Rock Art and Astronomy at Las Flores, Puerto Rico

ROCK ART AND ASTRONOMY AT LAS FLORES, PUERTO RICO

Duane W. Eichholz

ABSTRACT At Las Flores, Puerto Rico, material engineered for astronomy gives knowledge of forms that can regulate observation during the seasonal year. An array of pecked lines on bedrock locates the apex of a trend of features to a distant mountain horizon. Two lines assembled of rounded, river boulders focus the field of vision to the sun and moon in the midwinter sky. Pocked and groove marked stones placed within in this trend make base lines that diverge to stellar elements and are identified. This structure can determine periods of seasonal rain. Correlation of the declination of the sun with phases of the moon can indicate a possible lunar or solar eclipse.

RESUMEN En Las Flores, Puerto Rico, material diseñado para astronomia da conocimiento de formas que pueden regular observaciones durante estaciones del año. Un arreglo de lineas esculpidas en roca localiza el ápice de una variedad de formas en las montañas enel horizonte distante. Dos lineas arregladas o hechas con cantos de rio enfocan la vista del sol y la luna en el cielo a medio invierno. Puntos y rayas esculpidas de iqual manera sobre piedras localizadas dentro de este arreglo están dirigidas hacia estrellas y éstas pueden ser identificadas. Estas estructuras pueden determinar periodos de lluvia temporal. Correlaciones entre la declinación del sol y las faces de la luna pueden indicar eclipses de sol o de luna.

RESUME A Las Flores au Porto Rico, le matéiel arrangé pour l'astronomie porte connaisânce sur les formes qui peuvant régler l'observation pendant les saisons de l'année. Un étalage de lignes picotées sur roche localise le placement originel d'une variété de traits en direction vers un horizon montagnard au loin. Deux rangs de roches de rivière mettent au point la vue sur le soleil et sur la lune au fort de l'hiver. Des pierres grêlées et creusées placées dans cet arrangement forment des lignes de base qui se divergent aux éléments stellaires et qui sont identifiées. Cette construction peut determiner les périodes de pluie saisaonnière et la possibilité d'éclipsés lunaires ou solaires.

KEY WORDS: Constellations, Puerto Rico, Rock Art (Petroglyphs), Seasonal Astronomy.

INTRODUCTION

The site at Las Flores is bounded by the Coamo River where it provides a continuous mountain vista on the circle of the horizon. While the orientation, dimensions and natural surface of the land allow little variation for placement of man-made elements, the location of a bedrock outcrop and significant petroglyphs coordinated with stone lines on a leveled plaza makes a purposive pattern over 400 m long. All artifacts are located in a trend to the easterly mountain profile that motivates the questions this site would ask (Figure 1). What possible regular system can there be to account for the layout at Las Flores? Straightforward observation of details with a compass, maps and photographs, shows that the placement of site features, with relationship to the surrounding natural features, indicates a possible structure that can function as an observatory to see coherent astronomy.

3 4 Proceedings of the 17th Congress for Caribbean Archaeology

If some accountability can be made for this connection, what science can provide the source and perhaps the content of the site layout? Two stone lines coordinate a rayed rock carving aligned to the midwinter sky. This data postulates one mandate or purposive activity performed by those who used this site was to notice the apparent motion of celestial bodies within this trend and relate this ratio of place to regular intervals of local, seasonal events. The site was discovered in 1972 after a flood exposed a midden at the bounds of the site (Eichholz 1976). Analysis of excavated objects derives a long record of occupation that illustrates: a red-on-white shard that dates from the late first millennium B.C. (Wilson 1991:195-196), Cedrosan Saladoid pottery and a three-pointed object from about A.D. 400 to 600, and an Ostionoid zemi from A.D. 900 to 1200 (Rouse 1992:Figure 26). The site permits a study of the structure, pattern and design of sites in the Caribbean that contain rock assemblages. These questions are inferred through perceptual attributes that we know by introspection and observations were used by prehistoric man for real explanation and are to be accounted for by surface measure, archeology, and astronomy. The goal of this project is to provide an analysis applied as a user test to show that practical construction, psychology of perception, and engineering for special purposes can account for this site and situation. The test will demonstrate the appearance and function of this class of objects to try to discover how the world was comprehended and explained within a system of nature and the sum of what was known within their social reality

THE ENVIRONMENT

Las Flores is located in south-central Puerto Rico, 3.3 km south of Coamo on Highway 153. On the United States Department of Interior Geological Survey map, USGS COAMO, PR, the Las Flores site is situated, across from the Coamo River, some 600 m west from where it intersects with Highway 546, at 18° 02' 54" North Latitude and 66° 22' 24" West Longitude, with an overall elevation of 80-110 m. The magnetic declination was 7 degrees west of True North when the corrected datum was set at 91.62 m by Gary Vescelius (USGS 1960). An artesian system of hot springs at Baños de Coamo, Puente de aguas tamales, is 1.4 km away. There is visual communication to an extensive cave system with pictographs located 4.8 km away (Eichholz 1995). At 4.7 km from the intersection of Highway 154 with Highway 153, an unimproved road runs 2 km southeast to a spring where there are indigenous surface finds and clay pits. Weathered shell scatter is found on Camino Rio Jueyes, from Las Flores through Rio Jueyes, 24 km to a coral bay with mangrove swamps at Bahia de Rincón. The Coamo River is the perennial confluence of three rivers that flow to the Caribbean Sea and provide inland communication to rain forest products. The river is a swift switch back on the north, east, and south limits of the site. The river bed consists of rounded boulders one half to 5 m in diameter. These boulders are made from a tufaceous conglomerate of the Coamo formation, which weathers to dark green, greenish black, reddish brown and purple, and a post-Cuevas formation of sandstone and siltstone, which weathers to pale orange or brownish gray. The site is a Quaternary, terraced, alluvial fan, of Cuevas pink limestone and post-Cuevas material, 20-30 m deep, with outcrops of Coamo conglomerate (Glover 1961). Rain falls in May and June and August to October for 50-100 days with some violent downfalls. In intervening months intermittent showers fall in no definite pattern for a total annual Eichholz 5 average below 50 inches. There are spectacular double rainbows that rise in radiational mist over the site after midwinter sunrise. Hurricanes have passed over the site in September and October, about every twenty years since 1900 (United States National Oceanic and Atmosheric Administration 1978:1129-1160). Flat, open, alluvial soil support drought resistant grasses, thorny shrub and cactus cover. Level topography begins a gradual elevation about one kilometer distant to mountain elevations of 250-370 m that surround the site. Ten kilometers northerly, elevation reaches the Cordillera Central at 840 m and rises to 1340 m at Monte Joyuya, where small tracts of rain forest still exist. Southerly, the terrain drops to a low plain and shallow bay with mangrove swamps.

THE ASTRONOMICAL GEOGRAPHY AND PERCEPTUAL SKY

"All celestial bodies of which man has knowledge are in motion" (Bowditch 1966:351 ). The trend of a situation to the ESE horizon satisfies conditions for perception that would observe these bodies in apparent motion due to the rotation of the earth and revolution of the solar system. Observation will notice an apparent motion of the solar system due to the polar tilt and rotation of the earth that causes stars to shift westward nearly 1 degree and rise about four minutes earlier each night. Thus, different stars are associated with different seasons. This general precession of the equinox does not substantially affect the apparent motion of the solar system in accuracy, obliquity of the ecliptic, orbit of the moon, or planetary configuration. Long observation will also notice a slow retreat in the declination of stars and raise time of stars on the equator nearly 1 degree in 60 years due to the spin of the poles during galactic revolution. This proper motion does affect correlation of rise time and declination of stars to constructed calendars of star data that are beyond this epoch (1900) and it must be calculated for each star (Bowditch 1966:369, 373, 955). The sun appears to follow the declination of the earth during the seasonal year. The moon follows the sun in a course that will vary about 29 degrees from this path. Planets have their own configurations. On or near the focus of the trend of the site, one or two solar eclipses can be observed every 18.6 years, in a narrow band of latitude, at midwinter. The cycle repeats with minor differences for 56 years (Bowditch 1966:381). The cycle repeats at the midsummer sun and the composite cycle repeats every 111 to 114 years. A lunar eclipse will occur whenever the ecliptic limits of the sun and moon coincide wherever the Full Moon is visible. Las Flores is in a northernmost band of geography at 18° North Latitude to see the region of Ursa Major and the Southern Cross. From this location, one can perceive a line that can be translated north and south along a meridian to give a grid of place with ratios of duration for seasonal time (Bowditch 1966:367-369). The Southern Cross is visible at midwinter dawn and midsummer twilight. Taurus with Hyades and Pleiades, Orion, and Canis Major will rise in August. In October, Coma Berenices, Arcturus in Bootes, Vega in Lyra, and Cygnus become visible and will set after twilight. At midwinter Scorpio with Antares, and Aquila with Altair, rise before the sun with Crux or the Southern Cross, Arcturus in Bootes and Ursa Major in transit. In the epoch of 1900, during February and September the Milky Way will form the legs of an X. In May and June it forms each side of a vertical ellipse. Looking east, at twilight in December a complete bow will arc over head. At dawn it will rim the horizon (Lovi and Blow 1995). 6 Proceedings of the 17th Congress for Caribbean Archaeology

THE SITE CONSTRUCTION AND ENGINEERING

Distinct land features that make up the site can be identified on the topography of the USGS COAMO PR map. An inventory of elements placed over a distance of 400 m consists of a bedrock uplift with petroglyphs, three other set petroglyphs, and two stone lines with a rock assemblage on a leveled area. These elements direct our vision WNW-ESE to a mountain profile 1100 m away. Rock features outside the leveled area are identified as site feature, SF, and those inside are designated plaza features, PF. The orientations of portable petroglyphs are base line observations to the horizon as those used for reporting the direction of wind. The surface pottery at the site show little disturbance since the indigenous occupation (Figure 1). Three site features most WNW are located on or near to a tufaceous conglomerate outcrop platform. SF1 presented a pecked, shell-shaped fan, called the Fan petroglyph, with rays that angle at five degree intervals to the horizon. A pitted, rounded, rectangular head, with cupped eyes, upturned mouth with a nose connected, and upturned, volute extended horns are contained in another field of five rays. The outcrop face is separated to a position about 4 m below the outcrop. It contains four elements with a bird like form, a cross shape at an angle, a circular medallion and a heart shape (Figures 2 and 3). SF2 is a natural, flat, conglomerate boulder, located near the platform that faces westerly. It presents three pecked and cupped dots as in a right triangle (Figure 4). SF3 is a table size conglomerate rock located 20 m to ESE with a base une facing northeast. An eroded slant face retains three elements that make up one-third of the surface. The largest image is a smoothed line, stick figure with an inlaid limestone round face, that was found at the base of the rock. It has a stick torso, with one v-shaped stick arm. On the right and downward it has Y stick legs with round feet. Below these legs is a "wrapped figure" with pecked, cupped, head and torso that contains an off center X as in a St. Andrew cross. The third element is a circle of seven pecked dots with a centered eighth dot (Figure 5). SF4 is a slant-faced outcrop, conglomerate boulder, located about 70 m NWN from a plot bounded by middens. It projects easterly a smooth grooved, rake form with seven projections and twelve other parallel lines. On the front are four, pecked, adjoined circles (Figure 6). PF1, called the Stone Circle, is located on a level Quaternary terrace of some 1200 m2. It consists of three, 30-40 cm rounded boulders, hand size surface stones, and an accumulation of shards that raise the surface 20 cm above the datum. PF1 proved to be the platform used to view the distant mountain profile that presents a notched and angled base line extending about 70 m at 230 - 240 m above sea level, 1100 m ESE (Figure 7). Excavation found occupation zones separated by a loamy layer. The second level was indicated by a 10 x 15 cm Ostionan shard with a "curvilinearly incised design ending in a dot" (Rouse 1992:110). This level was penetrated with postilóles. On the third level, a square postmold, 22 x 15 cm, began at a depth of 28 cm and continued to a depth of 40 cm. The filled rock column extended upward only to the second level. This rock column aligned with PF4. PF4, called the Stone Post, is made up of several squared stones plotted but not excavated. PF5 is an assemblage of stones plotted but not excavated. PF2 and PF3 are assembled of water-washed river boulders, 10-80 cm in dimensions. The unes are 30 m apart. PF2, called the North Stone Line, is 28 m long. PF3, called the South Stone Eichholz 7

Line, is 20 m long. Excavation by J. Ortiz Aguilu demonstrated that this area was leveled with sorted Quaternary debris. The North Stone Line had a boulder foundation at 50 cm. The South Stone Line was laid on plaza fill at 30 cm. The rectangle coordinates of all stones on the surveyed plaza were found by Emily Lundberg. Those stones used for analysis measured more than 10 cm in their greatest rectangle dimensions. James Eichholz developed the "best fitting line" from stones, "that by visual inspection has an obvious linear trend." PF2 was found to align to an azimuth of 122° 26' 22.9" West Longitude. PF3 was found to align to an azimuth of 119° 02' 13.8" West Longitude. PF1 and PF4 have no individual linear trend, however, a line projected between each is parallel with PF3 (Figure 7).

THE INTERPRETATION OF IMAGES AND FEATURES

Observation of a celestial body can be noticed and remembered by the mark of a line azimuth or an image on a base line parallel to the horizon. This material work is hardware that consists of marks that modulate commands to be directed to a vision field in the sky. Then it waits for the information service in the sky to demonstrate sky data that can be translated back as a match to the marks represented in the material data. The petroglyphs are seen to function for this purpose. For computation of the stone lines, the measure of the rectangle coordinates of each stone give data for a "best fitting line" in the trend of the assembled stones from True North. Magnetic deviations and the elevation of situational vegetation at time of construction can be indeterminate factors. Rise time or Local Mean Time (LMT) is factored to apparent solar time (Bowditch 1966:482). Ephemerides state a geodetic azimuth of the solstice sun at sea level as a declination south of east, or -23 degrees 36 minutes (Nautical Almanac 1972:23). When the sun is above the horizon, this declination is translated to an apparent azimuth in relation to Polaris of 114 degrees 23 minutes and changes through the day. When radiational rainbows rise over the site in midwinter, the rays of the Fan petroglyph are observed on the ESE horizon. Now, an interval of place and season will be displayed in marked ratios of approximately five degrees from the equinox to the midwinter solstice to a distance beyond in intervals from +5 degrees East to -31 degrees South of East. When the Fan petroglyph is coordinated with the stone lines, the extreme interval of the systematic motion of the sun and moon can be observed to warn of a midwinter solar or lunar eclipse. A waning Last Quarter Moon near the midwinter rise position indicates a chance eclipse of the sun. A Full Moon in this position indicates a chance of lunar eclipse. The head with horns next to the Fan is interpreted to display this event. Two solar eclipses were seen on December 24, 1973 and December 13, 1974. The span includes Scorpio, Corona Australus and Aquila (epoch 689.0) (Figure 8). Sky Simulations (1988-1994) illustrate the petroglyphs congruent to universal representations of SF1 as Lyra and Cygnus with a circular medallion that is not identified. The heart-shaped figure is reported by Lévi-Strauss (1970:230) but not identified. SF2is seen as Coma Berenices. SF3 shows Bootes with Arcturus, and Pleiades. The "wrapped figure" is seen to signify the elliptical frame of the Milky Way with the succession of constellations as an angled pole that intersects the interior meridian of the figure when Arcturus is at a 30 degree setting at twilight (epoch 688). These signs represent stars that diverge from the site trend (Ottewell 1996:20) (Figure 9). Petroglyph SF4 is within the span of the Fan petroglyph. The easterly limit of the SF4 is about +5 degrees azimuth and will focus on a mountain point where the Belt of Orion will rise before 8 Proceedings of the 17th Congress for Caribbean Archaeology dawn in May and June predicting the short rainy season. The trace display approximates the star tracks of Taurus, with Hyades and Pleiades, Orion and Canis Major. The group of four circles on the front face is seen to represent the sun and moon in their ecliptic limits (Figure 6). The sun appeared on the horizon on December 22,1976: azimuth 117 degrees 49 minutes, altitude 7 degrees 46 minutes from the 91.62 m site's datum, adjusted Time Zone, 4.4, 7:08 a.m. Local Mean Time (LMT). This compares with the computed azimuth of individual stones of 119 degrees 2 minutes for PF3, the South Stone Line. Deviation from the observation azimuth is +1 degree 13 minutes (Figure 11). PF3 aligned at azimuth 122 degrees 36 minutes to note the declination of a maximum moonrise at -29 degrees 7 minutes, on April 8,1969,12.17 a.m. (LMT). It rose to altitude 7 degrees 12 minutes at azimuth 123 degrees 50 minutes with deviation of +1 degree 20 minutes. PF3 is the extreme lunar azimuth on the horizon.

A PARTIAL ETHNOHISTORICAL ASTRONOMY

Orinoco mandates for site placement cited location of the "first maloca where the Yaji Woman made her first appearance called House of the Waters." This was at a spot "where an axis mundi can be placed .. . where the constellations appear to rise and set vertically." This "staff or house beam (is) a vine serving as a ladder" (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975:141, 146). The petroglyphs located on this site, "are a record of events that happened here" (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1971:75). Marc de Civrieux hangs a ladder in space "with seven rungs tied to that big vine" (de Civrieux 1980:114). From Colombia, Michel Perrin identifies elements that occur in this ladder. "One (season of the sky) is indicated by Arcturus or juyo 'u, or Juya that defines the 'midpoint' of the main rainy season and the planet Venus during the dry season." "Juya is closely linked to agriculture, and also signifies the year, which is the largest Guajiro unit of time." "A New Year begins when Juya (Arcturus) goes down behind the sun. It is equal to the period of the stellar cycle." (Perrin 1987:21, 55,79,93,127). An Arcturus Day was considered denoting a period of the stellar cycle. "A new year begins when Arcturus becomes invisible," through which, "emerges the rain that falls in the first days of October." The rains begin when, "situated at a height of some 30 degrees to the west at nightfall, that star is about to vanish in the wake of the sun" (Perrin 1987:79-80, 117). "The main rainy season runs from September or October to December" (Perrin 1987:165). It is marked by seven constellations or stars. They are the Southern Cross, Spica (in Virgo), Arcturus (in Bootes), Antares (in Scorpio), Vega (in Lyra) and Altair (in Aquila) (Perrin 1987:Figure 2). Levi Strauss notes that, "Coma Berenices becomes visible during the month of October when the dry season is coming to an end" (Lévi-Strauss 1970:232). "The other season is signified by Pleiades and Orion and Sirius and the midpoint of the short wet season in May or June. Between these two groups are two spaces in the sky not marked by the presence of stars that correspond to the dry seasons" (Perrin 1987:22, 124). Lévi-Strauss includes in this group "a scaffolding that includes the star Sirius, the constellation of Orion, and Aldebran, the Hyades and the Pleiades" (Lévi-Strauss 1970:220-221). Puloui is a complimentary figure to Juya, "who is a huge boa . . . she has horns . . . (associated with)... the rainbow that always comes out of the boa . . . She tries to prevent him (Juya) from raining ... Without rainbow it would rain continually" (Perrin 1987: 54, 88, 95,121). Lévi-Strauss notes that "the rainbow announces the end of the rain" as "the great earth oven" or, "the Eichholz 9

Boyusu snake that appears in the day in the form of the rainbow and at night as the dark spot (Coal Sack in Scorpius) in the Milky Way," or the "nocturnal rainbow with the black area in the center of the Milky Way-in other words an eclipse of the stars" (Lévi-Strauss 1970:246-48, 297). Associated with the meaning of the supernatural figures of Puloui (feminine) and Juya (masculine) is the idea of ajuna, or the entity of the shaman, or, spirit, that closely resembles humans. It denotes the "power possessed only by the shamans," who, "intervene during sickness," and are, "the best acquainted with the symbolic universe" (Perrin 1987:82, 170).

CONCLUSION: THE SITE AS AN EXPRESSION OF A SOCIAL UNIT

The site at Las Flores provides for the common enjoyment of stable elements for living space. Within the limits of a scale that can be used by practical engineering, an inventory of material tied to the site demonstrates that relevant building practice for the placement of site elements was factored into this space. Within limits of the site there is a plan with detail that can establish a location situated within the whole environment to allow for the perception of the natural sky. The site trend infers a window for observation from WNW to ESE. It allows horizon points to be marked to denote systematic solar and lunar events in midwinter and base lines for stellar events in the rains of May and June, and September through December. Special engineering infers a narrative of form critical patterns with knowledge of propositions and assertions that plot visible patterns and orientations as a table of stars. The design of each feature denotes factors that prepare to establish a relation between the elements and their function and give the site the appearance of structure. It coordinates lines for development to translate to the horizon that will certainly observe a regular system of motion in the natural sky. The analysis of the petroglyphs identifies signs that mirror real astronomy. Their placement provides the possible factors that underlie the constructed parts. The signs that mirror elements of star groups use direct and universal methods of recognition. The means are expressed with simple tools and available materials in exact and economical terms. The objective methods used to make accurate linear and angular measures indicate the position of astronomical objects and events that coordinate the seasonal sky. The natural site orientation is redundant when the rock patterns express the theme of connections among them. They establish limits through which the initial argument and action of the whole can be explained. The pattern of the site is coherent in method and a correct statement of knowledge of the sky. The surface record accounts for a set of observable patterns that infer a model for purposeful operation to formulate a realistic appraisal of the world in which they lived. As a functional observatory, it is capable of controlling a precise yearly calendar of solar and other seasonal stellar events. The proposed "field" of facts derived from the measure of site elements and interrelationships factor a composition of conscious experience directed to accommodate the structure of the regular astronomical system to internal or external necessities demanded of a functional social unit. Practical and special engineering infers the presence of the shaman to provide a mandate to adapt for selection of the exact situation with accurate knowledge of an ephemeris and almanac that will order elements of the site into a correct record that conforms to conceptualized space and time. In this precise cosmology the assembled plaza features make the sun and the moon major players at the days of midwinter. The Fan petroglyph associated with the horned figure reports times _10 Proceedings of the 17th Congress for Caribbean Archaeology of a possible solar or lunar eclipse through the midwinter season. The sequence of constellations marked on the petroglyphs (SF1, 2, 3, 4) associated with the "wrapped figure" and the "rake" petroglyph (SF4) function to isolate divergent stellar events predict the rainy seasons. The site enunciates a design tied to the data for the purpose, use and activity of the social unit and enables a system for mandated necessities or natural solutions to seasonal activities. Tracing cognates of figures in the Columbian narrative to place names in Puerto Rico may be possible. From "Juya" (rain) we may derive Monte Joyuya, Rio Grande Joyuya, Municipio De Joyuya and Rio Jueyes. From alijuna (foreigner) or ajuna (spirit of the shaman), there is Ajuntas.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

J. J. Ortiz Aguilu was the Site Director. The use of his map was permitted. Emily Lundberg found the coordinates of all stones on the plaza. James Eichholz, was present when the site was first identified in 1972 and developed the "best fitting line" for the North and South Lines. The petroglyph, SF4, was first recognized by Tim Eichholz in 1973. John Eichholz gave knowledge and forbearance to every condition while we camped on the site in 1974 for 167 days. I would like to thank Doña Miriam and her family, who made us welcome for years with cool drinks on hot days. Eichholz 11

REFERENCE CITATIONS

Bowditch, N. 1966 American Practice Navigator An Epitome of Navigation H. O. Pub. No. 9. U. S. Naval Océanographie Office, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington.

Carina Software 1992-1994 Voyager II Dynamic Sky Simulator™ Version 2.0. San Ramon. de Civrieux, M. 1980 Watunna An Orinoco Creation Cycle. Translated by D. M. Guss. North Point Press, San Francisco.

Eichholz, D. W. 1976 A Potential Archaeo-Astronomical Horizon at Las, Flores, Puerto Rico. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress for the Study of Pre-Columbian Cultures of the Lesser Antilles, edited by R.P. Bullen, p. 314. Florida State Museum, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. 1995 Rock Art from Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico. In Proceedings of the XV International Congress for Caribbean Archaeology, edited by R.E. Alegría and M. Rodriguez, pp. 559-569. Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe, San Juan.

Glover, m., L. 1961 Preliminary Report on the Geology of the' Coamo Quadrangle, Puerto Rico. Miscellaneous Geologic Investigations Map 1-335. U. S. Geological Survey, Washington.

Lévi-Strauss, C. 1970 The Raw and the Cooked: An Introduction to a Science of Mythology. Translated by J. and D. Weightman. First Harper Torchbook, New York. Originally published 1969, Harper & Row, New York.

Lovi, G., and G. Blow 1995 Monthly Sky Charts, edited by A. M. Mac Robert and S. Peters. Sky Publishing Corporation, Cambridge.

Nautical Almanac Office 1972 The American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac For the Year 1974. United States Naval Observatory, U. S. Printing Office, Washington.

Ottewell, G. 1996 Astronomical Calendar 1996. Universal Workshop, Furnham University, Greenville. th 12 Proceedings of the 17 Congress for Caribbean Archaeology

Perrin, M. 1987 The Way of the Dead Indians Guajiro Myths and Symbols. Translated by M. Fineberg. University of Texas, Austin.

Reichel-Dolmatoff, G. 1971 Amazonian Cosmos A Study of Narcotic Drugs Among the Indians of Columbia. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 1975 The Shaman and the Jaguar The Sexual and Religious Symbolism of the Tukano Indians. Temple University Press, Philadelphia.

Rouse, I. 1992 The Tainos The People Who Greeted Columbus. Yale University Press, New Haven.

United States Department of the Interior Geological Survey. (USGS) 1960 Coamo P.R. Nl800—-W6615/7.5. Coamo Quadrangle Puerto Rico 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic). Mapped, edited, and published by the Geological Survey, Washington, D.C.

United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 1978 Climates of the States, Puerto Rico and U S Virgin Islands. In Climatography of the United States No. 60-52, Vol. 2, edited by R. J. Calvesbert, pp.1129-1160. Gale Research Company, Detroit.

Wilson, S. K. 1991 Current Research: Caribbean. American Antiquity 56(1): 145-146. Eichholz 13

Figure 1. USGS Aerial Photograph, NWN to SES. Azimuth of PFl, PF4, and site features are marked to the horizon. Date of flight, November 15, 1971. Bureau, Photographic Mapping and Photogrammetry Services Division. 14 Proceedings of the 17th Congress for Caribbean Archaeology

Figure 2. SF1, Fan Petroglyph with Horned Head.

Figure 3. SF1, Bird shape, St. Andrew's Cross, Medallion and Heart Shape Petroglyph seen as Lyra, Cygnus, Medallion, and a not named constellation. %*

Figure 4. SF2, Three Dots Petroglyph seen as Coma Berenices.

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Figure 5. SF3, Table Rock seen as Bootes with Arcturus/'Wrapped Figure" and Pleiades. 16 Proceedings of the 17th Congress for Caribbean Archaeology

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Figure 6. SF4, Slant Face Boulder, front view. Four Circles in front are interpreted as depiction of Sun and Moon within eclipse limits.

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6S9XI Chart Center: 15h5l.?m .0014' Altazimuth: 180 x 180 Location: G6 22'W 18 02'N Las flores, Puetto Rico Figure 8. Midwinter Sunrise eclipse with Moon at Lunar maximum, Altair in Aquila, Scorpius with zeta Scor "coal sack" or "rake" and the four stars of the Southern Cross, epoch 689.0. Carina Software 1992-1994. arcturus at astronomical twuigrtt UT: Aug 18, 688 23:58 LM1: (V:34 pm

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689.0 Chart Center: Mh 05.5m +20' 37 Altazimuth: 180 x 180' Location: 66 22'W 18 02'N las Flores, Puerto Rico

Figure 9. Coma Berenices, Bootes, Lyra, and Cygnus. "Ladder" of constellations with Arcturus thirty degrees be the setting Sun on Arcturus Day, epoch 688.0. Carina Software 1992-1994. Eichholz 19

Figure 10. Sunrise on SES mountain, December 22, 1976.

Figure 11. PF3 or South Stone Line with Sunrise Shadow, December 22, 1976.