Aware was robbed of the stars
Tijarafe (Canary Islands), mid-14th century. When the first Catholic monks came to the area of the island of La Palma, the Awares, the local Aborigines, saw that they worshipped the sun, the moon and the stars.
And this has been confirmed by the archaeological campaigns carried out in recent years in Tijaraf. In the framework of the West project, organized by the City Hall and the company Cultania, the III was celebrated this summer. The Archaeological Campus has been completed and about 30 sites have been identified. “This represents the high density Aboriginal occupation,” according to the archaeologist Javier Soler. In total, more than 100 sites have been recorded. It has been found that some of the many ravines and caves in the area were used to bury the dead and worship the stars, while others, more suitable for it, were used as a place of residence. “They formed large domesticated units that economically exploited the environment and symbolically appropriated the landscape.”
Awa's beliefs were not destroyed without further destruction, but were interpreted according to Catholic theology. “They knew the discourse of the natives and manipulated it strategically, among other things, imposing the cult of images as a dogmatic model”
But when the Castilians arrived, both symbolically and economically they took over these places. After the Catholic monks, in the 15th century, came the military conquest and forced evangelization with it. “They banned indigenous practices, rejected the islands’ cosmogony and destroyed their own forms of knowledge to incorporate new ones,” says Miguel A. The historian Martín González and founder and director of the journal Iruene on Prehistory of the island of La Palma. “The Christianization process was pretty fast, thanks to wild acculturation and syncretism.” In fact, Awa's beliefs were not destroyed without further destruction, but were interpreted according to Catholic theology. “They knew the discourse of the natives and manipulated it strategically, among other things, imposing the cult of images as a dogmatic model.” For example, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, they brought to Tijaraf an image of the Virgen del Candelario, they put Pino Araujo in a cave of the ravine, used until then by the awares, and from then on it would be called “Cueva de la Virgen”.
Today, around Candelaria Day, on February 2, from the Church of the Candelaria of Tijaraf, the appearance of the star Canopus among the rocks of La Pileta and Guanche can be observed. These two rocks have found engravings, canals and other marks on the cliffs, indicating that they were sacred places for the Aware. Before being conquered by Catholics, for them the star Canopus announced the rainy season.
And today, on 12 October, some still celebrate the cultural destruction that has taken place in the Canaries and America.
The Indus Valley, about 5,000 years ago. The city of Mohenjo-Daro had about 35,000 inhabitants and, according to recent PNAS publication, had a very low Gini coefficient of 0.22 – a coefficient that measures the economic inequality of societies through the degree of... [+]
More and more studies indicate that Neanderthals had more advanced cognitive abilities than previously thought. The latter, published in the Journal of Archeological Science, refers to the spearhead of bone found in the Mezmaiskaya cave in Russia in 2003.
Using microscopy,... [+]
In the Chinese province of Shanxi, in a tomb of the Tang dynasty, paintings depicting scenes from the daily lives of the dead are found. In one of these scenes a blonde man appears. Looking at the color of the hair and the facial expression, archaeologists who have studied the... [+]
Carthage, from B.C. Around the 814. The Phoenicians founded a colony and the dominant civilization in the eastern Mediterranean spread to the west. Two and a half centuries later, with the decline of the Phoenician metropolis of Tyre, Carthage became independent and its... [+]
Rudolf Botha hizkuntzalari hegoafrikarrak hipotesi bat bota berri du Homo erectus-i buruz: espezieak ahozko komunikazio moduren bat garatu zuen duela milioi bat urte baino gehiago. Homo sapiens-a da, dakigunez, hitz egiteko gai den espezie bakarra eta, beraz, hortik... [+]
Böblingen, Holy Roman Empire, 12 May 1525. Georg Truchsess von Waldburg overthrew the Württemberg insurgent peasants. Three days later, on 15 May, Philip of Hesse and the Duke of Saxony joined forces to crush the Thuringian rebels in Frankenhausen, killing some 5,000 peasants... [+]
Washington, D.C., June 17, 1930. The U.S. Congress passed the Tariff Act. It is also known as the Smoot-Hawley Act because it was promoted by Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis Hawley.
The law raised import tax limits for about 900 products by 40% to 60% in order to... [+]
During the renovation of a sports field in the Simmering district of Vienna, a mass grave with 150 bodies was discovered in October 2024. They conclude that they were Roman legionnaires and A.D. They died around 100 years ago. Or rather, they were killed.
The bodies were buried... [+]
Until now we have believed that those in charge of copying books during the Middle Ages and before the printing press was opened were men, specifically monks of monasteries.
But a group of researchers from the University of Bergen, Norway, concludes that women also worked as... [+]
Florentzia, 1886. Carlo Collodi Le avventure de Pinocchio eleberri ezagunaren egileak zera idatzi zuen pizzari buruz: “Labean txigortutako ogi orea, gainean eskura dagoen edozer gauzaz egindako saltsa duena”. Pizza hark “zikinkeria konplexu tankera” zuela... [+]
Linear A is a Minoan script used 4,800-4,500 years ago. Recently, in the famous Knossos Palace in Crete, a special ivory object has been discovered, which was probably used as a ceremonial scepter. The object has two inscriptions; one on the handle is shorter and, like most of... [+]
Londres, 1944. Dorothy izeneko emakume bati argazkiak atera zizkioten Waterloo zubian soldatze lanak egiten ari zela. Dorothyri buruz izena beste daturik ez daukagu, baina duela hamar urte arte hori ere ez genekien. Argazki sorta 2015ean topatu zuen Christine Wall... [+]
Bilbo, 1954. Hiriko Alfer eta Gaizkileen Auzitegia homosexualen aurka jazartzen hasi zen, erregimen frankistak izen bereko legea (Ley de Vagos y Maleantes, 1933) espresuki horretarako egokitu ondoren. Frankismoak homosexualen aurka egiten zuen lehenago ere, eta 1970ean legea... [+]
Eskultura grekoerromatarrek bere garaian zuten itxurak ez du zerikusirik gaurkoarekin. Erabilitako materiala ez zuten bistan uzten. Orain badakigu kolore biziz margotzen zituztela eta jantziak eta apaingarriak ere eransten zizkietela. Bada, Cecilie Brøns Harvard... [+]
Japonia, XV. mendea. Espioitzan eta hilketa ezkutuetan espezializatutako eliteko talde militarra sortu zen. Edo horixe uste du behintzat Stephen Turnbull historialari britainiarrak. Beste aditu batzuen ustez, askoz lehenago sortu ziren ninjak, duela 2.300-2.500 urte inguru. Eta... [+]