The what, how, when, where and why of the aborigines' lives has always raised many doubts among experts. The professor of History at the University of La Laguna, Antonio Macías, published his book The Canarian Aborigines. Three millennia of History. In it he reviews the history of the first settlers of the Canary Islands and where, above all, he refutes certain widespread theories about the life of the ancient Canarians.
His book has aroused a very wide diversity of opinions by dismantling facts that many archaeologists and historians have asserted for decades. One of those examples is that the ancient settlers did not know how to navigate. However, from the historian's point of view, this is not the case. "Archaeologists base their claims on the fact that they have not found any nautical devices in the Canarian sites that prove they navigated, which demonstrates a great ignorance," he declares.
"To deny the Canarian settlers their innovative and creative capacity is very serious because, on the other hand, it is not denied to other cultures such as those of the Mediterranean," explains the writer of the book.
One of the aspects that has not been taken into account, according to Macías, is the fact that "the Canarian aborigines were not settlers, but colonists." The expert assures that the first settlements date from "the year 1,500 BC." To specify the origin, it is necessary to investigate all the angles, such as verifying the causality of their mobility, why they left, from where, when and how they colonized the archipelago," explains the historian.
The claim that the ancient Canarians were settlers is "nonsense," according to Macías. "The aborigines had to bring with them capital, a culture and customs so that their life project could be viable," assures the professor. In addition, there is also evidence that they brought minor livestock such as goats to the Islands.
On the other hand, Antonio Macías also emphasizes the way in which facts are taken for granted. Human settlements were always built on fertile lands that allowed the aborigines to survive. "If a bone is found in a land that is not fertile, it is impossible for that place to be the first settlement," he argues. The historian describes these statements that are made without being based on all the existing variants as an "aberration."
What the expert highlights is the fact of "denying the creative capacity that the ancient Canarian settlers had." And it is that error of not having a broader vision about the factors that influenced the way of life of the aborigines is something common that some experts have maintained for years.
They knew of the existence of the Archipelago
Regarding their origin, Macías maintains that they came from the desert area of the Western Sahara. Likewise, "the inhabitants of that area of Africa knew perfectly well of the existence of the islands, of a territory beyond the horizon, and they knew it thanks to the information that nature gave them," he indicates.
A clear example is the migratory birds that cross the canal between the African continent and the Canary Islands. "You only have to ask the farmers of Lanzarote or Fuerteventura to tell you what the birds are, one of which is known as the Moorish bird," he explains.
On the other hand, to correctly know all the details of what the life of the aborigines was like, Macías comments that "the best lands were occupied by the Europeans and the sites in the most fertile lands as well, so there is no trace of their presence anymore," he argues.
Another of the points that has been spread about the aboriginal history of the Canary Islands is the characteristic that the ancient Canarian settlers were warriors and that they fought among themselves. The professor disassociates himself from this idea, arguing that "if a skull has been found with a sign of violence, it does not mean that they were warriors because there is neither the statistical representativeness nor the precise sampling to say that they were warriors when all the information says that the fights between them were symbolic games like Canarian wrestling," he assures.
Despite the fact that the Europeans devastated the population of the islands and their culture, "today a legacy has remained, although with a diffuse outline," comments Macías.
Lanzarote, the beginning of the colonization
With respect to Lanzarote, the island has hundreds of archaeological sites that over the years have helped to discover its aboriginal past. Pablo Atoche, professor of Geography and History at the University of Las Palmas, works, together with his team, in one of these sites in Lanzarote. Specifically, in that of Buenavista, located in Tiagua.
Several decades ago, a team from the University of Las Palmas initiated a general study project to find out how the Archipelago had been colonized. "We focused on Lanzarote because its location could provide data on that process because we thought that the colonization had started on this island," explains Atoche. Over the years, the team has worked on seven sites on the island, although they currently only work on two, in El Bebedero and in Buenavista.
In Lanzarote, the professor and the rest of the archaeologists have found remains with the oldest carbon-14 dates in the Canary Islands at the Buenavista site. For its part, in that of Bebedero "Roman amphoras have been discovered whose content had been consumed by the indigenous population," says the professor.
In addition, years ago, they carried out a study on the genetic load of the archaeological goats of all the Canary Islands. "It was shown that the goats of Lanzarote, due to their greater genetic load, that all these animals of the Archipelago had been introduced by this island and, from there, they were taken to the rest of the Canary Islands," he explains. This example confirms that the island was colonized before the rest.
Although Zonzamas is the best known site in Lanzarote, the reality is that it is a very recent settlement, since "they are not earlier than the years 3, 4 or 5 after Christ, which is 1,500 years after the first settlements in the Canary Islands," clarifies Atoche.
For Pablo Atoche, the most important site and what has revealed the most information is that of La Villa de Teguise. "Its name in the 15th century was "The Great Village", but what happened is that La Villa was founded on this large aboriginal population," comments the professor. This meant that a large part of the aboriginal legacy was lost in this area, so it is not as well known by the population as Zonzamas.
Without a doubt, the evidence shows that the aboriginal history of the Canary Islands began in Lanzarote and that the information that has been disseminated over the years may not have been entirely true. Only the Canarian settlers, or rather, the colonists, knew the absolute truth of a story that continues to cause doubts and certainties in equal parts.
