This fall, the Rubicón excavations in Yaiza are focused on structures linked to water. The seventh archaeological season at the site of San Marcial del Rubicón, the first European settlement in the Canary Islands, from the 15th century, aims to confirm or rule out more wells mentioned in 16th- and 17th-century written sources and in present-day oral accounts.

What the archaeologists are looking for

Four wells are known at the site, but some accounts speak of six or seven: the ravine under study was heavily used in those centuries. On Saturday, October 10, halfway through a five-week season, the Yaiza town council reported that the team has found several structures linked to water use that cannot yet be confirmed as wells.

Other work this season

This year the team chose not to reopen areas already excavated, such as homes or fortifications, and to look for spaces with different uses. Following the geophysical survey from the first two seasons, it has opened an area that may have served as a lime store, linked to the lime kiln found two years ago. It is also digging in the area that professors Antonio Tejera and Eduardo Aznar called the “Cathedral Square,” where so far only more recent uses have turned up. The aim is to learn what it was used for when the town stood.

Key facts about the Rubicón excavations

The work is led by archaeologists María del Cristo González, Esther Chávez, Nona Perera, Luis Alejandro García and Miguel Ángel Hervás, with the firm Baraka Arqueólogos and students from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the University of La Laguna. The Government of the Canary Islands, the islands’ two public universities and the Yaiza town council are the project’s partners.

The site lies in the Rubicón, the strip of southwest coast next to the Papagayo beaches where the first town, the first castle and the first cathedral in the Canary Islands were built.

→ The full story in our guide to San Marcial del Rubicón.

Published: Oct 17, 2026. Official sources: Ayuntamiento de Yaiza.