Rock inscriptions in the Canary Islands

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Rock inscription in the Barranco de los Balos, Gran Canaria

The rock inscriptions on the Canary Islands were probably made by the indigenous people since the 2nd century BC. Until the 8th century AD. The characters of the alphabet are counted among the Libyan-Berber scripts that were used in ancient times in North Africa from the Atlantic to Egypt and from the Mediterranean to Niger .

Characters

Signs of the inscriptions on the island of El Hierro
Likely variations of the characters
Forms of characters

The characters are made up of simple geometric shapes. They consist of a different number of simple lines, circles, semicircles and combinations of these and each stand for a specific phoneme . The exact shape of the signs is not always clearly recognizable on the inscriptions due to weathering or lichen growth.

Variants of the characters

With the amount of characters found in the Canary Islands, it is now assumed that a number of characters are allographs , variants of the characters that differ in shape from the original form of the character, but represent the same phoneme. The variants of the characters often occur when the horizontal writing direction is selected instead of the vertical one or, due to the technical design, instead of the striking technique, in which roundings can be easily represented, the scratching technique was used, in which the characters are represented by straight lines.

Direction of writing

In most of the inscriptions, the characters are arranged in vertical lines. The reading direction is mostly from bottom to top. In some inscriptions, however, the direction of reading is obviously from top to bottom. In the case of the inscriptions with a horizontal arrangement of the characters, the reading direction occurs from left to right as well as from right to left. Depending on the reading direction, the same symbol can stand for different phonemes.

Technical execution of the characters

With the exception of the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, the most common technique used to make the inscriptions is that of striking. In doing so, indentations were made in the ground with a sharp stone. The individual points usually formed an even row that is perceived as a line. In some cases, the points have been connected using a scraping technique. In the scratching technique, V-shaped indentations were scratched into the stone with a hard stone or obsidian . With this technique, too, the line was occasionally deepened by scraping. While the stamped characters predominate on La Palma, El Hierro and Gran Canaria, the incised characters are more common on the other islands. The execution technique determines the shape of the characters. If the punching technique was used, rounded shapes predominate, while the square shapes are most common in the scribing technique.

Differences in the use of writing on the individual islands

There were clearly identifiable differences between the ancient Canarian cultures , the indigenous people of the individual islands. This can be seen in the analysis of the archaeological finds made of ceramics, bones, stone and animal skins, as well as in the type of dwelling and of course in the petroglyphs. It is also known that the Old Canary Islands used different languages ​​on the individual islands, albeit with a certain relationship to one another. Differences are therefore to be expected when using the font. The largest number of rock art stations with characters have been documented on the island of El Hierro. Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura follow. On the islands of La Gomera, La Palma and Tenerife, rock art stations with characters have been found, but their number has so far been very low. From this it follows that a meaningful comparison of the use of the characters at the moment can only be made between the inscriptions El Hierros and Lanzarote, as a sufficient number of inscriptions are known here. The islands of El Hierro and Lanzarote have particular characteristics in terms of the techniques used to create the inscriptions. While beating was the most important technique on El Hierro, all of Lanzarote's inscriptions were created by carving. With one exception, the stock of characters found in a vertical arrangement on the island of El Hierro corresponds to the stock of characters found in a vertical arrangement on Lanzarote. However, the relative frequency of the characters does not match.

Comparison of the characters of the Canary Islands with those of other localities

All the symbols that are used repeatedly in the Canary Islands can also be found on old inscriptions on the African mainland, but in different places. From this one can conclude that the writing did not come to the islands from a certain area as a closed system, but rather U. was brought and further developed at different times from different areas. The ancient Libyan inscriptions from the north of Tunisia and the north-east of Algeria have the greatest similarities with the inscriptions of the islands in terms of the number of letters that match in the respective alphabets.

The often established connection between the characters of the inscriptions of the indigenous people of the Canary Islands and the Tifinagh script used today in North Africa is only very remote. A small part of the characters of the Canary Islands' inscriptions coincide with the characters of the Tifinagh script. Even with these, the phoneme they stand for is certainly not always the same in both writing systems. Another significant difference is the use of dot-like characters in the Tifinagh script. The development of a period of more than 15 centuries lies between the ancient Canarian epigraphic script and today's Tifinagh script. Of course, this also applies to the ancient inscriptions in Libyan symbols in relation to today's system of symbols.

Locations

Rock inscriptions have been found on each of the seven main islands of the Canary Islands. The number of panels of inscription. at the sites of discovery lies between one and over 20, the characters per panel between 4 and 105 characters. The rock art stations are located in all altitudes and vegetation areas. Most of the inscriptions were found in the open air, few, but mostly extensive, in the entrance area or on the front of caves. The distribution of the sites known today to certain areas may be related to the fact that rock inscriptions were searched more intensively in certain places.

Connection with archaeological sites

Some of the rock inscriptions were found in the vicinity of settlements, in places where ritual acts were performed or which served as meeting places. The sometimes large number and the arrangement of the panels at a single site suggest that they were created on different occasions as part of repetitive social actions by different people.

Connection with scenic features

Some sites are in places where the shepherds used to stay to watch over their free-range flocks. From these rock art stations you have control over a pasture area and its boundaries.

Connection with astronomical phenomena

The alignment of the inscriptions in the landscape seems to follow a certain scheme. For some of the panels located on mountain heights, but also for a panel in a cave, astronomical knowledge seems to have played a role in their creation.

Connection with rock art

In a large part of the sites, alphabetic and non-alphabetic illustrations, i.e. geometric patterns or pictorial representations, are shown together on the same panels. These do not necessarily have to be created at the same time. However, there are also a large number of sites where only non-alphabetical or only alphabetical petroglyphs have been found.

Time of origin

As with almost all petroglyphs, the origin of the rock inscriptions in the Canary Islands cannot be determined by scientific methods. The determination of the age through the growth of lichens , the lichenometry , hardly brings usable results because no reference data is available due to the great differences in the climatic conditions on the islands. The same applies to age determination through weathering .

Part of a funeral board was found in El Hierro. Characters like those used for rock inscriptions are carved into the wood. An analysis using the radiocarbon method showed that the wood dates from the 8th century AD. By comparing the geometric patterns of some datable clay pots with those that were depicted together with the rock inscriptions, conclusions can be drawn about the common time of origin.

In documents from the time of the rediscovery of the Canary Islands by Europeans (14th century) and the time of the integration of the islands into the kingdoms of the Crown of Castile (15th and 16th centuries), the rock inscriptions are not mentioned.

By comparing the characters found in the Canary Islands with datable inscriptions found in North Africa, it is assumed that most of the inscriptions were not made before the 1st or 2nd century BC. Until at least the 8th century AD.

History of the study of the inscriptions

Shortly after the last Canary Islands were conquered, some people became interested in the history of the indigenous people. (e.g. Leonardo Torriani at the end of the 16th century ). However, inscriptions were not mentioned in the reports of these chroniclers.

When José Viera y Clavijo were presented with copies of rock inscriptions in 1762, he rejected the idea that "those natives had knowledge of the art of writing" and judged them to be "pure doodles, games of chance or the imagination of the ancient barbarians".

In 1874 the French consul in Tenerife, Sabin Berthelot , sent the copies of some of the rock inscriptions from El Julan on El Hierro to General Faidherbe , who in 1873 had written a book on Phoenician inscriptions (Epigraphie phénicienne). The general identified the two rows of ten characters as clearly belonging to the Libyan scriptures.

In 1875, the first international scientific account of the archaeological finds of El Julan was presented in the Bulletin de la Société de Géographie in Paris. From the 1880s to the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39, archaeological research was almost completely paralyzed. Before 1964, there was hardly any systematic research into Canarian inscriptions. In 1964 a book was published in La Laguna with the title "Inscripciones líbicas de Canarias". The author was a teacher at the Juan Álvarez Delgado University at the time. For the first time in the history of the islands, it was a book devoted exclusively to this subject. For Juan Álvarez Delgado, what was commonly called “Canarian inscriptions” was not the product of the indigenous people, but of the Moriscos and Berbers of the 15th century.

After 1975 the Francoist era of “official archeology” ended in Spain. As a result, new research into the culture of the Canary Islands' indigenous people was started. The promulgation of the Law “Ley de Patrimonio Histórico Español” (Ley 16/1985, de 25 de Junio) marked the first significant change in the valuation and preservation of cultural heritage. The sites were systematically recorded and the characters were cataloged in such a way that they can also be used for statistical processing and comparisons with ancient and modern scripts.

Translations

The languages ​​of the indigenous people of the Canary Islands, which are supposed to be represented with the help of this alphabet, are largely unknown. With regard to the attribution and the origin of the Canarian alphabet, there are differences in the reading of some characters when compared with other alphabets of the Libyan-Berber scripts in scientific research. The translations submitted by various people have no tenable methodological basis. When comparing the proposed readings of one and the same inscription, there are usually no similarities between the translations.

annotation

  1. ↑ The term "picado" or "piqueteado" is often in German literature with " hallmark translated". However, no material is removed during the hallmarking. The term chiselling is also incorrect because it involves hitting the tool.
  2. ↑ A "panel" is the smallest unit of a surface with characters depicted in a recessed area. A surface given by nature that was considered to be “writable”.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Renata Ana Springer Bunk: The Libyan-Berber inscriptions of the Canary Islands in their rock painting context . Köppe, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-89645-942-8 , pp. 55 .
  2. ↑ Renata Springer Bunk: La escritura líbico-bereber de las Islas Canarias ¿uno o varios alfabetos? In: Tabona: Revista de Prehistoria y de Arqueología . No. 21 , 2016, ISSN  0213-2818 , p. 34 ff . (Spanish, [1] [accessed June 11, 2018]).
  3. ↑ Renata A. Springer Bunk: Origen y uso de la Escritura líbico-bereber en Canarias . 2nd Edition. Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria, Tenerife, Gran Canaria 2003, ISBN 84-7926-395-4 , pp. 117 (Spanish).
  4. ^ Antonio Tejera Gaspar; José Juan Jiménez González; Jonathan Allen: Las manifestaciones artísticas prehispánicas y su huella . Ed .: Gobierno de Canarias, Consejería de Educación, Universidades, Cultura y Deportes (=  Historia cultural del arte en Canarias ). Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2008, ISBN 978-84-7947-469-0 , p. 41 ff . (Spanish, [2] [accessed June 28, 2016]).
  5. ↑ Renata Springer Bunk: La escritura líbico-bereber de las Islas Canarias ¿uno o varios alfabetos? In: Tabona: Revista de Prehistoria y de Arqueología . No. 21 , 2016, ISSN  0213-2818 , p. 32 (Spanish, [3] [accessed June 11, 2018]).
  6. ^ Alfredo Mederos Martín, Vicente Valencia Afonso, Gabriel Escribano Cobo: Arte rupestre de la prehistoria de las Islas Canarias . Ed .: Dirección General de Patrimonio Histórico. Gobierno de Canarias, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 2003, ISBN 84-7947-350-9 , pp. 150 (Spanish, [4] [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  7. ↑ Renata Springer Bunk: La escritura líbico-bereber de las Islas Canarias ¿uno o varios alfabetos? In: Tabona: Revista de Prehistoria y de Arqueología . No. 21 , 2016, ISSN  0213-2818 , p. 30 (Spanish, [5] [accessed June 11, 2018]).
  8. ↑ Renata Springer Bunk: La escritura líbico-bereber de las Islas Canarias ¿uno o varios alfabetos? In: Tabona: Revista de Prehistoria y de Arqueología . No. 21 , 2016, ISSN  0213-2818 , p. 31 (Spanish, [6] [accessed June 11, 2018]).
  9. ↑ Renata Springer Bunk: La escritura líbico-bereber de las Islas Canarias ¿uno o varios alfabetos? In: Tabona: Revista de Prehistoria y de Arqueología . No. 21 , 2016, ISSN  0213-2818 , p. 37 ff . (Spanish, [7] [accessed June 11, 2018]).
  10. ↑ Renata Ana Springer Bunk: The Libyan-Berber inscriptions of the Canary Islands in their rock painting context . Köppe, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-89645-942-8 , pp. 75 .
  11. ↑ Renata Springer Bunk: La escritura líbico-bereber de las Islas Canarias ¿uno o varios alfabetos? In: Tabona: Revista de Prehistoria y de Arqueología . No. 21 , 2016, ISSN  0213-2818 , p. 30 (Spanish, [8] [accessed June 11, 2018]).
  12. ↑ Renata Ana Springer Bunk: La traducción e las inscripciones líbico-bereberes de las Islas Canarias y su presentación en páginas de internet . In: XXII Coloquio de Historia Canario-Americana . tape 22 , no. 25 , 2017, ISSN  2386-6837 , p. 2 (Spanish, [9] [accessed March 9, 2018]).
  13. ^ Alfredo Mederos Martín, Vicente Valencia Afonso, Gabriel Escribano Cobo: Arte rupestre de la prehistoria de las Islas Canarias . Ed .: Dirección General de Patrimonio Histórico. Gobierno de Canarias, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 2003, ISBN 84-7947-350-9 , pp. 81 ff . (Spanish, [10] [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  14. ^ Juan Francisco Navarro Mederos: Arqueología en La Gomera: lo que va de ayer a hoy . In: Julio Afonso-Carrillo (ed.): La Gomera - Entre bosques y taparuchas . Instituto de Estudios Hispánicos de Canarias, Puerto de la Cruz 2016, ISBN 978-84-617-4752-8 , p. 13–38 (Spanish, [11] [PDF; accessed July 27, 2018]).
  15. ^ Alfredo Mederos Martín, Vicente Valencia Afonso, Gabriel Escribano Cobo: Arte rupestre de la prehistoria de las Islas Canarias . Ed .: Dirección General de Patrimonio Histórico. Gobierno de Canarias, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 2003, ISBN 84-7947-350-9 , pp. 82 (Spanish, [12] [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  16. ↑ José Barrios García, Juan Carlos Hernández Marrero, José Miguel Trujillo Mora: Investigaciones arqueoastronómicas en La Gomera . In: Elena Acosta Guerrero (ed.): XX Coloquio de historia Canario-Americana (2012) . Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2014, p. 1327-1334 (Spanish, [13] [accessed July 27, 2018]).
  17. ↑ Renata A. Springer Bunk: Origen y uso de la Escritura líbico-bereber en Canarias . 2nd Edition. Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria, Tenerife, Gran Canaria 2003, ISBN 84-7926-395-4 , pp. 87 (Spanish).
  18. ↑ Renata A. Springer Bunk: Origen y uso de la Escritura líbico-bereber en Canarias . 2nd Edition. Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria, Tenerife, Gran Canaria 2003, ISBN 84-7926-395-4 , pp. 39 (Spanish).
  19. ↑ Renata Ana Springer Bunk: The Libyan-Berber inscriptions of the Canary Islands in their rock painting context . Köppe, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-89645-942-8 , pp. 55 .
  20. ↑ Leonardo Torriani: Descripción e historia del reino de las Islas Canarias: antes Afortunadas, con el parecer de su fortificaciones . Traducción del Italiano, con Introducción y Notas, por Alejandro Cioranescu. Ed .: Alejandro Cioranescu (=  Clásicos canarios . No. 2 ). Goya Ediciones, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 1959, pp. XXX (Spanish, [14] [accessed February 28, 2016]).
  21. ^ Alfredo Mederos Martín, Vicente Valencia Afonso, Gabriel Escribano Cobo: Arte rupestre de la prehistoria de las Islas Canarias . Ed .: Dirección General de Patrimonio Histórico. Gobierno de Canarias, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 2003, ISBN 84-7947-350-9 , pp. 24 (Spanish, [15] [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  22. ^ Alfredo Mederos Martín, Vicente Valencia Afonso, Gabriel Escribano Cobo: Arte rupestre de la prehistoria de las Islas Canarias . Ed .: Dirección General de Patrimonio Histórico. Gobierno de Canarias, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 2003, ISBN 84-7947-350-9 , pp. 30 (Spanish, [16] [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  23. ^ Antonio Tejera Gaspar; José Juan Jiménez González; Jonathan Allen: Las manifestaciones artísticas prehispánicas y su huella . Ed .: Gobierno de Canarias, Consejería de Educación, Universidades, Cultura y Deportes (=  Historia cultural del arte en Canarias ). Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2008, ISBN 978-84-7947-469-0 , p. 97 (Spanish, [17] [accessed June 28, 2016]).
  24. ^ Alfredo Mederos Martín, Vicente Valencia Afonso, Gabriel Escribano Cobo: Arte rupestre de la prehistoria de las Islas Canarias . Ed .: Dirección General de Patrimonio Histórico. Gobierno de Canarias, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 2003, ISBN 84-7947-350-9 , pp. 53 (Spanish, [18] [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  25. ↑ Renata Ana Springer Bunk: The Libyan-Berber inscriptions of the Canary Islands in their rock painting context . Köppe, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-89645-942-8 , pp. 17 .
  26. ↑ Juan Álvarez Delgado: Inscripciones líbicas de Canarias: ensayo de interpretación líbica . J. Regulo, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 1964, pp. 455 (Spanish, [19] [accessed July 24, 2018]).
  27. ↑ Renata A. Springer Bunk: Origen y uso de la Escritura líbico-bereber en Canarias . 2nd Edition. Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria, Tenerife, Gran Canaria 2003, ISBN 84-7926-395-4 , pp. 49 ff . (Spanish).
  28. ↑ A. José Farrujia de la Rosa: Arqueologia y Franquismo en Canarias - Politica, Poblamiento e identidad (1939-1969) . Ed .: Organismo Autónomo de Museos y Centros (=  Monografias . Volume 2 ). Organismo Autónomo de Museos y Centros, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 2007, ISBN 84-88594-47-X , p. 311 (Spanish, [20] [accessed July 29, 2018]).
  29. ↑ Renata Ana Springer Bunk: La traducción de las inscripciones líbico-bereberes de las Islas Canarias y su presentación en páginas de internet . In: XXII Coloquio de Historia Canario-Americana . tape 22 , no. 25 , 2017, ISSN  2386-6837 , p. 11 (Spanish, [21] [accessed March 9, 2018]).

literature

  • Alfredo Mederos Martín, Vicente Valencia Afonso, Gabriel Escribano Cobo: Arte rupestre de la prehistoria de las Islas Canarias . Ed .: Dirección General de Patrimonio Histórico. Gobierno de Canarias, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 2003, ISBN 84-7947-350-9 (Spanish, academia.edu [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  • Renata Ana Springer Bunk: The Libyan-Berber inscriptions of the Canary Islands in their rock art context . Köppe, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-89645-942-8 .
  • Antonio Tejera Gaspar; José Juan Jiménez González; Jonathan Allen: Las manifestaciones artísticas prehispánicas y su huella . Ed .: Gobierno de Canarias, Consejería de Educación, Universidades, Cultura y Deportes (=  Historia cultural del arte en Canarias ). Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2008, ISBN 978-84-7947-469-0 (Spanish, 258 p., Ulpgc.es [accessed June 28, 2016]).

Web links

Commons : Tifinagh script  - album with pictures, videos and audio files