The social archeology group headed by Sixto Pérez and that tries to protect historical finds in Tenerife by notifying the authorities for their due protection informed the Government of the Canary Islands this Tuesday and last Monday the Tenerife Council of the existence of an uncatalogued discovery in Arico nor without due delimitation and protection.
As Pérez details to DIARIO DE AVISOS, they learned of this site from various sources. They moved to the area and, upon arriving, they verified the presence of “stones with engravings, a hut bottom, a lot of material on the surface (oxidiana, ceramics, shells…)” without registering, apart from missing “a small station in “two little cases in a toga.” Furthermore, they were struck by the location, “just 20 meters away”, of a windmill of the kind that already characterizes a good part of the territory of Arico from the highway towards the median and they consider that the relevant work was never done in this enclave. “archaeological prospecting” to locate mills next to sites.
Pérez emphasizes that finds of this type should be marked, delimited and protected, “apart from also missing, in the structure of the cabin, some stones that contained more engravings, so we do not know if they have been removed by archaeologists or looted. . “We don’t know where they are, nor do we know what happened to the casiletas station.”
Last Monday, they decided to communicate the discovery to the Cabildo and, given the lack of response, the next day they did so with the regional government so that a technician could travel and gauge the relevance of the discovery and, above all, take measures. to protect it and ensure that there is no more looting, as they have verified with other sites that they have been discovering or rediscovering in the last two years.
This group has been demanding exhaustive catalogs of sites for years. “The Council gave a period of three years, but it has already been met and we remain the same: there are no such in any city council,” he indicates.
For Pérez, “archaeologists on site” from the administrations are needed or, at least, more attention to work like that of his group: “If there were a technician on site at these sites, they would immediately notice sites like This, because the materials are visible, you can quickly see the engravings, the back of the cabin and the station, where two small houses are not very large, but it is clear that they were there.
Pérez explains that these findings are quite common in Arico and, for this reason, he regrets that, during the previous mandate, “and despite our requests, we were never received by the Heritage Councilor, something that has not changed with the mayor of the Heritage team. current government. We tried three times in the previous mandate, with check-in or in person, and nothing: he never wrote it down in the agenda or called us, and now, neither, when we believe it is very important for us to inform and collaborate regarding uncatalogued sites ”.
MILLS YES, BUT NOT LIKE THIS
Pérez makes clear his total commitment to clean energies and, among others, wind energy, although he considers that it would be necessary to rethink how they are expanding and being located in many places on the Islands, not only because of the archaeological sites affected or not properly analyzed and detected. in advance, but for visual and other impact.
In fact, and as he points out, very close to this new discovery there are neighborhood graffiti against the mills because of how they have been distributed in this part of Arico, an area that, as with other sites, they do not locate with much more information to precisely avoid the looting that they have reported in caves like the one that they recently exposed to the Cabildo and which is located in a ravine in San Juan de la Rambla. Pending confirmation from island technicians, in this concavity they have found bone remains, ceramics, shells and other materials, but clearly affected by looting.
The team continues to emphasize that they do not seek, in any case, to supplant the technicians, but rather to collaborate in favor of heritage.
