THE ROCK SANCTUARY OF BAROÑA HILL FORT AS AN EXCHANGER, INTERFACE AND CROSS-ROADS AMONG THE WORLD LAYERS OF CELTIC COSMOLOGY

Abstract

The small Iron-Age hillfort of Baroña (Porto do Son, A Coruña, Galicia, Spain) was inhabited during the last

centuries BC and is in a singularly hostile environment on a small peninsula facing the Atlantic Ocean at the

western end of the Muros-Noia estuary. The habitat is composed by a mere twenty houses defended by a

stunning complex of three lines of massive walls. A large rocky acropolis with faint but clear signs of human

activity hangs over the habitat. The study of the acropolis reveals the possibility that they include awareness

of the surrounding landscape and relevant moments of the solar cycle. A monumental stairway adjacent to

the acropolis leads towards the cliff overlooking the sea and seems aligned with the winter solstice sunset

happening on the ocean beyond. Over the acropolis, the rock that dominates the area presents carved basins

and slender petroglyphs related with winter and summer solstice sunrises while the eastern horizon is

dominated by Mount Enxa that signals 1st May sunrise as seen from the acropolis. Finally, summer solstice

sunrise seen from the acropolis coincides with a little hill some 2.5 kilometer away on which slope a panel

with petroglyphs presents the only carved representation of the sun known in Galicia and the panel itself is

related to some astral calendric relations. We argue that the hillfort‟s location seems to be a special place

chosen to be a cross-road between the sky, the land, and the sea, i.e. the three elements constituting the

Cosmos according to the Celtic tradition and shared by other Indo-European traditions.