The General Directorate of Cultural Heritage of the Government of the Canary Islands has extended the project of archaeological surveys in the Hanging Caves of La Palma to Tenerife in order to be able to identify, through vertical progression and climbing, the possible uses that the Guanche population it hit hard-to-reach cavities. In this first phase, eight cavities have been located, most of them for sepulchral use, in the municipalities of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, El Rosario and Los Realejos.
It is a pioneering project in the Canary Islands led by the archaeologist Nuria Álvarez and the speleologist Eduardo Díaz, which aims to find, study and inventory those caves that preserve relatively intact and unplundered archaeological elements from the aboriginal era. In fact, with this project started in 2017 on La Palma, the first cave paintings on the island were located in Cueva Tiznada (El Paso).
The large number of difficult-to-access caves distributed throughout the orography of the island of Tenerife, the plunder present in the easily accessible deposits, as well as the good results obtained from the work carried out in La Palma is what has motivated the start of this project. on this island. The discovery of this type of deposits in a good state of conservation facilitates the interpretation of the ways of life of the ancient Canarians with scientific rigor, as the archaeologist clarifies, to “understand how these populations lived and how they died”.
With the development of surface surveys, new lines of research are initiated within Canarian archeology related to patterns of occupation, the use of cavities and the accesses used by the pre-Hispanic population to reach these caves located in ravines, cliffs or crags.
Nona Perera, general director of Cultural Heritage, explained that the study of Cuevas Colgadas “has been extended to Tenerife to have comparative elements”, but also with the aim of “obtaining the full compendium and potential of Canarian archeology in this area to be able to plan in a more optimal way correction measures, of danger, of erosion, depending on the cavity”.
The work in Tenerife is in a preliminary phase “to find the state of the matter”, insists Álvarez, “but when we have prospected a significant number of caves we will be able to see that similarity or not in the cavities of the different islands”. The caves that have been entered so far have mostly a funerary use, but in the coming campaigns it is expected that new municipalities will be visited that may house other types of sites.
SELECTION OF GUANCHE CAVES
In the first place, a list of the main cavities susceptible to be studied was made through both written and oral references, since ethnohistoric sources determine that the Guanche population used the caves for habitation and funerary purposes.
However, from an archaeological point of view, little is known about the uses of difficult-to-access caves located in ravines, on cliff walls or on ridges, although there are previous works that specify the complexity of entering certain sites by its location and orography.
However, on the recommendation of different institutions in Tenerife, those areas or cavities that they considered their priority research for different reasons were chosen. At the request of the City Council of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, surveys were carried out in the surroundings of El Becerril with the intention of finding the famous necropolis excavated by Luis Diego Cuscoy. In this regard, the multidisciplinary team located five burial cavities in this environment that will be studied in depth soon.
This first phase has concluded with very positive results because most of the cavities visited were in perfect condition and had archaeological remains on the surface. In this sense, the results obtained on the island of Tenerife demonstrate the importance of this type of project to have a global vision of the use of hanging cavities by the aboriginal population of the Canary Islands.
