Human remains found on the beach at Vallehermoso have more than 15 centuries of age, according to analyses done on this archaeological site, which today constitutes the most important funeral site on the island of La Gomera. The Island Council disseminates the findings through a cycle of conferences which began this weekend at the Casa de la Cultura Pedro Garcia Cabrera, located in the northern borough.

The initiative, which will take place over the next three weekends - the 16th, 17th, 23rd, 30th and 31st of May - and is promoted by the Heritage Unit of the insular institution, counts on the collaboration of the municipality of Vallehermoso and the University of La Laguna, whose technicians have led the investigation and whose laboratories have served for studies which have been conducted on the burial space, in order to ascertain the reality in which the aboriginal people of La Gomera lived.

José Afonso, Archaeologist; Constantino Criado, Doctor of Geography; Rosa Fregel, Biologist; Juan Francisco Navarro, Doctor of Archaeology, and Juan Carlos Hernández, Archaeologist, will be responsible for disclosing to the public the secrets kept by this deposit discovered in May 2005, where the bodies of up to 15 individuals have been counted, in addition to remnants of fauna and ceramics.

Casimiro Curbelo, the president of the Island Council, highlights strong interest in this site, as it is the first one of its kind on La Gomera where human remains have been found on a beach, and stresses that the goal is to maximize the information that the site offers "to be able to enhance the conservation of our archaeological heritage and the knowledge of our past."

The Heritage Unit of the Cabildo de La Gomera, responsible for the extractions, also underscores the keen interest in this burial site which exceeded the initial expectations, since what was thought to be a single necropolis became two primary, clearly differentiated spaces. In addition, household materials, although numerically inferior, joined the skeletal remains, which show the existence of a settlement area very near the necropolis.

Shells, remnants of limpets and fish, sheep and goats are also part of the archaeological site of Vallehermoso, of which an exhaustive inventory has been done, including material such as stone utensils, which according to experts have also helped to determine the period of the site.