Zanata Stone
The Zanata Stone (Piedra Zanata in Spanish) is a small rock with inscriptions presumably of Guanche origin. The stone was found in 1992 near a mountain known as Montaña de las Flores (Mountain of the Flowers), in the municipality of El Tanque (in the northwestern part of Tenerife). The stone depicts a kind of fish, and according to Rafael Gonzalez Antón, the director of the Archaeological Museum of Tenerife, its characters appear to be Tifinagh, an alphabetic script used by some Berber peoples. The stone was analyzed by Rafael Muñoz, professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies of the University of La Laguna. The stone is considered the Rosetta Stone of the Canary Islands. The Zanata Stone seems to have been related to the magical-religious world of the Guanches.
The Zanata Stone seems to support the theory of a Punic presence in the archipelago that utilized Berber labor. Some Guanches of Tenerife were known as Zanata or Zenete, or "those with a cut tongue". The Zanata Stone is currently in the Archaeological Museum of Tenerife (Santa Cruz de Tenerife).[1]
See also
References
- ↑ The Zanata Stone (Spanish)