Lomo de San Gregorio Archaeological Site

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Archaeological sites

This region features the settlement at Lomo de San Gregorio, a toponymy that comes from the estate and hermitage of the same name, and the hub of an extensive urbanization today. Although it was well documented, this complex at Lomo de San Gregorio was to be studied more closely in the 1970s by Jiménez Sánchez. The settlement is located at the top of a hill, behind the district of Piletas, to the left of the C-817 road towards Teror, just after the crossroads at Arucas-Teror and before the crossroads leading off to San José del Álamo (we can just make out, on the hill, a little traditional building with a gabled roof, together with several palm trees). It is considered an important settlement which makes full use of the abundance of tuff volcanic rock to carve out a number of dwelling caves, whose floors can be made out despite all the intense building work done on them, as well as other complementary structure such as cisterns for the storage of water, and some water channels in the tuff rock. As well as all the structural features at the settlement, its archaeological material is quite unique, such as a fine example of a buffered "heel" axe (now kept at the Museo Canario).

The site is not just interesting for all the pre Hispanic occupation it displays, but also for the uninterrupted use of the surrounding area from the times immediately following the end of the Conquest. The continuity of many habitats following this time shows real evidence of the persistence, in some of its facets, of aboriginal way of life, at least that referring to troglodyte habitat. 

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