The Riddle of the Guanches

On the Canary Islands the Spanish explorers found an autochthonous population, extremely ancient. A.J. Bajocco, Italian paleoethnologist, puzzled over these people. He is one of the sources used in Soviet scientist N. Zhirov’s book, Atlantis: Atlantology: Basic Problems. (University Press of the Pacific, September 2001)

When the Spanish arrived, the native population was about 20,000. The Spaniards began conquering the islands in 1402. Tenerife, the largest of the islands, was not subjugated for decades. Whoever these blonde, blue-eyed giants may have been, they were almost completely exterminated. By about 1600, not a single giant remained. (Zhirov, op. cit.)

But not all of the natives had been giants. The population had been autochthonously heterogeneous and consisted of four different ethnic groups. One of the four groups seemed to be of the Cro-Magnon type. These Cro-Magnons of the Canaries were tall (more than 2 meters high) dolichosephali. Besides blue-eyed blondes, some were red-haired. These Cro-Magnon Guanches were the predominant group on Tenerife and Gran Canaria. (Ibid.)

The blurb for “Invasion of the Cro Magnon Giants to North America” claims “Historical evidence of giant skeletons, with archaic features and double rows of teeth are presented along the Pacific seaboard of California and Oregon. On the Atlantic are also giant skeletons from New York city, to Florida; some of which also have a double row of teeth.”

According to one web site, the Evening News of Ada, Oklahoma on November 8, 1912 carried this report: “PRIMITIVE MEN OF GIGANTIC STATURE.” Eleven skeletons of “primitive men” had been unearthed. Among other things, they had “two rows of teeth in the front of the upper jaw…”

Recall from the previous blog entry how Friar Alonso de Espinosa had mentioned the remains of a 14-foot-tall giant which had 80 teeth.

There has been some dispute over the language of the Guanches. Some experts insist it is not of Berber origin but is a heretofore unique language. The Guanches, as already stated, were of extremely ancient origin. (Zhirov, op. cit.)

As in rock inscriptions found in America such as the Davenport Stele, rock hieroglyphics have been found on all the Canary Islands. Some of these hieroglyphs are thought to be similar to the hieroglyphs of Crete, location of the ancient Minoan culture. Pottery found on the Canaries is similar to Cypriot (Cyprus) pottery. Also Paleonumidian inscriptions traced to the Carthaginian (Phoenician) alphabet have been found on the Canary Islands. As of yet, no “Rosetta Stone” has been discovered which could enable any translation. (Zhirov, op. cit.)

On Gran Canaria the inhabitants lived in stone houses in small towns. When the Portugese reached Gran Canaria in 1341 they noticed a statue of a man holding a spear (image at top). The statue was reportedly taken to Lisbon. Megalithic structures existed on the islands and on Gran Canaria the natives built pyramids of large stones and also conical mounds. (See also, “Who Were the Mound Builders?”)

The Soviet historian B.L. Bogayevsky, says Zhirov, believed he had solved the riddle of the Guanches. He was adamant they were descendants of the Atlanteans. Bogayevsky wrote, “It is most probable that parts of the African continent broke away in the early Neolithic, giving rise to quite large islands. A new island, consequently, lay in the ‘Atlantic’ in front of the ‘Pillars of Hercules’. This island, whose size popular fantasy could always exaggerate was, possibly, the Atlantis of Plato.”

However the paleoethnical researches prove beyond doubt a link between the natives of the Canaries and the “Indians” of North America. How did the two groups interact? Zhirov conjures up that old reliable “land bridge” panacea as an explanation. But Zhirov does not rule out Cretans (Minoans) or Phoenicians either.