Zanata Stone

The so-called Zanata Stone is a small rock with incised petroglyphs. The stone was found in 1992 in the village of El Tanque in the north- west of the island. Currently, the Zanata - stone in the Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre (Santa Cruz de Tenerife).

The Zanata - stone has the shape of a fish. According to statements by Rafael González Antón, Director of the Archaeological Museum of Tenerife, the stone contains an inscription in the Tifinagh script, which he reads as Zanata. Here is a link with the magical- religious ideas of the Guanches is believed the natives of the Canary Islands.

The inscription led to the theory that the Phoenicians had built in the Canary Islands with Berber labor trade offices. The Guanches of Tenerife would therefore belonged to the Berber tribe of the Zanata. Some historians, however, are of the opinion that it is a fake in this stone. Even if the stone should be genuine, they consider it inappropriate to draw out a few characters so far-reaching implications for the origin of the island's population.