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November 2019 - December 2024
May 2012 - April 2014
January 2008 - December 2011
Publications
Publications (110)
This study aims to determine the chronological sequence of the collective burials in the hypogea of the prehistoric cemetery of La Beleña (Cabra, Córdoba) through Bayesian analyses of 14 C dates obtained from human remains. The data from this site are not only key to grasping the phenomenon of the introduction and spread of hypogea throughout the w...
The human colonization of the Canary Islands represents the sole known expansion of Berber communities into the Atlantic Ocean and is an example of marine dispersal carried out by an African population. While this island colonization shows similarities to the populating of other islands across the world, several questions still need to be answered...
Domestic horses and donkeys played a key role in the initial colonization of the Atlantic seaboard of the Americas, a process partially chronicled by historical records. While Spanish colonists brought horses to the Caribbean and southern latitudes earlier, the transport of domestic horses to the English colony at Jamestown, Virginia in 1606 was am...
The European colonization of the Canary Islands was accompanied by new farming and food processing techniques as well as new dietary patterns. The current study sheds light on the impact of these new techniques and foodstuffs by delving into the oral conditions of members of this society in this timeframe. The analyses of the oral conditions of 85...
Plant material culture can offer unique insights into the ways of life of prehistoric societies; however, its perishable nature has prevented a thorough understanding of its diverse and complex uses. Sites with exceptional preservation of organic materials provide a unique opportunity for further research. The burial site of Cueva de los Murciélago...
The Canary Islands were initially colonized around 200 CE by North African Berber populations who brought with them domestic plants and animals. These communities remained isolated until the arrival of Europeans in the Late Middle Ages which triggered the conquest of the archipelago. Its geostrategic location in the framework of Atlantic expansion...
La Beleña (Cabra, Cordova) is a necropolis made
up of collective funerary structures, hypogeum and
pits, excavated in the limestone marl and located
in the central area of Andalusia. The structures
are composed of a west-facing access pit and a
spherical funerary chamber. In some cases, the
upper part of the hypogeum has been lost due to
agricultur...
The indigenous population of the Canary Islands, which colonized the archipelago around the 3rd century CE, provides both a window into the past of North Africa and a unique model to explore the effects of insularity. We generate genome-wide data from 40 individuals from the seven islands, dated between the 3rd–16rd centuries CE. Along with compone...
Objectives:
This study presents isotopic information for incremental dentine collagen and bone bulk collagen from individuals from the Canary Islands (Tenerife and Gran Canaria) to explore dietary differences during childhood life.
Materials and methods:
Eight individuals have been studied, which comprises 122 δ15 N and δ13 C incremental dentine...
Los contextos funerarios colectivos representan un comportamiento específico ante la muerte, muy común entre las sociedades de la Prehistoria Reciente, donde, generalmente, aparecen los restos óseos de múltiples individuos mezclados. El habitual solapamiento de diversas prácticas de deposición, manipulación, reacondicionamiento y extracción de rest...
Ya está lista la segunda edición de "Novedades del Megalitismo peninsular" que se celebrará los días 14-16 de julio en el Conjunto arqueológico de Los Dólmenes de Antequera (Málaga).
Tras el éxito de la reunión "Las tumbas y los muertos, los muertos entre las tumbas" celebrada en el municipio de Reinoso (Burgos) el pasado mes de julio, anunciamos...
The Canary Islands were settled ca. 1,800 years ago by Amazigh/Berber farming populations originating in North Africa. This historical event represents the last and westernmost expansion of the Mediterranean farming package in Antiquity, and investigating it yields information about crop dispersal along the periphery of the Mediterranean world arou...
The Middle East plays a central role in human history harbouring a vast diversity of ethnic, cultural and religious groups. However, much remains to be understood about past and present genomic diversity in this region. Here we present a multidisciplinary bioarchaeological analysis of two individuals dated to the late 7th and early 8th centuries, t...
Islands in archaeology were traditionally analysed in terms of isolation and connectivity through time as well as how these phenomena affected the structuration of specific cultures and social structures. Such approaches have now declined because they could not easily deal with the diversity and variability that island worlds present to us. These i...
Este trabajo presenta los resultados del estudio pluridisciplinar de un asentamiento temporal preeuropeo situado en la Reserva Natural Especial de las Dunas de Maspalomas (Gran Canaria). Carece de estructuras estables de habitación, pero conserva de manera excepcional una estructura de combustión sobre la arena dunar. El sitio se ocupó en el cambio...
Human mobility and migration are thought to have played essential roles in the consolidation and expansion of sedentary villages, long-distance exchanges and transmission of ideas and practices during the Neolithic transition of the Near East. Few isotopic studies of human remains dating to this early complex transition offer direct evidence of mob...
The Middle East plays a central role in human history harbouring a vast diversity of ethnic, cultural and religious groups. However, much remains to be understood about past and present genomic diversity in this region. Here, we present for the first time, a multidisciplinary bioarchaeological analysis of two individuals dated to late 7th and early...
During the Early Neolithic in the Near East, particularly from the mid ninth millennium cal BC onwards, human iconography became more widespread. Explanations for this development, however, remain elusive. This article presents a unique assemblage of flint artefacts from the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (eighth millennium BC) site of Kharaysin in...
Slavery, colonialism and emancipation are important aspects of archaeological research in the Atlantic region, but the lifeways of colonial populations remain understudied in the Indian Ocean World. Here, we help to redress this imbalance by undertaking stable isotope analysis (C, N and O) on human remains from Mauritius, a location which played an...
Cremation is an unusual burial practice in the Neolithic of the Near East. At Kharaysin, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in Jordan, we found a secondary burial with evidence of burnt human bones. This paper assesses (1) the intentionality of fire-induced alterations on human bones, (2) the pre-burning condition of the human remains, and (3) their sign...
Cremation is a widespread funerary practice that aims to burn the body and create a new appearance of human remains. It has been interpreted as a ritual transition that includes a sequence of acts and processes aimed at commemorating the dead on an individual and collective scale. In the Near East, fire-induced manipulation or cremation was not a u...
In the pre-Hispanic necropolis of Juan Primo, northwest Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain) a grave was found containing a 20-25 year-old woman with a foetus in her abdominal region, whose age at death was estimated at 33-35 weeks of gestation. The purpose of this study is to discuss the possible cause of death of the woman and foetus. Skeletons o...
This contribution aims at understanding the storage
techniques used in the past by means of studying the
entomological and plant remains present in the pre-hispanic
granary of Risco Pintado, dated between the IX
and XV centuries cal AD. This type of granary groups
together a large number of silos excavated in the volcanic
tuff, situated on steep es...
The Canary Islands’ indigenous people have been the subject of substantial archaeological, anthropological, linguistic and genetic research pointing to a most probable North African Berber source. However, neither agreement about the exact point of origin nor a model for the indigenous colonization of the islands has been established. To shed light...
Summary of mtDNA results for all ancient NGS samples analyzed in this study.
(XLSX)
Combined calibrated radiocarbon per archaeological site (A) and per mtDNA lineage (B).
(PDF)
Phylogenetic tree of complete sequences of a sample (n = 18) from the modern population of the Canary Islands.
The most probable geographic origin of the sequences is indicated using a color code.
(PDF)
Phylogenetic tree of complete haplogroup J1c3 sequences.
GenBank accessions and geographic origin are indicated for each complete sequence taken from the bibliography. Color codes are as in Figure S5.
(PDF)
Radicarbon dates used in this study.
(XLSX)
Available mtDNA genomes for the modern population of the Canary Islands.
(XLSX)
Phylogenetic tree containing of all available mitogenomes from the ancient and modern populations of Canary Islands.
The island of origin and time period (ancient vs. modern) are indicated using a color code.
(PDF)
Phylogenetic tree of complete haplogroup H1cf sequences.
GenBank accessions and geographic origin are indicated for each complete sequence taken from the bibliography. The origin of the samples is indicated using a color code: the indigenous people of the Canary Islands (yellow); modern Canarians (orange); North Africans (green); Europeans (light b...
Coalescence ages for mtDNA haplogroups observed in the indigenous population of the Canary Islands.
All the coalescence ages have been calculated in this study, except for H2a, H3 and T2b, whose ages have been obtained from previous results (Behar et al. 2008). The red dotted line correspond with the colonization time of the Canary Islands based on...
Phylogenetic tree of complete haplogroup L3b1a sequences.
GenBank accessions and geographic origin are indicated for each complete sequence taken from the bibliography. Sub-haplogroups in dark grey and white fonts indicate newly defined branches. Color codes are as in S5 Fig.
(PDF)
Phylogenetic tree of complete haplogroup U6a7a1 sequences.
GenBank accessions and geographic origin are indicated for each complete sequence taken from the bibliography. Color codes are as in Figure S5.
(PDF)
Detailed HVR data on the indigenous population of the Canary Islands.
(XLSX)
Haplogroup frequencies for the modern population of the Canary Islands.
(XLSX)
Phylogenetic tree of complete ancient Canarian mtDNA sequences generated in this study.
Number along links refers to nucleotide changes, whereas “@”, “d” and “i” indicates back mutations, deletions and insertions, respectively. Recurrent mutations, such as 309iC, 315iC and 16519, have not been taken into account.
(PDF)
Phylogenetic tree of complete haplogroup H4a1 sequences.
GenBank accessions and geographic origin are indicated for each complete sequence taken from the bibliography. Sub-haplogroups in dark grey and white fonts indicate newly defined branches. Color codes are as in S5 Fig.
(PDF)
Phylogenetic tree of complete haplogroup X3a sequences.
GenBank accessions and geographic origin are indicated for each complete sequence taken from the bibliography. Color codes are as in Figure S5.
(PDF)
Phylogenetic tree of complete haplogroup U6c sequences.
GenBank accessions and geographic origin are indicated for each complete sequence taken from the bibliography. Color codes are as in Figure S5.
(PDF)
Populations used for comparisons in this study.
(XLSX)
Phylogenetic tree of complete haplogroup H1e1a sequences.
GenBank accessions and geographic origin are indicated for each complete sequence taken from the bibliography. Sub-haplogroups in dark grey and white fonts indicate newly defined branches. Color codes are as in S5 Fig.
(PDF)
Phylogenetic tree of complete haplogroup U6a1a1 sequences.
GenBank accessions and geographic origin are indicated for each complete sequence taken from the bibliography. Color codes are as in Figure S5.
(PDF)
Phylogenetic tree of complete haplogroup U6b1a sequences.
GenBank accessions and geographic origin are indicated for each complete sequence taken from the bibliography. Color codes are as in Figure S5.
(PDF)
Phylogenetic tree of complete haplogroup J2a2d sequences.
GenBank accessions and geographic origin are indicated for each complete sequence taken from the bibliography. Sub-haplogroups in dark grey and white fonts indicate newly defined branches. Color codes are as in S5 Fig.
(PDF)
Phylogenetic tree of complete haplogroup T2c1d sequences.
GenBank accessions and geographic origin are indicated for each complete sequence taken from the bibliography. Sub-haplogroups in dark grey and white fonts indicate newly defined branches. Color codes are as in S5 Fig.
(PDF)
List of archaeological specimens used in this study.
(PDF)
Detailed phylogeographic analysis of the Canarian ancient mitogenomes.
(PDF)
Objective: We analyze the processing sequence involved in the manufacture of a skull‐cup and the manipulation of human bones from the Early Neolithic of Cueva de El Toro (Málaga, Spain). Materials and methods The Early Neolithic material studied includes human remains found in two separate assemblages. Assemblage A consists of one skull‐cup, a non‐...
This paper address the study of the child mummies preserved in El Museo Canario. We analyse their anthropological traits, the information related to the archaeological context of origin, and in what way these mummies were recovered and were deposited in this museum. All these data contribute to understand on one hand, how the concept of «mummy» was...
Los contextos funerarios representan una realidad arqueológica con enorme significación social para profundizar en el conocimiento de las sociedades pasadas. Estas realidades arqueológicas materializan un conjunto de prácticas y concepciones culturales que desarrollan y fortalecen identidades, memorias colectivas y relaciones sociales. Pero
tambié...
Las especies de Spondylus constituyen un grupo de moluscos de gran importancia dentro de las culturas americanas desde el tercer milenio a.C. hasta el siglo XVII, recuperando su importancia en las décadas recientes. El presente artículo es una cronología sintética del simbolismo del Spondylus en diferentes culturas del pasado de Suramérica. Mediant...
Esta contribución tiene el propósito de reflexionar sobre el papel de la mujer en la sociedad aborigen de Gran Canaria. En el texto se consideran una serie de evidencias arqueológicas y etnohistóricas que sugieren que las relaciones sociales de los antiguos canarios estaban sustentadas en un sistema de género asimétrico dominado por los hombres. La...
The Canary Islands’ indigenous people have been the subject of substantial archaeological, anthropological, linguistic and genetic research pointing to a most probable North African Berber source. However, neither agreement about the exact point of origin nor a model for the indigenous colonization of the islands has been established. To shed light...
In the post-Brexit horizon, it is important to reinforce the links between British and Iberian Archaeology to secure the future vitality of an already fruitful joint trajectory. This workshop on archaeological research in the Iberian Peninsula intends to bring together researchers working in the UK involved in this region. The main goals for the ev...
Significance
The acquisition of agricultural techniques during the so-called Neolithic revolution has been one of the major steps forward in human history. Using next-generation sequencing and ancient-DNA techniques, we directly test whether Neolithization in North Africa occurred through the transmission of ideas or by demic diffusion. We show tha...
The extent to which prehistoric migrations of farmers influenced the genetic pool of western North Africans remains unclear. Archaeological evidence suggests the Neolithization process may have happened through the adoption of innovations by local Epipaleolithic communities, or by demic diffusion from the Eastern Mediterranean shores or Iberia. Her...
Por primera vez en el estudio del fenómeno megalítico del sureste de la Península Ibérica se ha obtenido una serie radiocarbónica para el análisis de sus manifestaciones más antiguas. Se han datado 30 restos antropológicos de sepulturas tipo rundgräber y de tumbas de cámara y corredor pertenecientes a las necrópolis de Las Churuletas, La Atalaya y...
The way of dressing for any life event express collective recognition itself and, in short, are attributes that define the social essence of being. Beyond a way of expressing personal identity, clothing display has a deep ethnic and cultural significance and, as any social action, represents a consensus code of meanings. In recent research about th...
Perimortem traumas have been identified in a pre-Hispanic Canary mummy (fifth-sixth centuries cal AD). The location and nature of the fractures in the cranium, cervical vertebrae, ribs and both legs indicate a fall from a considerable height, which would have been the cause of death. Supported by forensic anthropology criteria and historical inform...
The panda’s false thumb is an iconic structure, described as one of the most shocking cases of anatomical convergence, and has been studied in many essays about evolution. However, in a recent paper in which we evaluated this feature within the Carnivora, we concluded that the developed radial sesamoid could be taken as a plesiomorphic character fo...
Members of the bivalve molluscan family Spondylidae were very important elements in the world view of pre-
Hispanic cultures of America, and today remain as symbols of culture heritage in contemporary society. In recent decades, given the importance they have for crafts and jewelry, as well as for fisheries and gastronomy, their exploitation has ca...
Kharaysin is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site located in the village of Quneya, in the Zarqa River valley, over 25 ha
in size and dating from the 9th millennium cal BC. Two occupation levels have been documented. In excavation
area IJ100, two oval semi-sunken houses with plaster floors were excavated; these dated from the beginning of the
9th millenniu...
Objectives:
The Canary Islands are considered one of the first places where Atlantic slave plantations with labourers of African origin were established, during the 15th century AD. In Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain), a unique cemetery dated to the 15th and 17th centuries was discovered adjacent to an ancient sugar plantation with funerary pr...
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