The General Directorate of Cultural Heritage of the Government of the Canary Islands has promoted the first study and inventory of watchtowers and surveillance spaces on the island of Tenerife from an archaeological and historical perspective.
Since the sixteenth century there are multiple historical references to the Lookout posts installed in strategic enclaves of Tenerife to notify the population of the arrival of enemy ships and thus anticipate possible naval attacks.
According to documentary sources, this defensive strategy was carried out by means of an interconnected network of watchtowers that sent and repeated signals of fire and smoke; However, there are practically no archaeological studies on its location and its material characterization.
Against this background, the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage is developing the first phase of the project Vigilant, focused on the northeast of Tenerife and directed by a multidisciplinary team from the University of La Laguna and the Catalan Institute of Classical Archeology, in collaboration with research staff from the University of Seville and the University of Barcelona.
Work on the Archeology of the Surveillance Spaces and Watchtowers of the Northeast of Tenerife It has a historical interest related to the visibility of what was the first line of defense in the capital area; as well as it also has an archaeological interest in applying new lines of study within Historical Archeology and Landscape Archeology. In the same way, it also has a scientific interest in shedding new data on the operation of this network and the creation of the first cultural landscapes after the Conquest.
“For the Government of the Canary Islands, it is of interest to allocate public resources to study the devices that serve the lookout posts and watchtowers in order to protect the population,” said the general director of Cultural Heritage Nona Perera. From this point of view, Perera assured that they are “strategic enclaves of social and geopolitical importance that inform us of the defense network created over centuries”, so it is necessary “to understand its development, through archeology, to learn more about our past, “he detailed.
Work methodology
“The watchtowers have very specific spatial criteria; they require visibility and intervisibility between enclaves and must be accessible, among other characteristics,” explains Francesc C. Conesa, co-director of the Vigilant.
Regarding the documented network, the first watchtower started at the Tafada Mountain and from there it went to the Sabinal Mountain, the Igueste de San Andrés Watchtower and the San Andrés Watchtower. The notices reached the Castillo de San Cristóbal in Santa Cruz and traveled to the Montaña de Taco and the Montaña de Ofra, the latter now disappeared by urban development. Later they would arrive at the watchtower of San Roque, possibly located in Mesa La Gallardina, and that of San Lázaro, in the current Mountain of the Pulpit. From there, the northern notices were received through the Caldera la Atalaya and La Atalaya at the top of the Mesa de Tejina.
The study of the documentary sources is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects to know the historical evolution of the watchtowers, since it allows a reconstruction of the surveillance points and their main uses. After the recovery of fifty historical documents, a geospatial analysis of the territory was carried out that included the recovery of toponymy and the reconstruction of the lines of visibility between watchtowers, at the same time that an archaeological survey program was developed in the enclaves. located, which have been documented with digital photogrammetry techniques.
In this sense, the work team has determined several types of watchtowers according to the focused surveys. For Jared Carballo, co-director of the project, “there are natural watchtowers, without material evidence but located by toponymy or textual sources, and watchtowers with construction and material remains. In this case, the structures can be small” ovens “or excavated structures. in the rock, and in some occasions the thermoaltered soil is appreciated “.
“The prospects have been superficial in nature, but in a second phase we are going to prepare an excavation project with a view to its possible preservation and conservation and even in the long term its integration into new cultural routes”, advances the archaeologist Conesa.
In summary, Vigilant initiates a new line of research in the Canary Islands by documenting the surveillance spaces and watchtowers in the surroundings of Anaga and La Laguna, but also by establishing basic and common criteria to extend the investigation to the entire island of Tenerife, as there is evidence of watchtowers historical both in the north and the south. With this first phase, a future archaeological excavation is prepared that allows us to know the potential of these deposits and their relationship with the island’s cultural landscapes.
