Archaeologists Sergio Pou and Enrique Fernández are leading the investigation to locate and study the vestiges of the facilities that the founders of Vilaflor used in the 16th century to grind and process sugar cane, a luxury product at the time. . This is the first research project on this type of facility to be carried out in Tenerife.
A team from the asset management company Serventía awaits authorization from the General Directorate of Heritage of the Government of the Canary Islands to undertake the fourth archaeological campaign of the Soler sugar mill, in Vilaflor. The graduate in History and the specialist in archeology Sergio Pou and Enrique Fernández started this project in 2019, with several excavation periods remaining to complete the first archaeological investigation of a mill in Tenerife.
There are references to the existence of this sugar mill in the Vilaflor inventory prepared by the Cabildo de Tenerife. Its manager, Miguel Martín, noted the existence of ruins, ceramic containers and other elements. In addition, the official chronicler of the municipality, Judge Nelson Díaz Frías, also conveyed his conviction that the founders of Vilaflor de Chasna, the Soler family, had this industry in the 16th century, points out Sergio Pou.
Although they are usually at an average height of 300 meters above sea level, this mill is located a thousand meters away, on privately owned land, which authorizes this initiative. «They built it at this height because here was the wood that was needed for combustion, building canals and the waterwheel, among other things; because it is where the water that it needed for its operation was (it comes from the Chasna Ravine) and to avoid the action of pirates, ”explains Pou.
In this project, the different departments of the sugar mill will be studied, such as the mill, the boiler house, the purging house, the packaging, and the road and port system.
Location.
The work began with the localization. For this, the archaeologists used the toponymic reference, which pointed to three names as clues: Barranquillo del Ingenio, Llanos del Ingenio and Hornitos del Ingenio. Another clue were the Soler documents, among which there is a letter sent to the king in 1602 that includes a reference to “a pond that was above where the old mill was located.” That pond exists. The research team located in its vicinity the ruins of an L-shaped wall, a tile oven, a cobbled royal road and “a lot of unknown ceramic remains.” Today they already know that they come from lasts, some cones whose mouth is one centimeter and its base ranges between 30 and 40.
The reedbed.
Sergio Pou explains that in Las Zocas –today, the town of San Miguel de Abona– there was the cane field from which the mill was supplied through five kilometers of main road, which connected them directly. There, the cane, already cut, was introduced into the mill whose circular wooden wheel powered the water to crush the cane, which produced the syrup that was transported to large bronze boilers, where it thickened after three cookings. From there it went to some jars and from here, to the lasts, where it dried giving rise to what was called sugar bread or rapadura. After 15 days, the entire sugar loaf was extracted, for which reason it was decided to break the lasts, which are the localized remains. «60% of the lasts they used were made in Portugal, from Aveiro; the remaining 40% were Canary Islands», exposes Sergio Pou based on the result of the analysis of such remains.
The end.
The sugar production from this Soler mill was exported to Antwerp, London, Rome or Seville. With the sugar crisis, replaced by that produced in America at prices that broke the market, the place was no longer used until, apparently, it became a tile warehouse, since the oven located in this environment continued produced after the cessation of the sugar activity.
The graduate in History from the University of La Laguna and archeology specialist Sergio Pou highlights the relevance of the Soler sugar mill, in Vilaflor de Chasna. In the fourth research campaign, which is still awaiting authorization from the Government of the Canary Islands, the team plans to analyze the ashes from the combustion area. “We believe that the results obtained will allow us to locate the sugar mill,” says Pou.
