We are in this Ahijadero Valley, whose name comes from the fact
that it is the place where cattle were nursed.
A very interesting toponym that also appears in the sources
from the beginning of the 16th century: "El gran corral de Los Cristianos."
I mean, there’s a number of elements that indicates the importance
of livestock farming in this territory of the Menceyato of Abona, where we are.
As I say, on the border with Adeje.
Needless to say, livestock farming is the cornerstone of the island's economy.
Everything related to livestock farming is the basis of livelihood, that is,
meat, milk, fur, etc.
It's the life of these people.
It was the suggestion that Tarek Ode made to me, I think.
He told me that on Roque del Malpaso, in the place where the rock carvings are
and on the points where the percussion zones are
to produce sound,
there is a very important astral fact.
Herodotus says that the Libyans worship the Sun and Moon.
And in this case, for these cultures, in this instance from Tenerife.
But for the rest of the islands, exactly the same thing happens.
Therefore, following the guidelines of the Moon and the Sun
is fundamental in this case, because their lives depend on it.
At the moment the sun rises, the “Magec”, as the Guanches used to say,
which has extraordinary importance in the religious vision of the Guanches.
That the Sun will fall at a certain point
in the engravings we are in now.
We are in a unique place in the archaeology of Tenerife,
not only because of the rock carvings there,
it is associated with a lithophone, that is, with large stones that make sounds,
hence the name lithophone,
which have a series of perfectly marked recesses at different points in the rock,
where they can be struck by hitting it with a stone,
producing a sound with a truly extraordinary variation.
Note the extraordinary sound these rocks produce
in this place where there were no problems at all
because it was quiet and could be heard all throughout the valley.
And where this would give rise,
uniting the animals, be they goats and sheep, with the sound
that could be produced in these rocks, to what are called the piacular rites,
the rites of requesting rain.
The uniqueness of this site,
which we discovered together with Professor Rodrigo de Balbín Berhmann
in the early 1980s,
is that it not only gives rise to the discovery of other rock carvings
or other rock art in the Valley itself and on the rest of the island,
but also, as I say, because of the uniqueness of something
we had already verified at the Luis Cabrera’s Peña in Guatiza,
in the municipality of Teguise, on the island of Lanzarote.
And we can verify this same archaeological fact with that of Echedo
on the island of El Hierro and with another one found in La Gomera,
which has not been sufficiently publicized.
The most important thing about this engraving is the square,
which is inscribed in this other, slightly larger shape
in which, if you look closely, you can see a series of lines
that run diagonally, vertically and horizontally,
and form a radial shape even though we are not within a radius,
in the sense that it is not a circle, but rather a square.
And I think this shape is similar to checkerboards.
I think they are ways of representing the stars, be it the Sun, the Moon, but in this case the Sun.
If we had that same thing framed in a circle, we could say
that it is a radiated circle or an astral circle.
Which could be partly similar to a circular one
that exists in La Degollada de Yeje, in Masca, in the municipality of Buenavista.
It is, from my point of view, the greatest archaeological site
on the island of Tenerife, which, along with this one,
would probably be two of the most special sites in our archaeology.
At the point where we are,
where there is a whitish spot, a cruciform symbol,
is the exact place where the first rays of Sun will apprear
when we’ll be at the winter solstice,
between December 20th, 21st or 22nd,
which is precisely the date we are in at this place.
From here, from this marker, it will extend to the whole set of engravings.
The Sun with the engravings.
The Sun in a place where people gather,
probably to perform those rituals.
The sun illuminating Igara Mountain,
where we believe burial sites once existed,
explains or gives us insight into a worldview
that has been enriching archaeology for us in recent years.
We are located in the south of Tenerife, at a site known as El Litófono de Malpaso.
It's December 21st 2021,
and at sunrise,
the first rays of morning light illuminate this part of the site.
They descend and here we find a cruciform engraving
perfectly oriented north, south, east and west,
in which sunlight gradually falls, illuminating the entire set.
This site is surprising.
It is composed of an impressive station of geometric rock engravings.
A lithophone, which is, a phonolitic rock that, when struck, produces sound.
And what we were able to see today at sunrise is a solstice marker.
An incised cruciform
and a perforated surface,
which has been fully illuminated along the outside of its edges
as the Sun has descended.
The multitude of factors that this archaeological site has,
clearly linked to the winter sunrise
and its cultural connotations for the indigenous population of Tenerife, is surprising.
The accuracy of the solstice marker is truly amazing.
There we have the Moon completely aligned with the sunrise.
And with the engraving.
It's aligned with everything, with...
Look at that...
Incredible...
We see the lines of the engraving oriented exactly toward the cardinal points:
north, south, east, west. And the sunrise oriented here.
Well, there are...
three planets lined up with the Sun and the solstice rising point.
Mercury, Venus, Mars and the Sun.
The cruciform engraving, through which the first ray of the Sun enters at the winter solstice,
is perfectly developed in terms of the four cardinal axes:
north, south, east and west.
In that place the Sun manifests itself in that way,
and what the Sun is indicating is the change,
that they could already sense the rain was coming.
They foresaw rain.
What does a sun marker mean in the context of these cultures?
Well, it means the only way these communities have
to know when the weather begins to change.
It is possible then that this place,
this Roque del Malpaso, if it is true that this is so,
perhaps what I explained previously
about this place being a point of concentration of cattle
where they hit rock to produce sound, where the animals bleated,
where people could sing and dance and do rites, as the sources say,
to bring about rain.
Perhaps this, again, reinforces this fact,
which helps these communities know when they can request rain.
Rain is not requested in August, rain is requested when we are at the winter solstice
and therefore in times close to the arrival of rain.
In 2018, while doing a photographic work,
I was determined to capture this subject completely illuminated by the Sun.
It seemed to me that perhaps on the winter solstice
the motif would be fully illuminated by the Sun at dawn,
but without giving too much thought to the solstice.
And much less did I think that the solstice was going to cover this part there.
And while I was waiting, I realized that the pattern wasn't completely covered by the Sun.
And suddenly, while recording, I see in this
I see in this cross here
the first ray of Sun of the winter solstice entering here in the form of a wedge
Wow!
Winter solstice.
At the Malpaso lithophone, where we are in Arona.
I came to see if the engraving, the big one, would light up.
And it is...
starting to light up, first ray.
Here at this cross here, which is oriented:
north, south, east and west.
Incredible.
This has got to be something.