is something like 'view onto Ea' and 'Lord of the tempest', in other words the Sumerian-Akkadian god Enki/Ea, plus one of their epithets.
Let's continue. On the other side of the N-S axis, which starts in San Sebastián, are the Aralar Mountains, and standing at 1,235 metres in elevation, the sanctuary of San Mi-guel de Aralar. The name Aralar could derive from Aralû, Arali, hell, or perhaps 'the be-yond'; in any case, 'the world of the dead'. Wayne Horowitz, in Mesopotamian Cosmic Ge-ography, p.282, provides detailed information on the word. The Aralar range is located to the south of the western limit of the Psc; it contains the largest concentration of dolmens in the Pyrenees, with an official count of over 400. Therefore, the western position doesn't seem like a bad place to have been considered 'the world of the dead'. To the north of Ara-lar is the River Araxes, whose name is the same as the river that flows north of Mount Ara-rat and empties into the Caspian Sea.
In the Pyrenees, Sirius, as Isis, seems to be the star of the ten thousand names. Be-fore we begin a Pyrenean study of Sirius and its constellation, I should point out that in the Mul-Apin tablets Sirius is classified as one of the stars of Anu, listed as: Mul Kak-si-sa, the lance of the great hero, Ninurta. A study of the change in names of the original gods and heroes in space and time is still pending in the Pyrenees. In principle, we know that the starting point was Mesopotamia, and the end point, the Christian Pantheon. The attributes and legends connected to Saint Michael are, in principle, the same as those associated with Ninurta. From an etymological standpoint it is difficult to connect the two; however, through the Phoenician god Melquart, who had the same significance and powers and was the most important god in Tyre, Carthage and Cádiz, it is possible to understand the evolu-tion toward Miguel.
Let's have a look at Sirius and its stars in the context of the Pyrenees, and offer a few proposals:
· Sirius and Saint Michael, or rather, Sirius = San Miguel. The possibility of this parallel was suggested for the first time when studying the stone circle now known as San Miguel Soro, located in the Urumea river basin in the municipality of Arano. The San Mi-guel Soro Psc is a beautiful, well-preserved monument whose witnesses show a rising Sir-ius in synchrony, according to its witnesses, with the death of the Swan and with its loca-tion to the north of the Great Bear. This fact is suggested the possible syncretism of assimi-lating Sirius and everything it represented into the figure of Saint Michael.
In Del crónlech pirenaico, Sirius was discerned by its epithet in three places, Txi-mistako Egia, Ezkiturritako and Jaizkibel. Based on this distinction, we can conclude the following:
· Tximistako Egia, from the Basque Tximista-ko Egia, where Tximista = ray or beam, and Egia = truth, which simplified is something to the effect of Giver or Carrier of the Ray of Truth. In Tximistako there is an evident Sirius; therefore, it is illustrative and coherent, if we bear in mind the attributes of earlier and later deities, to find the ray or beam associated with the place Sirius is represented.
· Ezkiturritako, from the Basque Eskerr-Iturri-tako = Grace-Fountain-giver (more or less), conclusively the later 'fountain of Grace', a good name for a place where an accom-panied rising Sirius can be found, in a more than likely representation of the original Mother Goddess.
· Jaizkibel, from the Basque Jaiki-Bel = Climb, Ascent of Bel, where there is a com-plete representation of Canis Major, although in poor condition, whose rising or ascent is neatly framed by today's Monte Jaizkibel. The group traces the entire alignment of the ris-ing of Sirius over Pico de Orhi to the sea, passing through the same line of emblematic places like Occabé, Auza Mountain and Peñas de Aia. The toponymy confirms that Sirius and its constellation were referred to as Bel and by analogy, once again points its finger at Okabe, where Canis Major is shown as Oka-Bel.
To complete what we have already set out, here is a list of the different hypotheses:
· Pamplona. I would say that the Romans adopted the more important place names, including Pompaelo and Cesaraugusta, adopting them as their own. But let's take one thing at a time. Pamplona has three rivers: the Arga, the Sadar and the Ulzama.
· You don't have to go through many linguistic derivations to interpret the name Arga; The Celestial Ship of the North is the title of a book written by E. Valentia Straiton. The Argo was ship that Jason and the Argonauts took on their quest for the Golden Fleece. The ship of Isis. The ship of the North or the Ship of Life. The ship, the Ark, that provided refuge for Isis and Osiris during the deluge. From the Sanskrit word Argha. Argo, Arga, deriving from arck, etc.
· El Sadar. "According to Mueller, this Sed or Shed, of the hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared in Hebrew as El Shadar", referring to Sirius, note 1, p. 124 of Star names... by Richard H. Allen, another essential name in understanding the Psc. El Sadar, supposedly Sirius in Hebrew, flows into the River Elorz, which comes from Higa de Monreal, and to-gether they join the Arga. El-orz, 'language of the heavens' in Basque, although in keeping with the rest of the Pyrenees, it would be better to replace it with El-Or, 'language of Or', or the Dog. Or, ora, canis, dog, in the Suletine Basque dialect, and Ur in Sumerian, is the most common designation in the Pyrenees for Canis Major.
· Ulzama, Ul-Sama, Ul-Shamas = Star-Sun. Samas is also used occasionally to refer to Saturn -Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology, David Brown, Cuneiform Monographs 18, Stys Publications, Groningen 2000, p. 57-. Ul or Mul = star -used in certain tablets- might be more appropriate for referring to Saturn, another known charac-ter in Pamplona. The preferred name for the sun was utu and for god, ilu, ilu-Samas, god-Samas. According to W. Horowitz, the Sumerian word most commonly used to refer to the sky was An, while in Akkadian it was Samu, Sama'u; In a combination of Sumerian and Akkadian Ul Sama may have meant 'Star of the Heavens'. For the time being, if we have a choice, we'd rather have Saturn coming from Velate, like the River Ulzama. Bel Ate -Bel duck-? Or is it Bel-eta -place of Bel-? And could it possibly have something to do with the Mul-Ha-cen and the Bel-eta of the Sierra Nevada? In any case, with such clear and persistent Babylonian antecedents, exploring this Pyrenean path, seems less risky than accepting Roman toponymical derivations as true and proven. Based on these considera-tions, we have the following:
· Pamplona. Pan-pl-ona. Pan-Bel-ona, Pan-Bel-Auna, Pan-Bel-Anu. etc. Pan could have two meanings: one lies in the god Pan, in a possible attempt at Roman syncretism, with antecedents, at least in the mosaic found in a house of Andelos. And, as mentioned earlier, our favourite, the ark, Ban -Pan (?)- the Elamite goddess Ishtar, daughter of Enlil, e, s, w of Canis Major, in the Mul-Apin tablets and in Occabé. Bel refers to Sirius, demonstrated in a number of places. When this Bel, or Sirius, fell from favour with the help of Christian syncretism, it may have changed to Luz-Bel and been lowered to the un-derworld, like Persephone or Ereskigal before in other stories. Historical mythology and the Psc make good bed mates.
· Pamplona is also called Iruña and Iruñea, in other words, Iru-Un-Ía, Iru-Un-Ea, or using On. Translated this would be, Three-spirit-Ea, or Three-lord-Ea, simplified concep-tually to The Three Spirits of Ea, perhaps in reference to the rivers mentioned earlier? Could be, considering that Ea was also the god of water. However, we should also keep in mind Ilu-Un-Ea, God-spirit-Ea, which fits in better and has more in common with other place names, like the city of Irún, which may be based more solidly in Ilu-Un than Iru-Un. And we shouldn't forget the Basque-Sumerian word for city = iri. And perhaps the best yet, taking into account what has already been deduced and mentioned previously about San Miguel de Aralar, also from Basque: Il-un-Ía or Il-un-Ea, and Il-on-Ía or Il-on-Ea, in this case being Il = moon: Moon-essence or lord-Ea, a sort of 'Moon Bel in Ea'. Given the cir-cumstances it isn't worth arguing over this issue, although Il-Un-Ea is an interesting toponym which could indicate a moon in Ea, in this case on Capricorn, one of the constel-lations in the path of Ea from the Mul-Apin tablets, discussed at San Miguel. These argu-able and provisional suggestions, Pan-Bel-Auna and Il-Un-Ea, are in fact complementary -much the same as Ea-so and Don-osti-. The first one refers to Sirius and the second to the solstitial full moon, Oca, as explained in the interpretation of San Miguel de Aralar. In any case, they seem more coherent with their surroundings than the now orthodox Pam-plona, a rather odd and solitary name in terms of toponymy and landscape.
Basque, Sumerian and even Akkadian are intertwined to such an extent that in many interpretations it's hard to know what language to choose. Basque and Sumerian have a lot of identical signifiers with different meanings.
Ilu (god) is a Sumerian word that suggests seemingly obvious interpretations such as Ilu-Un-Ain, (Lord or god in high, or of the heights?). The suffix -ain, with 95 different examples in Navarran toponymy according to the aforementioned Gran Atlas de Navarra, further proves that when we observe the Pyrenees through a religious-astronomic/ Sumer-ian-Basque lens, we get results that are solidly coherent with the theses sustained, or at least the toponymy shows no discordance whatsoever.
Among other arguable opinions on pre-Roman religion in the Pyrenees, in Pyrénées Romaines, essai sur un pays de frontière, Casa de Velásquez, Madrid, 1997, on page 306 Christian Rico notes: "The indigenous pantheon seems to have followed a certain hierar-chy. At the top were some powerful deities who were worshipped in different regions. Ilun appears to have been the most powerful of all: his influence included several geographic basins; his name appears on two altars in Cadéac, in the Aure valley and on several monu-ments in the Pique basin -in Luchon, Montauban-de-Luchon and Juzet- and in the Saint-Béat basin - with dedications in Gaud, Marignac and Saint-Béat-."
Ilun makes sense when read in Sumerian as Ilu-An (god of the heavens), or more common in the Pyrenees, god-An/Anu. Or, as we have already pointed out, it is interesting to look at from the Basque perspective: Il-Un, Moon-Lord or Moon-Essence. I understand that the Sumerian people were in the Pyrenees before the Greeks and the Romans. Or rather: the extraordinary traces we find in the toponymy, the gods and particularly in the astronomy reflected in stone circles are of Sumerian origin. The relationships and links between Basque and Sumerian, at least with regard to toponymy, is beyond my area of knowledge; in any case, as reflected in the toponymy in a number of stone circle groups, people who spoke what is more or less the Basque language today were perfectly aware of the religious and astronomic meaning of the Psc. Did the so-called Asianic peoples come looking for earthly likenesses and the end of the earth at Finisterre following the 43rd par-allel? Their technology and gods were Sumerian, but that's about all I can say.
It is likely that there is Egyptian influence in the Psc subsequent to the Sumerian. This can be seen in some of the place names, in certain stone circle groups, in the preva-lence of some of the clearly pyramid-shaped mountains, in certain religious syncretisms, and in the possible etymology of Guipúzcoa, the western limit of the Psc. At one point of the investigation, I thought that the name Guipúzcoa might come from the existence of a star ziqpu in culmination, determining its southern limit in alignments -gu-. Now, tak-ing into account that they looked for similarities with familiar lands in the Middle East and Asia Minor, it is not out of the question to consider an Egypt with a colder climate, and from there via the Basque words Eguip-, Guip-, and ozko = cool or moderately cold, Guip-ozko-a, 'The Cool Egypt'. This derivation cannot be confirmed but should be borne in mind. The toponymic names that are coherent from a religious, geographic and astronomic perspective, with the help of Basque and Sumerian, are abundant. Thus, in the eastern end of the Pyrenean chain, starting at the sea, is Catalunya, Katalo-Aun-Ía, Katalo-An-Ía, De-clive-Anu-Ea -the slope or inclination between the Pyrenees and the sea-. In this case, too, although still lacking the pertinent linguistic verification, it seems completely appro-priate with regard to geographical situation. According to Alberto Porlan, toponymy under Basque sight influence in the eastern Pyrenees was unequivocal. Therefore, we have: Il-liberris, the modern Elne situated in the eastern Pyrenees, which rather than 'new town' could be seen as 'new moon'; Ilerda, today's Lérida, suggests Il-erdi, semilunar, much the same as its inhabitants, the Ilergetes, calls to mind ilargui, 'moonlight'. In conclusion, the Pyrenees still need to be studied from a much more historical perspective, based on the criteria and languages that prevailed at the time the Psc's were created.
Other names for Sirius with a Pyrenean ring might be: Sotis, Scera, Sceara, Elcha-bar, Gabar, Echer, Asceher and Sarama. And lastly, Iacar and Iaco, according to Karl Kerényi in his book Dionisios, raíz de la vida indestructible, Editorial Herder, 1998. This author and respected researcher begin the prologue of Dionysus with these words: "There has not yet the moment to do a description of the religion of Europe and the descendents of Europeans in the rest of the world."
On pages 63 through 67 of this book Kerényi talks about Iacar and Iako:
· "In Cnosos we find the name i-wa-ko, which in Greek could be Iakos, Iachos and also Iackchos; in Cnosos and in Pilos the word I-wa-ka is also frequently seen. It is associ-ated with the word Iakar, a name for Sirius completely foreign to the Greek language. An Egyptian story could be quoted to explain the two names Iacar and Iaco. ..."
· "Dionysus contributed this aspect of his original Minoan period, the period of his ancient relationship with the flaming new year starting in Sirius. The procession in Athens -in which the statue of Iaco, the carrier of the torch, was paraded- was organized at the end of the opora as a prelude to the great Eleusinian Mysteries, where a divine child was born in the underworld during the harvest season. Iaco, invoked in a loud voice, is 'the star that carries the light in the nocturnal mysteries'. That's what Aristophanes called it in The Frogs. In his work, the procession enters the stage, slightly modified, as a parade of the blessed after death from the Elysium. The same mysteries that were only accessible to those familiar with Cnosos in Eleusis also dates to the 1st century BC, the credibility of which will be discussed (III, chap. 5). The procession in Athens, with the image of Iaco and shouts of Iaco could not have been kept much of a secret. More than 1000 years sepa-rates this piece of information regarding equivalent rituals in Cnosos and the Minoan names. No less time separates the apparition in Cnosos of the divine name pa-ja-wo -Paiaon in Greek- and the cry of Paian (pean) in Delphi and in all of the regions in Greece, although much richer in testimonies, beginning with Homer himself."
Not very much imagination is required to establish analogies between the Eleusinian Iaco and Iakar and Jaca or Iaca and Santiago (Saint James), San Yago or San-Iaco, Iaco, the beginning and end of our St. James pilgrimage. This truth is difficult to refute if based on an depth knowledge of the astronomic Pyrenean stone circle. In fact, following this line of thought back in time, we have to rethink the ideas of Yves Bonnefoy and others: Ea = Ía = Aia, which brings us to Mesopotamia and the crux of the question: the Akkadian god Ea, which the Sumerians called Enki; the wise amphibious monster which Babylonian histo-rian Beroso explained for the first time circa 300 B.C.; Uanna = Oannes, which Ea used to bring culture and technology to his country. In the Mul-Apin tablets Ku the Fish is the first of the 15 stars on the Path of Ea. Ku is identified by many researchers as the star Fomal-haut, alpha of the Southern Fish, a supposition which the Psc raises to the category of in-disputable.
The words Jaca or Iaca, Iakar and Iaco, with the help of Bonnefoy, begin to make sense filtered through Sumerian: Ia-ka = Ea-ka = Gate of Ea; thus, the Iakar mentioned by Kerényi could come from Ia-kar = Ea-Kar = Place of moorage of Ea. And Iako = Ia-ko = Ea-ko = Ea-ku = The fish of Ea.
This is an approximation. When meanings are lost, signifiers lack substance in cre-ating another story or carrying it on down another path.
Going back to ku, which we'll leave as Ia-ko, in addition to the many stone circles in which Fomalhaut (Ku) is represented, there are other toponyms associated with ku or with the god Ea not explained in other works:
· Yesa, Iesa, from Ye-sa, Ie-sa, Ea-sa; -sa, being a Basque suffix used to make some words feminine. It appears that in the process of Christianization, in order to fit some of the ancient gods into the new beliefs, masculine deities were made feminine and vice versa. Saint Michael seems to be the opposite case.
· Sangüesa, from San-Ku-Ea-sa, which is much like San-Ku-sa, since putting Ea + Ku together seems to be redundant. Sangüesa is the same concept as that expressed in Iesa, with the addition of San (Saint), and artifice commonly used in Christianization. Sangüesa is to the west of Jaca and south of the Leire Sierra. The River Aragón runs through the town, joining up with three other rivers: the first is the Salazar, the second, the Gallan and the third, the Onsella. A number of cities associated with or near water whose names were related to Ea and Oannes or Uannes went on to be associated with their syncretic equiva-lents under the process of Christianization: The town of Santesteban is located at the con-fluence of the Bidasoa and Baztán rivers. The name is reminiscent of Esteban or San Esteban, holding 4th place with 59 churches dedicated to St. Steven in Navarra; Saint Jean Pied de Port, ditto le Vieux, San Jean de Luz and Pasajes de San Juan, better Pasaia or Be-saya like the river in Santander, are all clear examples of towns located at the water's edge, much the same as San Sebastián, Ea-so, another name associated with Ea. Along the Way of St. James, in the north of Spain, there are two Ea rivers and one Eo river, plus a number of toponyms ending in -ea or -ia that take on meaning.
One hard-to-solve problem when dealing with new astral religions founded on ear-lier ones whose myths revolved around inaccurate astronomy, is determining which star corresponds to each god. This matter did not seem to bother Christianity one bit. Two ex-amples in the Pyrenees and in other places are Sirius and Fomalhaut. The year divided into three seasons began with the appearance of the former, and its constellation represented the Mother Goddess, at least. Fomalhaut at its side, star of the autumn, star of cool weather, has better qualifications than Mirzan -the Herald- Beta Canis Majoris, for having been the herald of Sirius and everything it represented. Fomalhaut, situated under the water of Aquarius, would set just before the rising of Sirius, announcing the star's forthcoming arri-val. Saint John the Baptist also announced the arrival of the Saviour, which makes it no surprise to find Juanes (Johns) in places dedicated to Ea-Uannes-Ku the Fish, or deriva-tions like Esteban, Iván, Sebastián or Iago; in short, we are dealing with a syncretism which, as mentioned earlier, has resulted in 129 church names in Navarra. Follow-up on this subject could shed more light on this piece of history.
To the south of the Iesa reservoir, right at the water's edge -actually mostly cov-ered for much of the year- is a small town called Ruesta. The town has/had a significant number of stone circles, which for one reason or another, I have not even seen or sketches. Geographically it is not a bad spot to mark the end of the Psc.
Today this historical account of the Psc, linking some of the stone circle groups and geographical features to others, might sound like magic to the layperson. However, it is nothing of the sort; in spite of the deteriorated condition and disappearance of many of the Psc groups, what we have is a geoastral system that appears to have been underlined by toponymy, which to a large extent, especially in their main features, can be seen, under-stood and recovered. Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law stated: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." The techniques and knowledge that brought about the Psc can be ascribed, in their own right, to this law. This is not a story of science fiction, but one of physics and feelings, on the part of the builders of the Psc's, and of as-tuteness on the part of the people who silenced such a major project and appropriated its symbolism. Both of them left their mark.
Bostrom maintains that one should try to look at place names as a whole rather than studying them on an individual basis. When seen individually, it is easy to reach any of today's erroneous conclusions or to come to the same conclusions about original names as scholars have. As I see it, when drawing information from a period when supposedly a large part of the Earth's surface was named based on geographic-religious-astronomic cri-teria, using Sumerian or other similar languages, we should be applying the criteria and languages that were used when such places were named. Hushing the meaning of the stone circle and not making references to the contributions to Christianity by astral paganism are major failures. However, they can be rectified through study and consistency.

up