The (not so) Fortunate Islands

Anno Domini 1331: it was the year when the first Portuguese sailor set foot on Canary grounds, rediscovering an
inhabited archipelago that, until then, had existed in almost perfect isolation from the rest of the world. The peaceful
isolation for both the islands and their people would soon come to a brutal end, because many more ships would
follow. But who were these islanders and where did they come from? Fact is that their presence on these islands was a strange anomaly given their position near the African continent. They were tall, had a light skin colour and often blonde hair: not exactly what you would expect in these regions! They were called ‘Guanches’, from Guan
Chenech or Man from Chenech, as they themselves called the island Tenerife. In time, that name became common for
the inhabitants of the whole archipelago. How and when they got there is unknown, because they even lacked the knowledge to build boats. Scientists said they couldn’t have been there thousands of years before Plato’s time, but new evidence from archaeological examinations indicates a human presence on the islands from at least 4,000 BC (so maybe earlier), redefining the accepted view for inhabitation of the islands.

It looks like the European explorers found the last tribes of pure Cro-Magnon origin, which explains their physical features. The Cro-Magnon’s were Homo Sapiens Sapiens, and lived between 45,000 and 10,000 years ago. They were the first modern people in both physical appearance and intellect. Gradually they replaced the Neanderthals in
Europe. It seems that somehow the Guanches survived the extinction of the Cro-Magnon man, probably because life
was quite easy on their isolated islands. However, their culture seems to be evolving in a downward spiral. Instead
of innovating and advancing technologically and culturally, they seem to degenerate back to a Stone Age culture.

The origin of the Guanches remains a mysterious haze. Researchers linked them with the Berbers from North Africa,
but in Charles Berlitz’s ‘The Lost Ship of Noah’ we read that they told the Spanish that they had always thought they
were alone on the earth and that everyone else drowned in the Great Flood. It is not such a big step to link them with Atlantis, because they believed they once lived in a large land with cities, fertile plains and rivers. At a certain moment in time this prosperous empire was flooded and only a few people managed to escape death by climbing on the volcanic top Teide. The Canary Islands would be the highest peaks of this sunken civilization. This archaic memory is intriguing to say the least.

On various places on the islands ancient inscriptions have been found, but in the 14th Century the Guanches had long
forgotten their meaning. There are important differences in these inscriptions: there seem to be signs resembling the Phoenician and Numidian alphabet, but probably this wasn’t their original script, because I also found pictures of petroglyphs depicting strange symbols that look like a script. It seems like the Guanches simply forgot how to read and write. Adding up the facts definitely rings a bell to anyone who read the Timaeus & Critias dialogues, because the Atlanteans too forgot their knowledge of the written word.