The team led by archaeologist Pablo Atoche, from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Ulpgc), has been able to confirm data that show that the first human settlement in the Canary Islands dates back ten centuries earlier than previously believed.
The study group is made up of archaeologists, historians, biologists and soil scientists belonging to the Ulpgc, the University of La Laguna (ULL) and the Botanical Garden of La Orotava.
After four years of archaeological excavations at various sites on the Island, which began in 2005, several protohistoric open-air settlements were discovered that have provided important findings related to the form and date in which the settlement of the Archipelago occurred, as well as the way in which the first settlers of the island occupied it and transformed its original ecosystem.
Carbon 14 (C14) dating, carried out in the Beta Analytic Inc. laboratories in Florida (USA), places one of the studied sites, a structure of about one hundred square meters, as the oldest open-air establishment located to date in the entire Archipelago, while delaying the first settlement of Lanzarote to the 10th century BC.
This fact would allow us to relate the findings produced with the presence on the islands of navigators from the Mediterranean; first Phoenician-Punic and later Roman, who left significant remains of their passage through the Island in the form of constructive structures, ceramic elements (amphorae and other containers), metallic objects of copper, bronze and iron or vitreous beads.
These artifacts have appeared in a rich material context in which a stone stele with engravings, several personal adornment objects or a small container of just over one centimeter high stands out, which makes it the smallest ceramic container so far found in the Canary Islands.
TREES
On the other hand, the study of the sediments and ancient pollens recovered in the sites investigated by the scientific team allows us to ensure that Lanzarote presented a totally different appearance three thousand years ago, with a wide vegetation cover in which there were tree species that are now absent on the Island, such as the Canary pine.
The confirmation of this plant wealth confirms some ancient source, such as the description that the historian Plutarch made around 83-82 BC of the eastern islands, when recounting the stay of the Roman general Sertorius at the mouth of the Betis.
PROJECT
The investigations have continued this summer with new interventions that allow completing the multi-year tasks programmed by the researchers and achieving the different planned scientific objectives. The works have been carried out within the framework of the project 'Effects of island colonization. Cultural and environmental transformations in the Protohistory of Lanzarote'.
This project is financed by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands and has the mandatory authorizations from the general directorate of cooperation and cultural heritage and the logistical collaboration of the Teguise City Council.
ACN Press
