Belchen system

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The Belchen system

The Belchen system comprises five mountains called Belchen in the border triangle of Germany , France and Switzerland , which, according to speculation, is said to have served as a solar calendar for the Celts . It is an extension of the Belchen triangle .

Geographical description

The center of the Belchen system is located on the southernmost mountain of the Vosges , the Alsatian Belchen (1247 meters). Exactly to the east is the Black Forest Belchen (1414 meters), 73 kilometers away , which is only 167 meters higher and above which the sun rises on the days of the equinox, i.e. at the beginning of spring and the beginning of autumn . Conversely, the sun sets over the Alsatian Belchen on these two days as seen from the Black Forest Belchen.

Sunrise at Belchen at the equinox

At the summer solstice , the sun rises from the Alsatian Belchen over the slightly higher Kleiner Belchen (1272 meters), 27 kilometers northeast, and over the southeastern Swiss Belchen (1099 meters), 88 kilometers away, at the winter solstice . Thus, from Alsace Belchen, the beginnings of all four astronomical seasons can be determined.

The sun rises on May 1st over the highest mountain in the Vosges, 21 kilometers to the northeast, the Great Belchen (1424 meters), which coincides with the last evening of the calendar star of the Pleiades , before disappearing in the sunlight for forty days.

The region of the Belchen system is known today under the name Regio Basiliensis , but also Upper Rhine , Dreiland or RegioTriRhena .

  • Mountains of the Belchen System

  • Alsatian Belchen

  • Little Belchen

  • Big Belchen

  • Black Forest Belchen

  • Swiss Belchen

interpretation

Local researchers Walter Eichin and Andreas Bohnert discovered and published these connections between the five Belchen in the mid-1980s. Since the probability is low that exactly these five mountains happen to be called Belchen regardless of these facts, they have associated the naming of the Belchen with the god of light of the Celts, Belenus . Belenus was equated by the Romans in antiquity with Apollon , god of light and spring, and the holiday Beltane des Belenus is May 1st, the exact day of the year on which the sun rises above the Alsatian Belchen largest mountain in the Vosges, the Great Belchen. Beltane was also celebrated as the Celtic beginning of the year and the beginning of the beautiful season or summer.

The Basel canton archaeologist Rolf d'Aujourd'hui took up these observations in the 1990s and examined them further. He was able to determine further geographical references and also found corresponding connections to the Celtic holidays Imbolg on February 1st and Samhain on November 1st. Similar bearing axes for lunar constellations should be given: for example, the blue triangle in the same region. The permutation of Belchen and Blauen bases results in, among other things, a crossing point near Basel , which precisely marks the former Celtic settlement and temporary excavation site Basel gas factory - at least that is one theory. Other approaches to reconstructing meaning include mountains such as the Petit , Grand Ballon de Servance and Ballon St. Antoine, as well as other peaks.

Since the Celts left hardly any written evidence, it is difficult to prove these facts historically or archaeologically. However, it is possible to show that the Belchen system was also available to the Celts then resident in the region over 2000 years ago for the calendar determination of the equinoxes and the solstices and could have been used with the geometric tools of the time.

For Stone Age calendars or, for example, with the Nebra Sky Disc in the Bronze Age, astronomical observations were common even before antiquity. Knowing the solar year and keeping Celtic calendars , such as the Coligny calendar , were an important part of their culture for the Celts.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Die Pleiades , in: Die Himmelstafel von Tal-Qadi , Wikibook, accessed on June 9, 2020