ARCHEOLOGY

ARCHEOLOGY: SACRED SPACES OF FUENCALIENTE
ARCHEOLOGY: SACRED SPACES OF FUENCALIENTE
 
The archaeological heritage of Fuencaliente is unique, it is part of a common good that must be conserved and disclosed to promote its use and social appropriation as pride of belonging, a mixture of reason and heart that is what can really generate empathy and commitment. It must be protected not only to avoid deterioration but also to allow its understanding and enjoyment; that is, to reach an effective socialization of heritage values.At the southern tip of the island of La Palma there is a prominent set of cave manifestations made by the awara (ancient inhabitants of the island). These are sets of channels and cup-marks, cup-marks on coastline and rock engravings of great heritage value.There are certain places that are defined by their location, the sacredness of the landscape, their spatial function and their astral entailment. Certain topographic features were culturally transformed to organize and unify the civic and religious principles of the towns. The gods of the sky converged with the mountains and, for this reason, they paid tribute to them, they served them offerings and prayers. The awara, due to their experience, created an image of the world with which the individual identifies. The sphere of the sacred manifests itself as the center, the one that structures the meaning of life. Each sacred place (as the center) represents the connection point between earth and heaven. The footprints on the space confirm, through the type of constructions, the religious meaning they received.
ROQUE TENEGUÍA
 
Roque Teneguía is part of the Cumbre Vieja Natural Park, which covers the entire south-central part of the island, extending through five municipalities (Fuencaliente, Mazo, El Paso, Breña Alta and Breña Baja), with an area of 7,499.7 hectares .
The park was created by law 12/1987, of June 19, of the Declaration of Natural Spaces of the Canary Islands, as two separate spaces, the Cumbre Vieja and Teneguía natural park and the natural area of national interest of Martín Volcano. Both were united by Law 12/1994, of December 19, although the Teneguía Volcanoes formed an independent protected area, with the category of Natural Monument, with an area of ​​857.4 hectares
 
El Roque Teneguía, declared a Site of Cultural Interest in 1985, has an approximate area of 2,000 m2. It is located on the SW slope of the San Antonio volcano around 418 meters above sea level. It is a very old geological formation, which is estimated to be approximately 600,000 years old, specifically a promontory of Haüynic phonolite with a pale yellow-pink color.
The height of the Roque de Teneguía is 30 to 35 m from east to west and 80 m. from north to south. Access to the site is by a dirt track that borders the slope of the San Antonio volcano and branchs off in the direction of the crater of the Teneguía Volcano. From Los Canarios to Roque there is approximately a distance of 5.5 kilometers, although the last 500 meters, there is a footpath by a mantle of lapilli. This great rock is visible from the South and West and was a point of reference for fishermen and coastal shipping.
 

38 years ago, the Roque Teneguía was on the verge of disappearing. In March 1970, a group of young Fuencalenteros – Juan José Santos Cabrera, his brother Octavio (deceased), Rosa Díaz Martín, Toña Carballo Pérez, Juan Luis Curbelo Pérez and Rafael Díaz Pérez – to the director of the Archaeological Museum of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Luis Diego Cuscoy, showing him some photos of the place and conveying the alarming news of his imminent disappearance, as the passage of the Barlovento-Fuencaliente channel had been traced by that place, which should pass just at the height of the Roque. The works were in a very advanced stage, to the point that they were already approaching the base of the Roque and, furthermore, it had been mined and its blasting was to be carried out in the next few days.The news justified the alarm of Luis Diego Cuscoy, who, immediately, reported the situation to the general commissioner of Archaeological Excavations, Martín Almagro. His quick management decided the immediate intervention of the general director of Fine Arts, Florentino Pérez Embid, who telegraphed the mayor of Fuencaliente, Emilio Quintana Sánchez, to stop the works. The work stopped and the Roque Teneguía could be saved preserving the impressive set of existing engravings, in which, at that time, Luis Diego Cuscoy carried out two campaigns, between 1970 and 1971 respectively, obtaining traces and photographs, as well as a study of techniques, in addition to carrying out various excavations

The botanical or phytogeographic interest is due to the presence of the “cabezuela” or Centaurea Junoniana with few specimens that lives in the crack of the rock, which constitutes its last refuge on the Island. Without a doubt, the greatest attraction is an important group of cave engravings, one of the most outstanding on the island of La Palma. Its eastern face presents an astonishing number of rock carvings, more than 150 motifs. These appear isolated or forming groups among which meanders and spirals stand out. They were made using a coarse, medium and fine chopping technique. Currently, the state in which the Roque Teneguía is found is not desirable, it presents fractures, due to the earthquakes that caused the volcanic eruptions. Also for centuries, it was the quarry from which the nearby residents of Los Quemados and Las Indias extracted the stone to build their houses, as it was the only material available then for construction, since the rest of the soil was covered with lava, ashes. and sands. Historically, the Roque has suffered a lot to stay as it is today. On the other hand, it was affected by the explosions that were made to pass the general water channel just below, crossing it and, on the other hand, the recent human action that has left its mark on the stones (stripes, names marked on the stone by many visitors who have even made about some of the rock symbols.
 

Roque Teneguía contains almost 80 panels of different sizes and more than 150 shapes. Due to the erosion of the rock forms, most of them are not visible during the day. The best time to see the rock carvings is at sunrise and sunset with almost level sunlight. These symbols allow us to travel to a deeper knowledge of things.

 
To discover the sacred sites is the orientation; It is a concern that comes from very old, being carried out by solar observation. Since ancient times, orientation is a very necessary ritual to be connected in a cosmically organized world.When something is oriented, space makes sense, heaven and earth meet and unite, it leaves linearity and enters cyclical eternity, one that is constantly repeated every year.When something is oriented, space makes sense, heaven and earth meet and unite, it leaves linearity and enters cyclical eternity, one that is constantly repeated every year.Roque Teneguía was a sacred place for the awara, a celestial archetype that raises its transcendence to its precise solar horizon positions. The Roque is the physical structure that brings together both space and the stars in the same will, the fixation of a space, which is constantly updated and re-created in sacred times. Symbolic thinking projects a sacred geography onto the landscape as a culturally imagined space, increasing the value of reality.

 
SEASHORE CUP-MARKS
 

Fuencaliente is the municipality of La Palma that occupies the southern tip of the island of La Palma, in such a way that it is the only one that has a coastline on both sides, one eastern and one western. Therefore, it should not surprise us that the influence of the sea is appreciable in all the archaeological sites of the municipality.
For this reason, where the land and the sea converge, some 140 places are located on the island of La Palma, of which 20 are located on the coasts of Fuencaliente. It cannot be something accidental when the general calculation approaches 4,000 cup-marks. They had to be done with mixed techniques of striking or percussion and scraping for their reduction and polishing of stone on stone due to the absence of metal. Regarding the typologies, circular and conical cups predominate, but we also observe some oval ones. They show a variety of diameters that can go from 5 to 25 or 30 cm; in terms of depth, it ranges from approximately 5 to 30 cm. They usually form groups, from a few (some isolated or in pairs) to formations of several dozen that can exceed one hundred, usually combining different diameters and depths.

The most important groups on the Fuencaliente coast are: Punta de La Tora, Punta and Baja de Las Escaleras, La Colmena, Guincho Grande or Punta del Viento, Las Cabras, La Garza I, II and III, Punta de El Cabezo, Malpique , Porís de Puntalarga, El Navel, El Fondito I and II, Punta del Hombre, La Zamora de Abajo, Porís de La Zamora and Punta del Banco.

His symbolic and religious thoughts allude to and derive from the cosmogony

1. Guincho Grande or Punta del Viento that contains about 130 . The headland extends towards the sea following a line that connects it with the place where the sun rises during the equinoxes. At the opposite extreme, an astronomical phenomenon relevant to the Awara population coincides, such as the emphatic manifestation of the mayor lunar standstill, part of the lunar cycle that occurs every 18.6 years, due to the maximum height of the Viento’s Mountain.

2. Las Cabras with about 200 cup-marks carved on the seashore. Every time the summer solstice arrives, you can see how the sun sets over the Lajío Mountain. Visually, it is also very attractive as the shadow from this mountain, you can see the concentration of cup-marks at Punta de Las Cabras.

3. Porís de Puntalarga. It contains a group of about 50 cup-marks and they were carved in the exact place to determine the arrival of the indigenous equinoxes at the moment when the sun rises behind the Roque de Teneguía.

The sea was an important source of food and it was in the habit of giving thanks with a communion ritual. They placed solid food and / or pouring milk into the cup-marks when there was low tide so that the forces, spirits or goddesses of the sea would symbolically receive the human food they collect when high tide occurred.In turn, the sea was revered as a maternal divinity, the owners had the ability to heal, cleanse, purify, where balance and the origin of life are found. Reciprocity creates a mirror between humans and gods or spirits.

Miguel A. Martín González