No. 17 - Its Gran Canaria Magazine

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GET TO KNOW GRAN CANARIA I CONOCE GRAN CANARIA Nº 17
Los Letreros de Balos, a book written in stone
In the southeast region of the island is Barranco de Balos,
a geological landmark that provides a natural dividing
line between the municipalities of Santa Lucía de
Tirajana and Agüimes. This ravine contains an archaeological
find of spectacular national interest and, if combined
with a light and pleasant hiking route, can provide
a day in the great outdoors with a very interesting
cultural content than can be done in just a few hours.
The Balos ravine gets its name from the large number
of Balos trees that are present in the area. The balo is a
dense bush species, with fragile and hanging branches,
endemic to the Canary Islands with the exception
of Lanzarote, its height can exceed three metres and
any part of the plant, when squeezed, gives off a rather
unpleasant smell.
Following the creation of the island’s municipalities, all
these lands that make up the Balos ravine were put up
for auction in 1873, being sold for a price of 3,400 silver
reales, which would be equivalent today to approximately
€15,000.
In general, water rarely flows through this natural ravine,
and this area in particular is very arid, with very flat,
sandy soil, except for an interesting meandering basaltic
outcrop almost a kilometre long, 35 metres wide and
15 metres high in the middle of the ravine. There is a
lot of smooth surface on the faces of these completely
naturally formed rocks, so that they appear to visitors
as indelible slates, on which rock paintings have been
made over time, so much so that superimposed compositions
by different authors at different times can be
clearly seen.
The engravings here constitute the largest concentration
of rock engravings on the island and are scattered
all around the gorge, but the most spectacular
are found in the southernmost part of this rocky massif.
The 'signposts', as they are popularly known, are a
unique set of petroglyphs that are undeciphered but
include signs similar to the Tifinagh alphabet. There is
no record of their use today, but they were documented
from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD, indicating
the kinship of the island's ancient inhabitants
with the Libybic-Berber settlers of North African origin.
Anthropomorphic figures, many of them sexed and
zoomorphic, are also found on the surfaces of these
stones. Most of these figures are reminiscent of lizards,
and even horses and horsemen can be seen, figures
that experts say may be related to the time of the conquest
of the island by the Kingdom of Castile.
Furthermore, there are a large number of drawings
with geometric shapes made up of a vertical line with
several horizontal lines cutting across it, which these
same scholars believe were intended to represent the
meaning of the strength or power of a particular family.
The techniques used to engrave these motifs on the
rocks are highy varied, including scraping or incision
techniques, although the most frequent method is pitting
- both continuous and discontinuous pitting can
be seen. In general, experts have catalogued them as
group identification marks on the territory and symbols
of a ritual and religious nature. There is no doubt that it
is a place that holds an important symbolic significance
for the ancient Canarians. The most archaic symbols
are at least 1,200 years old.
The most important area of this rocky outcrop is to the
east and is enclosed by an iron fence for security reasons.
Through it, the engravings can be clearly seen,
but touching them is not allowed, in order to prevent
further deterioration, as they are currently in a truly deplorable
state of conservation as a result of the alteration
caused by visitors who have graffitied or engraved
their name and date of visit on the rock, spoiling the
site. Access within the protected perimeter can be requested
from the Historical Heritage Service at the Cabildo
de Gran Canaria island government.
A curious example of damage caused to this historic-artistic
monument occurred in 1957, when a renowned
British archaeologist made off with a fragment of stone
engraved with a representation of a lizard that had been
discovered only 10 years earlier. This was witnessed by
a person in charge of the supervision and maintenance
of one of the wells in the area. The whereabouts of this
zoomorphic engraving is currently unknown and it is
probably in a private collection.
But without a doubt, the most severe criminal act carried
out on the engravings at this important site took
place in 2007 when certain people, with clearly destructive
intentions, knocked one of the most important
panels to the ground and completely demolished
it; it contained engravings with peculiar geometric
shapes and very clear alphabetic characters that have
taken more than two years to restore. Everyone should
know how to behave when visiting a cultural asset of
this nature so that sites like this can survive for the enjoyment
of future generations.