Sobre el análisis arqueoastronómico de dos yacimientos tinerfeños y la importancia de los equinoccios en el ritual aborigen

Abstract

We describe a new method to obtaining and analysing precise measurements of the astronomical horizon around archaeological sites. We have applied this method to the rock engraving stations of Barranco de la Tapia (Candelaria) and La Pedrera (Punta del Hidalgo, La Laguna), both located in Tenerife Island and of possible cultual significance. We have found that the sunrise or sunset at and around the equinoxes takes place on striking zones of the horizon in both sites. This kind of astronomical relation has been found in some archaeological sites in other islands of the archipelago. We propose that the ritual importance of the equinoxes —or a date very close to the equinoxes, as the temporal mid-point between solstices— could have been originated in pre-Islamic North Africa, a zone with archaeoastronomical findings strongly similar to those discovered in religious precincts of the Canary Islands.