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EspañolCANARY ISLANDS IN PRE-COLONIAL TIMES
The 'Canary Islands' have been known since antiquity. They had an indigenous population called the Guanches whose origin is still the subject of discussion among historians and linguists. Some accounts estimate the islands themselves to be 30 million years old.[1]
The islands were presumably visited by the Phoenicians, the Greeks and the Carthaginians. According to Pliny the Elder, the 1st century AD Roman author and philosopher, when visited by the Carthaginians under Hanno the Navigator the archipelago was found to be uninhabited, but that they saw ruins of great buildings.[2] This may suggest that the islands were inhabited by other peoples prior to the Guanches.
The origins of the Canarian indigenous people are still the subject of debate. Numerous theories have been put forward, achieving varying degrees of acceptance.
Archaeology suggests that the original settlers arrived by sea, importing domestic animals such as goats, sheep, pigs and dogs and cereals such as wheat, barley and lentils. They also brought with them a set of well-defined socio-cultural practices that seem to have originated and been in use for a long period of time elsewhere.
There is enough evidence to prove that various Mediterranean civilisations in antiquity knew of the islands' existence and established contact with them, mainly Phoenicians, but also the Greeks and Romans. In the Middle Ages the islands were visited by Arab and European sailors. The indigenous population of the Canaries, therefore, did not develop in complete isolation.
Today, archaeological and ethnographic studies have led most scholars to accept the view that the pre-colonial population of the Canaries shared common origins with North African Berber tribes from the Atlas Mountains region who began to arrive in the Canaries by sea around 1000 BCE or earlier. However, there is no archaeological or historical evidence to prove that either the Berber tribes of the Atlas Mountains or the Canarian pre-colonial population had knowledge or made use of navigation techniques. Only the peak of Tenerife is visible from the African coast on the very clearest of days and the currents around the islands tend to lead the boats southwest and west, past the archipelago and into the Atlantic Ocean.
Another problematic area concerns absolute dating. Most scholars would now agree that the earliest reliable dates related to permanent human occupation can be traced back to about 1000 BCE, but different absolute dating technologies such as 14C and thermoluminescence have provided variable results. Inadequate methodologies in the past and an insufficient number of absolute datings carried out throughout the archipelago have yielded inconsistencies and information gaps.
There still exists a variety of theories regarding the origins of pre-colonial Canarians. Some scholars (mainly from the University of La Laguna, in Tenerife) defend the theory that the Canarian populations are Punic-Phoenician in origin. Professor D. Juan Álvarez Delgado, on the other hand, argued that the Canaries were uninhabited until 100 BCE, when they were gradually discovered by Greek and Roman sailors. In the second half of the first century BCE, King Juba II of Numidia abandoned North African prisoners on the islands, who eventually became the prehispanic Canarians. The fact that the first inhabitants were abandoned prisoners thus explains, according to Álvarez Delgado, their lack of navigational acumen.
Although denied by certain scholars (cf. Abreu Galindo 1977: 297), specialisation of labour and a hierarchy system seem to have governed the social structures of the Canarian precolonial populations. In Tenerife the highest figure was known as the ''Mencey'', although, by the time the first Spanish incursions in the Canaries took place, Tenerife had already been divided into nine ''menceyatos'' (i.e. separate regions of the island controlled by its own Mencey), namely ''Anaga, Tegueste, Tacoronte, Taoro, Icod, Daute, Adeje, Abona and Güimar''. Despite the fact that all ''Menceys'' were independent and absolute owners of their territory within the island, it was the ''Mencey of Taoro'' who acted, according to the chronicles, as primus inter pares. Gran Canaria, on the other hand, appears to have been divided into two ''guanartematos'' (i.e. functionally, politically and structurally differentiated regions): ''Telde'' and ''Gáldar'', each governed by a ''Guanarteme''.
Studies of precolonial Canarian society illustrate both agricultural and pastoral ways of life in the Canaries (cf. Diego Cuscoy 1963: 44; González Antón & Tejera Gaspar 1990: 78).
At the time of European engagement, the Canary Islands were inhabited by a variety of indigenous communities. The pre-colonial population of the Canaries is generically referred to as Guanches, although, strictly speaking, Guanches were originally the inhabitants of Tenerife. According to the chronicles, the inhabitants of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote were referred to as ''Maxos'', Gran Canaria was inhabited by the ''Canarii'', El Hierro by the ''Bimbaches'', La Palma by the ''Auaritas'' and La Gomera by the ''Gomeros''. Evidence does seem to suggest that inter-insular interaction was relatively low and each island was populated by its own distinct socio-cultural groups who lived in relative isolation.
Little information has survived regarding the religious and cosmological beliefs of the Guanches. Indigenous Canarian people often performed their religious practices in places marked by particular striking geographical features or types of vegetation. Certain sites containing architectonic remains and cave paintings have been identified as sanctuaries.
The peak of Teide on Tenerife can be seen on clear days from the African coast. It is possible that the islands were among those visited by the Carthaginian captain Hanno the Navigator in his voyage of exploration along the African coast. The islands may have been visited by the Phoenicians seeking the precious red dye extracted from the orchilla, if the Canaries are considered to be ''The Purple Isles'', alternatively identified with the Hesperides. Although there is no evidence that Romans actually settled, in 1964 a Roman amphora was discovered in waters off Lanzarote. Discoveries made in the 1990s have demonstrated in more secure detail that the Romans traded with the indigenous inhabitants. Excavations of a settlement at El Bebedero on Lanzarote, made by a team under Pablo Atoche Peña of the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Juan Ángel Paz Peralta of the Universidad de Zaragoza, yielded about a hundred Roman potsherds, nine pieces of metal, and one piece of glass at the site, in strata dated between the first and fourth centuries A.D. Analysis of the clay indicated origins in Campania, Hispania Baetica and the province of Africa (modern Tunisia).
Legendary islands in the Western Ocean that recur in European traditions are often linked with the Canaries, even the legendary voyage of Saint Brendan.
During the Middle Ages, the islands were visited by the Arabs for commercial purposes. Muslim navigator Ibn Farrukh, from Granada, is said to have landed in "Gando" (Canary Islands) in February 999, visiting a king named Guanarigato. From the 14th century onward, numerous visits were made by sailors from Mallorca, Portugal, and Genoa. Lancelotto Malocello settled on the island of Lanzarote in 1312. The Mayorcans established a mission with a bishop in the islands that lasted from 1350 to 1400. It is from this mission that the various paintings and statues of the Virgin Mary that are currently venerated in the island were preserved. European disembarkations of Genovese, Castilian and Portuguese missionaries and pirates on Canarian shores became relatively common and the prehispanic populations were subjected to a long, continuous process of Westernisation before the colonisations.
1. Canary Islands, , Sally, O'Brien, Lonely Planet, 2004,
2. The History of the Discovery and Conquest of the Canary Islands, , Juan de Abreu, Galindo, Adamant Media Corporation, ,
The islands were presumably visited by the Phoenicians, the Greeks and the Carthaginians. According to Pliny the Elder, the 1st century AD Roman author and philosopher, when visited by the Carthaginians under Hanno the Navigator the archipelago was found to be uninhabited, but that they saw ruins of great buildings.[2] This may suggest that the islands were inhabited by other peoples prior to the Guanches.
| Contents |
| Population origins |
| Links in ancient times |
| Middle Ages |
| References and notes |
Population origins
The origins of the Canarian indigenous people are still the subject of debate. Numerous theories have been put forward, achieving varying degrees of acceptance.
Archaeology suggests that the original settlers arrived by sea, importing domestic animals such as goats, sheep, pigs and dogs and cereals such as wheat, barley and lentils. They also brought with them a set of well-defined socio-cultural practices that seem to have originated and been in use for a long period of time elsewhere.
There is enough evidence to prove that various Mediterranean civilisations in antiquity knew of the islands' existence and established contact with them, mainly Phoenicians, but also the Greeks and Romans. In the Middle Ages the islands were visited by Arab and European sailors. The indigenous population of the Canaries, therefore, did not develop in complete isolation.
Today, archaeological and ethnographic studies have led most scholars to accept the view that the pre-colonial population of the Canaries shared common origins with North African Berber tribes from the Atlas Mountains region who began to arrive in the Canaries by sea around 1000 BCE or earlier. However, there is no archaeological or historical evidence to prove that either the Berber tribes of the Atlas Mountains or the Canarian pre-colonial population had knowledge or made use of navigation techniques. Only the peak of Tenerife is visible from the African coast on the very clearest of days and the currents around the islands tend to lead the boats southwest and west, past the archipelago and into the Atlantic Ocean.
Another problematic area concerns absolute dating. Most scholars would now agree that the earliest reliable dates related to permanent human occupation can be traced back to about 1000 BCE, but different absolute dating technologies such as 14C and thermoluminescence have provided variable results. Inadequate methodologies in the past and an insufficient number of absolute datings carried out throughout the archipelago have yielded inconsistencies and information gaps.
There still exists a variety of theories regarding the origins of pre-colonial Canarians. Some scholars (mainly from the University of La Laguna, in Tenerife) defend the theory that the Canarian populations are Punic-Phoenician in origin. Professor D. Juan Álvarez Delgado, on the other hand, argued that the Canaries were uninhabited until 100 BCE, when they were gradually discovered by Greek and Roman sailors. In the second half of the first century BCE, King Juba II of Numidia abandoned North African prisoners on the islands, who eventually became the prehispanic Canarians. The fact that the first inhabitants were abandoned prisoners thus explains, according to Álvarez Delgado, their lack of navigational acumen.
Although denied by certain scholars (cf. Abreu Galindo 1977: 297), specialisation of labour and a hierarchy system seem to have governed the social structures of the Canarian precolonial populations. In Tenerife the highest figure was known as the ''Mencey'', although, by the time the first Spanish incursions in the Canaries took place, Tenerife had already been divided into nine ''menceyatos'' (i.e. separate regions of the island controlled by its own Mencey), namely ''Anaga, Tegueste, Tacoronte, Taoro, Icod, Daute, Adeje, Abona and Güimar''. Despite the fact that all ''Menceys'' were independent and absolute owners of their territory within the island, it was the ''Mencey of Taoro'' who acted, according to the chronicles, as primus inter pares. Gran Canaria, on the other hand, appears to have been divided into two ''guanartematos'' (i.e. functionally, politically and structurally differentiated regions): ''Telde'' and ''Gáldar'', each governed by a ''Guanarteme''.
Studies of precolonial Canarian society illustrate both agricultural and pastoral ways of life in the Canaries (cf. Diego Cuscoy 1963: 44; González Antón & Tejera Gaspar 1990: 78).
At the time of European engagement, the Canary Islands were inhabited by a variety of indigenous communities. The pre-colonial population of the Canaries is generically referred to as Guanches, although, strictly speaking, Guanches were originally the inhabitants of Tenerife. According to the chronicles, the inhabitants of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote were referred to as ''Maxos'', Gran Canaria was inhabited by the ''Canarii'', El Hierro by the ''Bimbaches'', La Palma by the ''Auaritas'' and La Gomera by the ''Gomeros''. Evidence does seem to suggest that inter-insular interaction was relatively low and each island was populated by its own distinct socio-cultural groups who lived in relative isolation.
Little information has survived regarding the religious and cosmological beliefs of the Guanches. Indigenous Canarian people often performed their religious practices in places marked by particular striking geographical features or types of vegetation. Certain sites containing architectonic remains and cave paintings have been identified as sanctuaries.
Links in ancient times
The peak of Teide on Tenerife can be seen on clear days from the African coast. It is possible that the islands were among those visited by the Carthaginian captain Hanno the Navigator in his voyage of exploration along the African coast. The islands may have been visited by the Phoenicians seeking the precious red dye extracted from the orchilla, if the Canaries are considered to be ''The Purple Isles'', alternatively identified with the Hesperides. Although there is no evidence that Romans actually settled, in 1964 a Roman amphora was discovered in waters off Lanzarote. Discoveries made in the 1990s have demonstrated in more secure detail that the Romans traded with the indigenous inhabitants. Excavations of a settlement at El Bebedero on Lanzarote, made by a team under Pablo Atoche Peña of the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Juan Ángel Paz Peralta of the Universidad de Zaragoza, yielded about a hundred Roman potsherds, nine pieces of metal, and one piece of glass at the site, in strata dated between the first and fourth centuries A.D. Analysis of the clay indicated origins in Campania, Hispania Baetica and the province of Africa (modern Tunisia).
Legendary islands in the Western Ocean that recur in European traditions are often linked with the Canaries, even the legendary voyage of Saint Brendan.
Middle Ages
During the Middle Ages, the islands were visited by the Arabs for commercial purposes. Muslim navigator Ibn Farrukh, from Granada, is said to have landed in "Gando" (Canary Islands) in February 999, visiting a king named Guanarigato. From the 14th century onward, numerous visits were made by sailors from Mallorca, Portugal, and Genoa. Lancelotto Malocello settled on the island of Lanzarote in 1312. The Mayorcans established a mission with a bishop in the islands that lasted from 1350 to 1400. It is from this mission that the various paintings and statues of the Virgin Mary that are currently venerated in the island were preserved. European disembarkations of Genovese, Castilian and Portuguese missionaries and pirates on Canarian shores became relatively common and the prehispanic populations were subjected to a long, continuous process of Westernisation before the colonisations.
References and notes
1. Canary Islands, , Sally, O'Brien, Lonely Planet, 2004,
2. The History of the Discovery and Conquest of the Canary Islands, , Juan de Abreu, Galindo, Adamant Media Corporation, ,
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