A rock engraving

What links the ancient Canarians with Numidia?

The research of a rock engraving provides new data about the ancient inhabitants of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. According to the finding, they had contact with cultures from North Africa, specifically with peoples from the territory of Numidia.

The petroglyph that confirms the historical connection

The find consists of a petroglyph that mentions a son or member of the Cemidán clan. The text is written in an ancient Libyan-Latin alphabet. This indicates that the early inhabitants of these islands used a language related to that of the Numidian communities.

This inscription was reinterpreted by the archaeologist José Juan Jiménez, a PhD in Prehistory from the University of La Laguna (ULL). According to his research, this use of the alphabet suggests that the same tribal group colonized both islands at the beginning of our era. Later, the group would have split after arriving at each one.

Two scripts in the Canary Archipelago

The rock records show that the ancient Canarians handled two writing systems: the Libyco-Latin and the Libyco-Berber. Although both were used during the early centuries of our era, the geographical use of one or the other varied according to the island.

The Libyan-Latin alphabet is only found in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. In contrast, the Libyan-Berber system appears on all the islands, with adaptations specific to each one.

Parallels with North African inscriptions

The most surprising thing is that there are similar texts in North Africa. They are mainly found in what is today northeastern Algeria, Tunisia, and northwestern Libya. These coincidences allowed the translation of steles and epitaphs that mention names of tribes, affiliations, titles, and personal names using two different scripts.

This study reinforces the linguistic and cultural ties between the peoples of North Africa and the Canary Islands, which you can see live with our webcams from [Location]. Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. It also opens new lines of research on pre-Hispanic migration routes.