The Guanche Connection

I have found myself delving into the aboriginal beginnings in the Canary Islands and have made some significant discoveries. The original inhabitants of the islands were Guanches, who are thought to come from the Berber tribe in North Africa. This tribe were reputed to be very tall, with blond hair and blue eyes, a description which also fits the Grooved Ware folk from Orkney who I believe could be one and the same. The graffiti that I spent much time photographing around the island turns out to be a Guanche motif.

There is a  neolithic settlement on Lanzarote called Zonzamas which seems to have striking similarities to Skara Brae in Orkney, although it is very hard to find and not promoted much as a visitor attraction. In fact, I had great difficulty in locating it on the island. During the Spanish Inquisition anyone of Guanche origin was hunted out and put to death, so many islanders denied their Guanche history from that time onwards and it still seems to be rather a taboo topic.

From online sources I was able to source some interesting Guanche cave art which was the inspiration for some quick monoprint over oil bar sketches. Many of these spiral and 'calendar' markings bear a strong resemblance to Neolithic cave art from sites such as Newgrange in Ireland.

There is also a Venus connection as Guanche artefacts were found which depicted Venus, in the same way that Venus dolls have been found in Neolithic Orkney, and recent research into  Maeshowe chambered cairn in Orkney suggests the passageway may have been aligned to the orbit of Venus.