Cave of the Guanches


The Cave of the Guanches, or Archaeological area of the Cave of the Guanches, is an important archaeological site located in the north of the island of Tenerife.

Characteristics

The protected archaeological environment is in the municipality of Icod de los Vinos and revolves around the Cave of the Guanches. This archaeological area is where the earliest Guanche autochthonous settlements on the island of Tenerife have been found. It has provided the oldest chronologies of the Canary Islands. These have been dated to the 6th century BCE, according to analysis carried out on ceramics that were found inside.
The area was in aboriginal times a village of natural caves and huts, which were located at the top of a cliff, about above sea level. The site is also famous for having found in him a single secondary burial pit. This is considered an exceptional find in the Canary Islands two questions: firstly due to the rare circumstance of a secondary burial and secondly, by their nature individual burial. The oral tradition also points out that the place was the abode of the menceyes of Icod.
At the site have been found numerous findings, including: pottery shards made by hand, bone awls, bone remains of caprids, shells of marine mollusks and a human lower jaw.
The cave is declared a Site of Cultural Interest by the Government of the Canary Islands.