Sepulchral Cave of Roque de Tierra (Roques de Anaga)

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Archaeological sites

This is one of the most inaccessible and remote archaeological sites on the island of Tenerife. The cave is located at the summit of Roque de Tierra, on the islet closest to the coast of the two that form the Roques de Anaga group, in the northeast of Tenerife.

The site is situated on the southern face of the rock, about 170 metres above sea level. The cave measures approximately six metres long by three metres wide and two metres high. Five bodies were found there in a supine position. Four of them were placed parallel with their heads facing east, and the fifth was transverse, oriented south.

The skeletal remains found did not include the skulls or some lower limbs, possibly previously looted by residents of the nearby hamlet of Las Palmas de Anaga during their visits to the rock, whenever the low tide allowed, in search of sabina wood for the charcoal factory. The bodies were covered with goat skins, placed as if they were blankets. The bodies were separated from the paved ground by branches and sabina wood planks. No pottery fragments or grave goods were found. Around the bodies, pebbles fallen from the cave ceiling and bone remains of shearwaters, which inhabit numerous colonies on the Roques de Anaga, were observed.

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