Guanches - Who Are They?
The mystery of the small but very freedom-loving and courageous tribe of Guanches remains unsolved to this day. Did they always live on the Canary Islands, or did they migrate there relatively recently?
The Canary Islands are located near the equator, 115 kilometers off the coast of North Africa. It is believed that the first inhabitants of these islands were the Guanches. However, no one knows where they came from three thousand years ago. Guanches are tall, fair-skinned, blue-eyed people with fiery red hair. Archaeologists who conducted excavations on the islands found no signs that the main population was familiar with seafaring. The Guanches were the only people in the world who did not even have a primitive fleet. However, they were excellent swimmers and could swim from one island of the archipelago to another like amphibians.
The Canaries are mentioned by many geographers and navigators of the past, as they lie at the crossroads of sea routes. But, as has become clear in recent times, after numerous studies by scientists, from archaeologists to geneticists, the islands connect not only sea routes but also various cultures, peoples, and even continents.
The word "Guanches" means "children of the volcano," and in ancient legends, there are mentions that the people of the tribe emerged from the depths of the fiery mountain of Tenerife—the highest volcano in the Canary Islands. The Guanches lived in caves that they carved out of the rocks and wore small cloaks made of goat skins or were completely naked (interestingly—how our scientists found this out), as the climate on the islands has always been comfortable for humans. Despite such a simple lifestyle, the Guanches cared about the upbringing of their children. However, the education of the younger generation was understood quite uniquely by the indigenous inhabitants of the islands. All young girls were sent to a special institution—a mone—to prepare them for marriage.
The preparation consisted solely of fattening the girls up to a weight of 100 kilograms.
Slimmer brides were not popular among suitors in the Canaries (oh, the times, oh, the morals!).
The speech of the Guanches, the Guanche language amazed the first navigators who found themselves on the Canary Islands.
When nearby, people simply moved their lips silently and understood each other perfectly, while at a distance they communicated through… whistling! The conqueror of the islands, the Norman Jean de Bethencourt, recorded in one of his diaries: “Gomera (one of the islands of the Canary archipelago) is the homeland of tall people who possess the most remarkable of all languages. They speak with their lips as if they had no tongue. These people have a legend that as a punishment for some offense, the chief ordered their tongues to be cut off. Judging by how they speak, this legend can be believed. Incredible, however, the inhabitants of the Canaries could communicate by whistling over distances exceeding 15 kilometers! The Guanches have long disappeared from the face of the earth, but their language still lives on, and the modern population uses it when necessary, astonishing numerous tourists.
The interest of many people around the world in the Guanches began to grow after a Cro-Magnon skull was found in the last century. Anthropologists were astonished to discover its complete similarity to Guanche skulls. They dug deeper, so to speak, carefully studied ancient manuscripts, and conducted additional excavations. They found that, in addition to the Cro-Magnon type, there were several others. Among them, the most surprising for the North African region is the Nordic type. Then the Oxford expedition, studying the mummies of the Guanche tribe, found that the tribe members were significantly genetically related to the peoples of Northwestern Europe. It was also proven that the ancient Guanches were quite closely related to the indigenous population of North Africa. It turns out that the ancient tribe is a connecting link between the peoples of Europe and the north of the black continent. This is also evidenced by the drawings in Egypt from the time of the New Kingdom, depicting light-haired people who came from the West. But how the Guanches made it to Egypt remains unclear…
The burial practices of the tribe are also noteworthy. As mentioned earlier, the Guanches made mummies from the bodies of the deceased and left them in caves near living quarters.
The method of mummification was practically identical to that of ancient Egypt. As it turned out, Humboldt wrote about this in his time, but it was not given much importance then. And the plants similar to those that the Canarians used to "stuff" their mummies were later found in… South American mummies!
The New World is also reminiscent of the pyramids, similar to those built by the Maya tribe. Since the Guanches did not know either the wheel or metal, this makes the secret of their construction even more astonishing. By the way, most of the household items found in the pyramids and caves of the blue-eyed Canarians suspiciously resemble… Mexican ones! But that’s not all! As decorations, the Guanches used feathers, wearing them on their heads, showing a resemblance to the customs of Native Americans. Their decorations also included tattoos. Moreover, they applied them using pintader stamps, which, besides the Canary Islands, North Africa, and Northern Italy, are found only in Colombia. They are not found anywhere else.
It is worth mentioning the writing of the ancient tribe, which is a unique phenomenon for a people of the Neolithic era. Unfortunately, none of the rock inscriptions have been deciphered to this day, and we do not know what messages the ancient inhabitants of the Canaries were trying to convey to their descendants in this way. By the way, most inscriptions are found on the island of Hierro, the most remote of all the Canary Islands.
Spanish anthropologist M. Fuste presented a report at the V International Congress on Ancient and Early History in Hamburg, dedicated to the problem of preserving the traits of ancient inhabitants in the modern population. He examined 958 skulls, about 400 complete skeletons, and 362 modern Canarians in the Canary Museum. The scientist concluded that today’s inhabitants retain the main elements of the racial complex of the population that lived before the islands were conquered. Importantly, these traits are not sporadic but are stable.
The Guanches have long disappeared from the face of the Earth, exterminated by Spanish colonizers. Their language is now forgotten, their writing remains undeciphered, and their history is mysterious. One hopes that scientists will unravel all their amazing secrets and fill in yet another blank spot in world history. But now the Guanche tribe is listed among the most mysterious civilizations and peoples, such as the Maya, the Incas, the Ancient Egyptians, and the Sumerians…