The Directorate General of Cultural Heritage is promoting archaeological research in a volcanic tube inside a casa honda (a sunken dwelling built into the ground) in La Degollada, Yaiza, in an attempt to locate an aboriginal occupation floor. This is the first time an excavation has been carried out at a pre-Hispanic settlement of these characteristics in the southern part of Lanzarote, so it will serve as a comparison with other similar cavities that have already been studied on the island.
The Cueva del Majo, also known as the Cueva de Doña Juana, is a volcanic tube that was adapted as a casa honda so that people could live inside it, and within the area of La Degollada it has always been closely associated with the indigenous population. “Last year an intervention was carried out in this cave and in another structure that was thought to be aboriginal. This year, because of the results, we are concentrating our efforts on the interior and exterior of the volcanic tube,” explains Nona Perera, director general of Cultural Heritage.
The project, entitled ‘Valle de Fenauso, territorial uses and customs from the pre-European period to the present day’, responds to a public demand, since “for years the Los Mahos de La Degollada Residents' Association has been calling for this research in order to learn about the history of their village,” Perera explains.
The intervention focuses mainly on recovering the surrounding exterior through an open-area excavation that will make it possible to “locate walls and understand how the cave is arranged in order to gain access to the interior,” says Jesús Cáceres, the project director. Although the team is also “working on the interior of the volcanic tube to see whether we can find an aboriginal occupation floor in the living areas,” he clarifies.
The cavity has been “covered by the ash from Timanfaya and other sediments, so the floors may be fairly intact and well preserved, which will allow us to uncover a space little altered by the passing of the years,” the project director anticipates.
It should be noted that the roof is not sufficiently stable, because there have been collapses that have disturbed part of the material, so “for the moment it is too dangerous to work inside” on a permanent basis, says Joaquim Ehrenhofer, an archaeologist on this intervention.
Preliminary phases
This project involves comprehensive historical research into the Valle de Fenauso, which has entailed a study of the written sources held in the Yaiza Historical Archive, as well as a review of the eighteenth-century notarial records in the Joaquín Blanco Provincial Archive of Las Palmas.
Oral information is also a fundamental resource in approaching this study, both for archaeological reasons and for cultural and linguistic ones, which is why oral interviews have been conducted with people, mostly elderly, connected to the valley, who have helped to locate the site that is now being excavated.
Before carrying out the archaeological excavation in the Cueva del Majo, detailed surveys of the area were undertaken, with 3D topographic surveying of the casas hondas and archaeological test pits to confirm the attribution of the sites, since no archaeological record was visible on the surface.
That said, the body of data generated by the fieldwork has made it possible to document in detail heritage structures of great richness and singularity that are still preserved. In this way, knowledge is being expanded about the history of this part of the hamlet of La Degollada from the aboriginal period to the present day.