1 00:01:36,696 --> 00:01:40,683 We are in this Ahijadero Valley, whose name comes from the fact 2 00:01:40,683 --> 00:01:44,621 that it is the place where cattle were nursed. 3 00:01:57,033 --> 00:01:59,986 A very interesting toponym that also appears in the sources 4 00:01:59,986 --> 00:02:03,973 from the beginning of the 16th century: "El gran corral de Los Cristianos." 5 00:02:04,140 --> 00:02:08,128 I mean, there’s a number of elements that indicates the importance 6 00:02:08,128 --> 00:02:12,115 of livestock farming in this territory of the Menceyato of Abona, where we are. 7 00:02:12,115 --> 00:02:14,617 As I say, on the border with Adeje. 8 00:02:18,488 --> 00:02:22,909 Needless to say, livestock farming is the cornerstone of the island's economy. 9 00:02:22,909 --> 00:02:27,747 Everything related to livestock farming is the basis of livelihood, that is, 10 00:02:27,747 --> 00:02:32,035 meat, milk, fur, etc. 11 00:02:32,035 --> 00:02:33,536 It's the life of these people. 12 00:02:43,446 --> 00:02:47,317 It was the suggestion that Tarek Ode made to me, I think. 13 00:02:47,317 --> 00:02:55,258 He told me that on Roque del Malpaso, in the place where the rock carvings are 14 00:02:55,258 --> 00:02:58,695 and on the points where the percussion zones are 15 00:02:58,695 --> 00:03:01,030 to produce sound, 16 00:03:01,030 --> 00:03:04,601 there is a very important astral fact. 17 00:03:15,478 --> 00:03:19,265 Herodotus says that the Libyans worship the Sun and Moon. 18 00:03:23,620 --> 00:03:26,372 And in this case, for these cultures, in this instance from Tenerife. 19 00:03:26,372 --> 00:03:29,008 But for the rest of the islands, exactly the same thing happens. 20 00:03:29,008 --> 00:03:32,011 Therefore, following the guidelines of the Moon and the Sun 21 00:03:32,011 --> 00:03:35,298 is fundamental in this case, because their lives depend on it. 22 00:03:42,055 --> 00:03:47,810 At the moment the sun rises, the “Magec”, as the Guanches used to say, 23 00:03:47,810 --> 00:03:55,435 which has extraordinary importance in the religious vision of the Guanches. 24 00:03:55,735 --> 00:03:59,005 That the Sun will fall at a certain point 25 00:03:59,005 --> 00:04:02,008 in the engravings we are in now. 26 00:04:21,377 --> 00:04:25,365 We are in a unique place in the archaeology of Tenerife, 27 00:04:25,365 --> 00:04:29,769 not only because of the rock carvings there, 28 00:04:29,769 --> 00:04:35,508 it is associated with a lithophone, that is, with large stones that make sounds, 29 00:04:35,508 --> 00:04:37,310 hence the name lithophone, 30 00:04:37,310 --> 00:04:42,632 which have a series of perfectly marked recesses at different points in the rock, 31 00:04:42,632 --> 00:04:46,319 where they can be struck by hitting it with a stone, 32 00:04:46,319 --> 00:04:51,491 producing a sound with a truly extraordinary variation. 33 00:05:19,202 --> 00:05:24,090 Note the extraordinary sound these rocks produce 34 00:05:24,090 --> 00:05:27,877 in this place where there were no problems at all 35 00:05:27,877 --> 00:05:31,981 because it was quiet and could be heard all throughout the valley. 36 00:05:32,398 --> 00:05:34,834 And where this would give rise, 37 00:05:34,834 --> 00:05:39,389 uniting the animals, be they goats and sheep, with the sound 38 00:05:39,389 --> 00:05:44,761 that could be produced in these rocks, to what are called the piacular rites, 39 00:05:44,761 --> 00:05:46,512 the rites of requesting rain. 40 00:05:53,970 --> 00:05:56,439 The uniqueness of this site, 41 00:05:56,439 --> 00:06:00,143 which we discovered together with Professor Rodrigo de Balbín Berhmann 42 00:06:00,143 --> 00:06:02,595 in the early 1980s, 43 00:06:02,595 --> 00:06:07,150 is that it not only gives rise to the discovery of other rock carvings 44 00:06:07,150 --> 00:06:12,622 or other rock art in the Valley itself and on the rest of the island, 45 00:06:12,622 --> 00:06:15,691 but also, as I say, because of the uniqueness of something 46 00:06:15,691 --> 00:06:20,012 we had already verified at the Luis Cabrera’s Peña in Guatiza, 47 00:06:20,012 --> 00:06:22,498 in the municipality of Teguise, on the island of Lanzarote. 48 00:06:22,498 --> 00:06:26,486 And we can verify this same archaeological fact with that of Echedo 49 00:06:26,486 --> 00:06:29,889 on the island of El Hierro and with another one found in La Gomera, 50 00:06:29,889 --> 00:06:32,408 which has not been sufficiently publicized. 51 00:06:36,696 --> 00:06:41,050 The most important thing about this engraving is the square, 52 00:06:41,050 --> 00:06:44,687 which is inscribed in this other, slightly larger shape 53 00:06:44,687 --> 00:06:48,257 in which, if you look closely, you can see a series of lines 54 00:06:48,257 --> 00:06:51,661 that run diagonally, vertically and horizontally, 55 00:06:51,661 --> 00:06:56,582 and form a radial shape even though we are not within a radius, 56 00:06:56,582 --> 00:06:59,585 in the sense that it is not a circle, but rather a square. 57 00:06:59,585 --> 00:07:02,738 And I think this shape is similar to checkerboards. 58 00:07:02,738 --> 00:07:08,795 I think they are ways of representing the stars, be it the Sun, the Moon, but in this case the Sun. 59 00:07:08,795 --> 00:07:12,732 If we had that same thing framed in a circle, we could say 60 00:07:12,732 --> 00:07:16,819 that it is a radiated circle or an astral circle. 61 00:07:21,007 --> 00:07:26,162 Which could be partly similar to a circular one 62 00:07:26,162 --> 00:07:31,234 that exists in La Degollada de Yeje, in Masca, in the municipality of Buenavista. 63 00:07:31,234 --> 00:07:35,738 It is, from my point of view, the greatest archaeological site 64 00:07:35,738 --> 00:07:38,558 on the island of Tenerife, which, along with this one, 65 00:07:38,558 --> 00:07:43,146 would probably be two of the most special sites in our archaeology. 66 00:07:57,844 --> 00:07:59,462 At the point where we are, 67 00:07:59,462 --> 00:08:03,966 where there is a whitish spot, a cruciform symbol, 68 00:08:03,966 --> 00:08:10,206 is the exact place where the first rays of Sun will apprear 69 00:08:10,206 --> 00:08:14,460 when we’ll be at the winter solstice, 70 00:08:14,460 --> 00:08:18,447 between December 20th, 21st or 22nd, 71 00:08:18,447 --> 00:08:22,468 which is precisely the date we are in at this place. 72 00:08:22,468 --> 00:08:27,707 From here, from this marker, it will extend to the whole set of engravings. 73 00:09:34,840 --> 00:09:37,893 The Sun with the engravings. 74 00:09:37,893 --> 00:09:41,881 The Sun in a place where people gather, 75 00:09:41,881 --> 00:09:44,133 probably to perform those rituals. 76 00:09:44,133 --> 00:09:47,603 The sun illuminating Igara Mountain, 77 00:09:47,603 --> 00:09:51,557 where we believe burial sites once existed, 78 00:09:51,557 --> 00:09:55,444 explains or gives us insight into a worldview 79 00:09:55,444 --> 00:10:00,016 that has been enriching archaeology for us in recent years. 80 00:10:11,093 --> 00:10:15,915 We are located in the south of Tenerife, at a site known as El Litófono de Malpaso. 81 00:10:16,766 --> 00:10:19,619 It's December 21st 2021, 82 00:10:19,619 --> 00:10:21,370 and at sunrise, 83 00:10:21,370 --> 00:10:25,825 the first rays of morning light illuminate this part of the site. 84 00:10:25,825 --> 00:10:31,380 They descend and here we find a cruciform engraving 85 00:10:31,380 --> 00:10:34,317 perfectly oriented north, south, east and west, 86 00:10:34,317 --> 00:10:41,507 in which sunlight gradually falls, illuminating the entire set. 87 00:11:59,635 --> 00:12:02,288 This site is surprising. 88 00:12:02,288 --> 00:12:09,128 It is composed of an impressive station of geometric rock engravings. 89 00:12:09,128 --> 00:12:14,750 A lithophone, which is, a phonolitic rock that, when struck, produces sound. 90 00:12:14,750 --> 00:12:20,906 And what we were able to see today at sunrise is a solstice marker. 91 00:12:28,948 --> 00:12:32,251 An incised cruciform 92 00:12:32,251 --> 00:12:35,521 and a perforated surface, 93 00:12:35,521 --> 00:12:40,726 which has been fully illuminated along the outside of its edges 94 00:12:40,726 --> 00:12:42,795 as the Sun has descended. 95 00:12:46,081 --> 00:12:50,970 The multitude of factors that this archaeological site has, 96 00:12:50,970 --> 00:12:55,891 clearly linked to the winter sunrise 97 00:12:55,891 --> 00:13:01,464 and its cultural connotations for the indigenous population of Tenerife, is surprising. 98 00:13:02,248 --> 00:13:09,805 The accuracy of the solstice marker is truly amazing. 99 00:13:20,366 --> 00:13:23,969 There we have the Moon completely aligned with the sunrise. 100 00:13:26,405 --> 00:13:29,158 And with the engraving. 101 00:13:29,158 --> 00:13:30,976 It's aligned with everything, with... 102 00:13:30,976 --> 00:13:32,411 Look at that... 103 00:13:34,580 --> 00:13:35,147 Incredible... 104 00:13:37,616 --> 00:13:45,608 We see the lines of the engraving oriented exactly toward the cardinal points: 105 00:13:45,608 --> 00:13:49,545 north, south, east, west. And the sunrise oriented here. 106 00:13:55,985 --> 00:13:58,888 Well, there are... 107 00:13:58,888 --> 00:14:05,194 three planets lined up with the Sun and the solstice rising point. 108 00:14:05,194 --> 00:14:08,197 Mercury, Venus, Mars and the Sun. 109 00:14:13,452 --> 00:14:17,907 The cruciform engraving, through which the first ray of the Sun enters at the winter solstice, 110 00:14:17,907 --> 00:14:24,296 is perfectly developed in terms of the four cardinal axes: 111 00:14:24,296 --> 00:14:26,782 north, south, east and west. 112 00:14:49,204 --> 00:14:52,291 In that place the Sun manifests itself in that way, 113 00:14:52,291 --> 00:14:55,277 and what the Sun is indicating is the change, 114 00:14:55,277 --> 00:14:58,380 that they could already sense the rain was coming. 115 00:14:58,380 --> 00:15:00,432 They foresaw rain. 116 00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:09,174 What does a sun marker mean in the context of these cultures? 117 00:15:09,174 --> 00:15:13,629 Well, it means the only way these communities have 118 00:15:13,629 --> 00:15:17,016 to know when the weather begins to change. 119 00:15:17,016 --> 00:15:20,302 It is possible then that this place, 120 00:15:20,302 --> 00:15:23,772 this Roque del Malpaso, if it is true that this is so, 121 00:15:23,772 --> 00:15:27,543 perhaps what I explained previously 122 00:15:27,543 --> 00:15:31,897 about this place being a point of concentration of cattle 123 00:15:31,897 --> 00:15:37,086 where they hit rock to produce sound, where the animals bleated, 124 00:15:37,086 --> 00:15:41,423 where people could sing and dance and do rites, as the sources say, 125 00:15:41,423 --> 00:15:43,492 to bring about rain. 126 00:15:43,492 --> 00:15:48,297 Perhaps this, again, reinforces this fact, 127 00:15:48,297 --> 00:15:54,653 which helps these communities know when they can request rain. 128 00:15:54,653 --> 00:16:01,443 Rain is not requested in August, rain is requested when we are at the winter solstice 129 00:16:01,443 --> 00:16:04,380 and therefore in times close to the arrival of rain. 130 00:16:34,276 --> 00:16:38,113 In 2018, while doing a photographic work, 131 00:16:38,113 --> 00:16:42,401 I was determined to capture this subject completely illuminated by the Sun. 132 00:16:42,401 --> 00:16:45,938 It seemed to me that perhaps on the winter solstice 133 00:16:45,938 --> 00:16:50,342 the motif would be fully illuminated by the Sun at dawn, 134 00:16:50,342 --> 00:16:52,327 but without giving too much thought to the solstice. 135 00:16:52,761 --> 00:16:55,681 And much less did I think that the solstice was going to cover this part there. 136 00:16:55,681 --> 00:17:00,619 And while I was waiting, I realized that the pattern wasn't completely covered by the Sun. 137 00:17:00,619 --> 00:17:02,838 And suddenly, while recording, I see in this 138 00:17:02,838 --> 00:17:04,890 I see in this cross here 139 00:17:04,890 --> 00:17:10,979 the first ray of Sun of the winter solstice entering here in the form of a wedge 140 00:17:12,247 --> 00:17:13,499 Wow! 141 00:17:13,499 --> 00:17:15,934 Winter solstice. 142 00:17:15,934 --> 00:17:20,622 At the Malpaso lithophone, where we are in Arona. 143 00:17:21,857 --> 00:17:25,094 I came to see if the engraving, the big one, would light up. 144 00:17:25,094 --> 00:17:26,428 And it is... 145 00:17:26,428 --> 00:17:28,514 starting to light up, first ray. 146 00:17:30,115 --> 00:17:34,686 Here at this cross here, which is oriented: 147 00:17:34,686 --> 00:17:37,089 north, south, east and west. 148 00:17:38,340 --> 00:17:39,691 Incredible. 149 00:17:39,691 --> 00:17:41,460 This has got to be something.