WHAT WAS GAUNCHE SOCIETY AND WHY DID IT GO EXTINCT?
Statue of a Guanches chief Anaterue at Candelaria, Tenerife, Canary Islands
Guanches were the aboriginal inhabitants of the Canary Islands. They were hunter-gatherer tribes who lived a lifestyle much like it is supposed that people lived in the Stone Age.
In 2017, the first genome-wide data from the Guanches confirmed they were of North African origin. There are suggestions that the light-skinned people descended from the Berbers of North Africa, possibly Libya.
It is believed that they migrated to the archipelago around 1,000 BC from North Africa. What we do know of the mysterious people is derived from the work of Spanish Chroniclers and from archaeological discoveries.
They were believed to have lived in caves and huts and had few tools due to the absence of ore to make metal on the volcanic islands.
The native people had knowledge of basic farming and also made pottery. Quite like ancient Egyptians, the Guanches were known to embalm and mummify their dead.
Dead Guanches of a higher social standing were left in caves whilst more lowly people were buried in the ground.
Also like the Egyptians, although it is not known for sure, the Guanches may have made the mysterious pyramids strewn throughout Tenerife. There are several, with six in the town of Guimar.
Güimar pyramids in Tenerife, Canary islands. It is believed the Guanches built these
It is very possible the Guanches were responsible for the building of the structures as it is known they had basic knowledge of geometric shapes through their ‘pintaderas,’ which were some form of artistic seal made of pottery.
The Guanches of Tenerife were split into nine kingdoms with a king known as a ‘mencey’ for each of these.
The Guanches were the only native people known to have lived in the Macaronesian region before the arrival of Europeans, as there is no evidence that the other Macaronesian archipelagos (Azores, Cape Verde, Madeira) were inhabited before Europeans arrived.
After the Spanish conquest of the Canaries they were ethnically and culturally absorbed by Spanish settlers, although elements of their culture survive to this day, intermixed within Canarian customs and traditions such as Silbo (the whistled language of La Gomera Island).
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