Santander, Feb 2 (EFE) .
Archaeologists Lino Mantecón and Javier Marcos Martínez have confirmed the discovery of an intervertebral disc and a piece of rib from this large marine mammal which, according to the pieces, must have exceeded 16 meters in length.
The archaeological works “are going to mark a before and after in the history of Santander”, the Santander councilor for Development, César Díaz, assured in a press release, after the discovery of these cetacean remains in the deepest strata of the site , near the wall.
According to those responsible for the work, the vestiges found may respond to whaling in Santander, although the possibility of a feast or a similar celebration taking advantage of the stranded specimens on the coast is not ruled out, since the remains are contextualized in a space full of seashells next to coals and medieval ceramics.
However, archaeologists also consider that on those dates “the fishing activity of these large marine mammals is more than confirmed”, to which a legendary burden was attached in the medieval imagination, although the quotes from that time referring to hunting in the town of Santander “are not very eloquent”.
The pollock sites in the Cantabrian Sea used to have rights over these fisheries, almost always reserving a part of the animal.
In addition, there is evidence that at the beginning of the 17th century there was a factory or “house of whales” in Santander.
The director of the Cantabrian Maritime Museum and expert in cetaceans, Gerardo García Castrillo, has been the one who has verified the affiliation of the fragments.
Specifically, it is an intervertebral disc of a mystelid or baleen, similar to a fin whale, the second largest cetacean after the blue whale.
Given the interest of the findings, the archaeologists decided to collect some samples from the level of the vestiges and send them to an American laboratory for their absolute dating.
Carbon 14 testing of a charcoal found alongside the whalebone fragment has provided a date from the mid-12th to the mid-20th centuries.
The archaeological project of Los Azogues is still underway, so “the discovery of other vestiges linked to the remote relationship between the human communities of the town of Santander and the whale cannot be ruled out,” the mayor stressed.