129 Oriented for Prayer: Astronomical Orientations of Protohistoric Sacred Buildings of the South Iberian Peninsula César Esteban Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna and Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias c/Vía Láctea s/n, 38200 – La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain cel@iac.es José Luis Escacena Carrasco Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Facultad de Geografía e Historia, Universidad de Sevilla c/María de Padilla s/n, 41004 – Sevilla, Spain escacena@us.es Abstract This article presents the results of an archaeoastronomical study carried out in several protohis- toric religious buildings of the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula, most of them located in modern-day Andalusia. The sites date from IX to V century BC and belong to the Tartessian or Iberian cultures. All sites show evidence of direct influence by Phoenician colonisation and most of them have even been interpreted as true Phoenician temples. An element commonly associ- ated with some of these buildings are the bull hide-shaped altars, which have been interpreted as dedicated to the Phoenician deities of Baal and Astarte. We find that these sacred buildings are oriented to the same azimuth of 55°, indicating the importance of orientation in the design and ritual use of the sanctuaries. In discussing the astronomical targets of such an orientation pattern we find several possibilities – Sun, Moon or Venus – and the need to interpret the results in the light of current knowledge about the Phoenician religion as well as ancient written references. KEYWORDS: Archaeoastronomy, temples, Phoenicia, Tartessos, Iberian Culture, sol- stices, Venus POVZETEK !lanek predstavlja rezultate arheoastronomske "tudije, opravljene na ve# protohistori #nih re - ligioznih objektih ju$nega Iberskega polotoka, ve #inoma v sedanji Andaluziji. Najdi "#a so iz #asa med 9. in 5. stol. pr. n. "t., pripadajo pa kulturi Tartessos oz. iberski kulturi. Na vseh naj - di"#ih so vidni neposredni vplivi feni #anske kolonizacije; ve#ina jih je bila celo interpretirana kot pravi feni #anski templji. Pogosti v teh zgradbah so oltarji v obliki bikove ko $e, ki naj bi bili posve#eni feni#anskim bo$anstvom Baalu in Astarti. Ugotovili smo, da so vsa ta sveti "#a usmerjena z istim azimutom 55°, kar ka $e na pomembnost usmeritve pri njihovem na #rtova - nju in obredni rabi. V razpravi o mo $nih astronomskih tar #ah tega vzorca usmeritev podajamo ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTEBOOKS 19 (SUPPLEMENT) César Esteban, José Luis Escacena Carrasco: Oriented for Prayer: Astronomical Orientations of Protohistoric Sacred Buildings of the South Iberian Peninsula