Before 1500: Adal, Ajuran and the coast
The Xiis cairns and Somali star lore: an astronomical study of ancient graves
In 2022 three Spanish researchers published the first archaeoastronomical study in the Somali lands, measuring the orientation of 24 cairns, their standing stones and the bodies in excavated graves at the cairnfield of Xiis (Heis), dated to the 1st–3rd centuries AD. They found three clusters of orientation, near the equinox sunrise, the northern limit of the moon's rising, and the sunrise on the day the sun passes overhead. They link these to the seasons when nomads came to and left the coast, and to Somali star lore, such as the star Dirir (Spica) and the Pleiades (Lixo), while calling their results preliminary.
In short
This page follows a study by Carolina Cornax Gómez of the University of Santiago de Compostela, with A. César González García and Jorge de Torres Rodríguez of the Incipit-CSIC institute (Cornax Gómez, González García and de Torres Rodríguez, "The Guiding Sky: Funerary Orientations and Nomadic Movements in Somaliland during Antiquity", Journal of Skyscape Archaeology 8.1, 2022, pp. 36–65, open access). The authors call it "the first archaeoastronomical research conducted in Somalia/Somaliland" (p. 62). For the site itself, see Heis (Xiis): the ancient port and its cairns.
The setting the authors describe
- Somali sky lore. The authors write that the Somali calendar combines solar cycles of days, weeks and years with a lunar-stellar calendar based on the stations of the moon. Citing Enrico Cerulli and Musa Galaal, they note that the lunar year was marked by the moon passing in front of the star Spica, called Dirir. They also mention a "sky-camel" possibly linked to the Southern Cross and the Milky Way (p. 39). See Musa Galaal.
- The wadaad. They describe this figure as combining astronomical, weather and religious knowledge, advising on moves, wells and herds and often judging disputes. Citing Abdullahi (2001), they write that the role "has a pre-Islamic origin" (p. 39).
- Waaq. They note that the name of a Cushitic sky god, Waaq, survives in Somali as one of the names of God (p. 37).
- Seasons. They set out the four seasons, Gu, Hagaa, Dayr and Jiilaal, and note that trade on the coast ran from October to April, when the north-east monsoon brought ships and herders were wintering by the sea (pp. 39–41).
The cairnfield of Xiis
About 450 cairns and graves line 11 km of coast near Xiis, one of the densest groups in Somaliland (p. 41). The Spanish project mapped the main field in 2018–2019 and catalogued 295 structures:
- Types. Most (78%) are round cairns, commonly 5–6 metres across and 2–3 metres high. About 18% are square, and a few are stone rings (p. 44).
- Standing stones. Eight cairns have small stelae, from two to twelve each, and all but one of these cairns are square. The authors note an ethnographic parallel in which such stones recall enemies killed by the dead person (pp. 44–45).
- Finds. These date from the 1st to the 3rd century AD, mostly the 1st. They include Mesopotamian glazed ware, Italian, Rhodian and Gaulish amphorae, terra sigillata, and glass from Alexandria (p. 46).
What was measured
The team took orientations from drone photographs of 20 square cairns, 29 stelae and four excavated graves, giving 53 measurements in all. The authors call the sample "admittedly low" and the approach "a zero-order approximation" (pp. 47–49).
- Stelae and cairn sides. All the stelae face east, and 70% fall within the range of sunrise between the solstices. Statistical tests found the stelae and the eastern sides of square cairns "statistically equivalent" in direction (pp. 51–54).
- Bodies. The excavated bodies lay on their backs on a north–south axis, at right angles to the direction of the stelae (p. 54).
- Three peaks. Compared with random distributions, three clusters stood out:
- near 0° declination, matching sunrise at the equinoxes, or perhaps the rising of Spica;
- near 29°, close to the most northerly rising of the moon;
- near 12°, matching sunrise on the day the sun passes straight overhead at Xiis (pp. 54–56).
How the authors read the results
They suggest the orientations were deliberate and possibly religious, but say their meaning "remains, for the moment, unknown" (p. 57). Their main hypothesis links them to the nomad year: the spring equinox, or the evening rising of Spica in early March, would fall about when herders left the coast before the rains, and the autumn equinox, or Spica's dawn rising in late September or early October, about when they came back to winter and trade (pp. 57–59). They note that temples in Yemen show similar peaks at 0° and 29° (p. 59). They add that "other hypotheses… cannot be ruled out" (p. 62).
Guguh
The team made a smaller study at Guguh (Gugux), 61 cairns on a hill in a valley used by herders between Berbera, Fardowsa and the Haud. Two small open-air mosques had been built into one cairn, and the shrine of Sheikh Loobogey with its Muslim cemetery lies 800 metres away. The authors read this as a sign that the cairns are pre-Islamic and that worship later moved to the shrine (p. 59). The few measurable orientations point to about 72° and to a declination of about 18°. The authors relate the second to the rising of Regulus and of the Pleiades, which Somalis call Lixo and count as six stars (pp. 59–61).
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