Petroglyphs in the Canary Islands

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Petroglyphs have been found on all seven main islands of the Canarian archipelago belonging to Spain . They show geometrical signs, characters and representational representations carved, scratched or scraped into the rock. They were probably created by the native inhabitants of the islands, the Old Canarians , in the time before the conquest by the Europeans. There is no uniformity in the rock art of the archipelago. The petroglyphs of the individual islands show great differences in design and technical aspects.

Scientific research

Drawings of petroglyphs
on El Hierro.
Printed in 1879 in the book Antiquités Canariennes

Some petroglyphs were known to the population in the 18th century. But you were ignored. In 1762, José Antonio Vandevalle de Cervellón, brother of the then military governor of the Canary Islands, made a copy of the petroglyphs of the Cueva de Belmaco. This was also presented to José Viera y Clavijo . 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 1875, Sabin Berthelot published in the Bulletin de la Société de Géographie in Paris made the first international scientific representations of the archaeological finds of El Julan. In the next hundred years, petroglyphs continued to be found on all islands. The research was largely limited to z. Sometimes very incorrect reproductions, which were then compared with petroglyphs in North Africa, Europe and America. From 2008 projects were carried out to inventory the several hundred known rock inscriptions of the Canary Islands in order to collect and update all information about the sites.

protection

Until 1933 there was no significant legal protection for archaeological sites in Spain. As a result, a number of petroglyphs were destroyed. This happened through improper copying, through vandalism or because the rocks were used for construction work or crushed as gravel for road construction. The law “Ley de Patrimonio Histórico Español” of June 25, 1985 showed the significant change in the valuation of cultural heritage that had occurred during the 20th century. In this law, in Article 40, Paragraph 2, all finds of rock art (arte rupestre) are placed under protection without the need for an express declaration by the competent authority. Archaeological investigations may only be carried out by specialists who require authorization from the authorities. This formal measure could not and cannot protect the sites from loss. For some time now, various sites of discovery have only been allowed to be visited as part of guided tours organized and carried out by the Centros de Interpretación.

Locations

99 percent of the petroglyphs are in the open air. They are located in all bioclimatic areas and at all altitudes of the Canary Islands, from the coast to the peaks. The sites are on mountains, on free-standing rocks, in barrancos, on basalt walls, cooled lava flows and, in exceptional cases, inside caves. There is an encounter between petroglyphs and places where religious ceremonies are believed to have been held or the dead were buried. There also appears to be a connection with water points. Occasionally there are only a few characters at the places where they are found; B. El Julan on El Hierro can be found in the Los Letreros section alone about 200 panels (separate areas with ornaments or characters). Archaeoastronomical research suggests that some sites have orientations that are to be understood in connection with astronomical phenomena.

Motifs

Geometric motif, Cueva de Belmaco, La Palma
Figurative motif, foot illustration, Fuerteventura
Rock inscription in the Barranco de los Balos, Gran Canaria

The number of petroglyphs is divided into three groups according to the type of motifs shown: geometric shapes, figurative representations and characters. Motifs from different groups often appear together on one panel. These do not necessarily have to be created at the same time.

Geometric pattern

Most petroglyphs depict geometric shapes. They include a wide variety of motifs: straight, net-like, checkerboard-like, right-angled, square, cross-shaped, triangular, diamond-shaped, ovals , ellipses and intertwined circles, spirals , concentric circles and semicircles, meanders , labyrinths etc. Geometric stone carvings on La Palma show similarities with patterns known from stone drawings and rain rituals of the Dogon in Mali and other African regions.

Figurative representations

Figurative motifs are those that allow the depicted motif to be identified. There are anthropomorphic (depicting people), zoomorphic (depicting animals), podomorphic (depicting feet) petroglyphs. In addition, crosses or ships are shown.

Rock inscriptions

The origin of the characters found on petroglyphs and two wooden objects in the Canary Islands has not yet been precisely clarified. All scientists today agree that the rock inscriptions were made by the native inhabitants of the islands. The affiliation of the characters to the group of Libyan-Berber scripts could be determined shortly after the first rock inscriptions were found. Nevertheless, it is still problematic to specify an exact time at which these characters reached the Canary Islands or to determine the exact place of their origin.

Technical design

Substrates

The most commonly processed subsoils are basalt , phonolite and trachyte , which have come to the surface through various geomorphological processes due to the volcanic origin of the Canary Islands. Some bas-reliefs were also carved in tuff .

Machining techniques

The technique of picking or punching was carried out using hard, pointed hitting tools made of basalt or obsidian . The tools acted directly on the surface to be machined. Either the motif was represented with an almost uninterrupted line with the hallmarks or the hallmarks were carried out at larger intervals so that there are dotted lines on the panels. In some cases, the points have been connected using a scraping technique.

In the scratching technique, V-shaped indentations were scratched into the stone. Very pointed or sharp tools were required for this. Since there are no usable metal ore deposits in the Canary Islands, the indigenous people were dependent on tools made of stone or obsidian. In various cases, fragments of obsidians have been found near the petroglyphs.

With the scraping technique, not only lines but also surfaces can be deepened, as is the case with some anthropomorphic, zoomorphic or geometric representations.

Chronological order

There is a consensus among all archaeologists that e.g. It is currently impossible to determine the absolute age of the petroglyphs only by examining them, since all remains accessible to physico-chemical control are missing. Therefore, for some years now, the shown motifs of the petroglyphs have been taken into account for the relative dating. Scientists today assume that different groups of signs, even at the same site, were created at different times. Most of the petroglyphs are said to have originated between 200 BC. Estimated BC and AD 700. The cross shapes that can be found occasionally were probably created after Christianization in the 15th century. The anthropomorphic figures or the reproduction of ships could result from a survival of the traditional rock work after the conquest, although apparently with a different cultural intention.

meaning

The importance of the petroglyphs is controversial. Since there are no reliable translations of the inscriptions, the purpose of the representations cannot be explained with any certainty. Even if the individual motifs do not necessarily indicate a religious background, there seem to be some places where there was a connection with religious practices. In many cases, the archaeological complexes appear to have been very extensively linked to places where religious ceremonies were performed. In the case of inscriptions in the vicinity of festival sites, it appears that the Libyan-Berber inscriptions could represent the names of the participants in these festivals or their children, relatives and ancestors. The petroglyphs are also interpreted as border markings or property markings of individual domains of the Old Canary Islands. The orientations of some of the panels suggest that these could be astronomical representations.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ 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. 16 (Spanish, [1] [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  2. ^ 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, [2] [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  3. ^ 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, [3] [accessed June 28, 2016]).
  4. ^ Sixto Sánchez Perera, Teresa N. Ruíz González: Nuevas perspectivas en el estudio de las manifestaciones rupestres de El Hierro . In: Cabildo de Lanzarote (ed.): VII Congreso de Patrimonio Histórico. Inscripciones Rupestres y poblamiento del Archipiélago canario . Cabildo de Lanzarote, Arrecife 2010, p. 1-4 (Spanish, [4] [accessed June 11, 2018]).
  5. ↑ Ley 16/1985, de 25 de junio, del Patrimonio Histórico Español. BOE-A-1985-12534
  6. ↑ Werner Pichler: Report on the current state of research and preservation of the Libyan-Berber rock inscriptions on the Canary Islands . In: Almogaren . No. 39 , 2008, p. 118 ( [5] [accessed June 11, 2018]).
  7. ^ 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. 64 (Spanish, [6] [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  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 , p. 101 (Spanish, [7] [accessed June 28, 2016]).
  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. 31 (Spanish, [8] [accessed June 11, 2018]).
  10. ^ 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, [9] [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  11. ↑ Víctor M. Fernández Martínez: El arte rupestre prehispánico de La Palma: una visión desde la etnoarqueología africana . In: Revista de Estudios Generales de la Isla de La Palma . No. 3 , 2007, ISSN  1698-014X , p. 65–79 (Spanish, palmensis.com [PDF; accessed March 23, 2019]).
  12. ↑ Hans-Joachim Ulbrich: The podomorphic rock paintings of Lanzarote (Canary Islands) . In: Almogaren . No. 42 , 2011, p. 133–168 ( [10] [accessed February 15, 2017]).
  13. ↑ Werner Pichler: The ship representations under the rock paintings of Fuerteventura . In: Almogaren . No. 29 , 1998, pp. 187–198 ( [11] [accessed June 11, 2018]).
  14. ↑ 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. 26th ff . (Spanish).
  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. 103 (Spanish, [12] [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  16. ^ 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. 112 (Spanish, [13] [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  17. ^ 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. 42 (Spanish, [14] [accessed June 28, 2016]).
  18. ^ 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. 43 ff . (Spanish, [15] [accessed June 28, 2016]).
  19. ^ 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. 46 (Spanish, [16] [accessed June 28, 2016]).
  20. ^ 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. 84 (Spanish, [17] [accessed June 14, 2018]).
  21. ^ 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. 98 (Spanish, [18] [accessed June 28, 2016]).
  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. 82 (Spanish, [19] [accessed June 14, 2018]).

Remarks

  1. ↑ The term "picado" or "piqueteado" is usually translated as "hallmark" in German-language literature. In the hallmarking process, no material is actually removed.

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, [20] [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 : Petroglyphs in the Canary Islands  - Collection of images, videos and audio files