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Introduction
Current institution
El Museo Canario
Current position
- Curator
Publications
Publications (86)
El desarrollo de la arqueología feminista y de género en la década de 1980 supuso la posterior introducción en Canarias de algunas estrategias de acercamiento al pasado orientadas a analizar las relaciones de género y los roles y condiciones de las mujeres indígenas desde perspectivas críticas con la arqueología tradicional. Sin embargo, ese interé...
En este trabajo se toman en consideración algunas de las materias que en el curso de las primeras décadas del siglo XXI han sido objeto de debate o reformulación en la investigación arqueológica canaria. En un ejercicio de reflexión global se abordan asuntos como la precisión y fiabilidad del C14 como herramienta de análisis histórico en las islas,...
Se analiza el estado de la investigación sobre las prácticas funerarias de las poblaciones prehispánicas de Gran Canaria. Para ello se valoran las propuestas sobre este tema desde los inicios de la arqueología en la isla, atendiendo a las grandes tendencias y planteamientos de cada época. Con este punto de partida, se presenta la situación actual,...
The island of Lanzarote is marked by a scarce preservation of skeletal remains of the Libyan-Berber populations
that inhabited there between the beginnings of the Common Era and the Norman Conquest in the 15th century.
This is an anomalous situation for people that lived uninterruptedly on the island for about 1400 years. The
recent study of the fe...
The Canaries were the only Macaronesian archipelago to have had a stable population before the European expansion in the Atlantic in the late Middle Ages. North African indigenous populations occupied the Canary Islands in the first centuries of the 1st millennium CE and formed island communities whose historical definition amalgamates traditions f...
Reunión inicial de la red de investigación XYLONET (RED2022-134510-T) financiada en el marco de la convocatoria Redes de investigación 2022. Programa Estatal para impulsar la investigación científico-técnica y su transferencia –Redes Temáticas por la Agencia Estatal de Investigación y el Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades. La importa...
This paper addresses the first case of perimortem trauma caused by a sharp metal weapon in a pre-Hispanic cranium in Gran Canaria (Canary Islands) dated before the first contacts with Europeans in the late Middle Ages. The fact that metalliferous minerals did not exist in the archipelago confers extraordinary significance to this injury, as evidenc...
Lanzarote is marked by a scarce preservation of skeletal remains of the Berber populations that inhabited the island before the Norman Conquest in the 15th century AD. This is an anomalous situation for people that lived uninterruptedly on the island for about 1,400 years.The recent study of the few available human bones is providing transcendental...
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...
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...
To understand the relationship between past peoples and the sea in a context of oceanic islands, just as in the case of other cultural behaviours, it is necessary to consider many more factors than the mere proximity to the coast. Traditions, ways of life, sailing ability and knowledge, diet, and so on, determine the way in which this relationship...
Based on analyses carried out with plant material found in mummy shrouds preserved in the archaeological museum El Museo Canario, a putatively extinct new species of Ruta (Rutaceae) was identified and is described here as R. museocanariensis. The mummies were found in the funerary sites of Acusa and the Barranco de Guayadeque on Gran Canaria, Canar...
La colonización de las Islas Canarias ha sido objeto de diversos trabajos; sin embargo, la implantación humana en los diferentes territorios y su evolución en el tiempo es una cuestión que prácticamente no ha recibido atención en la investigación. En este trabajo presentamos una propuesta interpretativa de las dinámicas de ocupación de la isla de G...
Archaeoentomology in funerary contexts provides relevant information regarding the treatment of the corpse, the taphonomic history of the human remains and the main features of the burial sites. These data are especially interesting for the study of the mummies of Gran Canaria for several reasons. Firstly, the mummy collection of El Museo Canario w...
This paper explores the ritual use of dogs in the funeral practices of the ancient Ca-narians. Specifically, the material refers to two premolars that were individually associated with mummies 11 and 18, both coming from Guayadeque ravine. Taking into account that only two cases have been recorded within the extensively known mortuary repertoire on...
Resumen Este trabajo profundiza en la periodización de las prácticas funerarias de los antiguos ca-narios. Se aportan nuevas fechas y se usa un tratamiento bayesiano de las dataciones para examinar los intervalos de inicio, final y tasa de cambio de las tres categorías sepulcrales definidas: cuevas, túmulos y fosas/cistas. Los cambios en las prácti...
This paper delves into the proposal for periodisation of funerary practices among the Ancient Canarians. New radiocarbon dates are provided together with a Bayesian treatment used to estimate the onset and later tempo of the three burial categories previously established: caves, tumuli, and pit-graves/cists, as well as their temporal activity patte...
This article addresses the study of an indigenous burial at Mina Mountain (Lanzarote), dating from cal A.D. 1300 to 1402. Pre-European funerary contexts in Lanzarote are scarce, resulting in a particular historical situation for a population that lived on the island for at least 1,400 years, whose dead people and burial sites are virtually unknown....
This paper addresses a brief overview of the contributions that the research project entitled«Bodies, objects, and spaces. Convergent deaths, divergent deaths», has made to the knowledge of the pre-Hispanic population of Gran Canaria. From the characterization of the funerary manifestations and the evaluation of the available radiocarbon dates, an...
This paper addresses the revision of the archaeological remains from three caves of Las Huesas necropolis (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria). The study is part of a project focused on re-reading the collections from funerary contexts housed in El Museo Canario. The main objective is to integrate these specific archaeological remains into the current hist...
Objective
To analyse the oral conditions of pre-Hispanic mummies from Gran Canaria (5th-11th centuries AD), comparing the results with published data from the non-mummified population.
Materials
440 teeth and 764 alveoli of 30 adult mummies.
Methods
Macroscopic examination of pathological and non-pathological features of the oral cavity, using st...
In this paper, we perform the first multidisciplinary study of perinatal burials at a Pre‐Hispanic domestic site in Gran Canaria. For that, we carried out bioanthropological analyses, the genetic determination of the molecular sex of the individuals, and the contextualization of their chronological and cultural affiliations. To date, these remains...
This paper addresses the study of tumulus necropolises among the pre-Hispanic population of Gran Canaria. In this first characterisation, their emergence is contextualised in the social framework of the ancient Canarians and historical links with the North African sphere are proposed. Published radiocarbon determinations for the tumulus phenomenon...
The island of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain) shows great potential for studying the wooden raw materials used by the indigenous population during the Prehispanic period based on xylological analyses from domestic and funerary contexts. This paper includes archaeobotanical data from wooden funerary artefacts recovered from several archaeologic...
Este trabajo aborda el estudio de la dinámica poblacional y demográfica de la ocupación prehispánica de Gran Canaria. Para ello se ha recurrido al análisis de la distribución del sumatorio de probabilidad de las dataciones radiocarbónicas procedentes, en este caso, de contextos funerarios. Los resultados obtenidos se compararon con dos modelos teór...
The hard and soft tissue remains of a pre-Hispanic population of the Gran Canaria Island at six different archaeological localities were studied using 14C dating and stable isotope compositions. Radiocarbon dating indicates island occupation ranging from the beginning of the 7th to the mid-14th century. We analyzed the oxygen isotope compositions o...
In recent years, research on the aboriginal population of Gran Canaria has confirmed the intentional introduction of human skeletal remains in primary funerary deposits. In some cases, it is evident that this action occurs when the body is being wrapped in a shroud, which closely relates it to the mortuary ritual and rules out possible contemporary...
Las poblaciones aborígenes canarias llegaron desde el continente africano con un bagaje cultural de raíz amazigh, en el que sin duda se incluían sus costumbres funerarias. En las últimas décadas, la intervención y estudio de sitios funerarios se ha incrementado considerablemente, proporcionando con ello una sólida base para la renovación del conoci...
This paper focuses on an unusual Pre-Hispanic burial, 11-12th century cal AD, from Fuerteventura Island. The pattern of injuries of the skeletal remains, together with the grave's features suggest exceptional circumstances of death and funerary treatment differing from those commonly observed elsewhere among the indigenous population of the Canary...
This paper analyzes different forms of violence identified among the ancient Canarians, a population that settled an oceanic island and remained there, without regular external contacts, for more than a millennium. Specifically, we focus on a funerary deposit composed of 14 individuals with high rates of violence, in some cases of a lethal nature....
Se presentan los resultados del estudio de la vitrina 2 de la sala de antropología del Museo La Fortaleza-El Hao. Según la etiqueta de referencia, el contenido de la vitrina fue extraído en 1950 de una cueva funeraria colectiva del barranco de Guayadeque. Para el responsable del museo esta constituía un sepulcro familiar del siglo I d.C. No obstant...
Abstract: This paper aims to provide some elements of reflection focus on the use of radiocarbon and the design of the different hypotheses about the establishment of North African populations in the Canary Islands. In addition, a set of carbon 14 dates from some funeral contexts of Gran Canaria are presented. These new dates, together with others...
In archaeological cultures, classifying historical processes is a complex task when their timeframe is missing. Such a circumstance has represented a secular handicap hindering the knowledge of the first inhabitants of Gran Canaria, accentuated by the shortage of chronological references that allow the understanding of the occupation of a territory...
In archaeological cultures, classifying historical processes is a complex task when their timeframe is missing. Such a circumstance has represented a secular handicap hindering the knowledge of the first inhabitants of Gran Canaria, accentuated by the shortage of chronological references that allow the understanding of the occupation of a territory...
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...
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)
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...
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...
A study of the archaeological remains contained in showcase nº2 of La Fortaleza-El Hao museum has been conducted. According to the identification label, the remains were gathered in 1950 from a collective funerary cave in the Guayadeque ravine. For the head of the museum it was a family grave dated in the 1st century AD. However, the accuracy of th...
Extraordinary Word Congress on Mummy Studies, organized by Cabildo Insular
de Tenerife, from 21 to 25 May 2018.
Archaeoentomology in funerary contexts provides relevant information regarding the
treatment of the corpse, the taphonomic history of the human remains and the main
features of the burial sites. These data can be especially interesting for the study of
the mummies of Gran Canaria for several reasons. Firstly, the mummy collection of
El Museo Ca...
This paper addresses the study of a pre-European funerary deposit located on the coast of Corralejo, in Fuerteventura (11th century AD cal). The location of the grave, the formal features of the deposit and the injuries pattern identified in the skeletal remains suggest exceptional circumstances of death and mortuary treatment, different from what...
The approach to Gran Canaria's Prehispanic period has traditionally been dominated by a romantic and propitious view of its indigenous populations advocating a historical evolution on the margin of the conflicts and contradictions common to any society. Yet new data indicate that the ancient Canarians were subject to high rates of internal violence...
The «Mummies. 3D Biographies» project is a bet of El Museo Canario on coming together research and diffusion based on new information and communication technologies (ICT). In order to achieve this objective, a multidisciplinary team was set up, integrated by specialist on bioarchaeology, archaeology and digitalization of cultural heritage.
The proj...
Objectives
This paper addresses the prevalence and pattern of physical violence in the prehispanic society of Gran Canaria and discusses its link with the social structure and insular context in which that people lived.
Materials and Methods
347 prehispanic crania from Guayadeque Ravine (575–1415 AD) have been examined in order to determine the fre...
El proyecto «Momias. Biografías en 3D» representa una apuesta emprendida desde El Museo Canario por aunar investigación científica y difusión desde las nuevas tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC). Para ello se configuró un equipo de carácter multidisciplinar en el que participaran especialistas en el ámbito de la bioantropología, d...
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...
In the course of human migrations, domestic animals often have been translocated to islands with the aim of assuring food availability. These founder events are expected to leave a genetic footprint that may be recognised nowadays. Herewith, we have examined the mitochondrial diversity of goat populations living in the Canarian and Balearic archipe...
European expansion in the Atlantic in the late Middle Ages often implied the use of violence, involving tactics and weaponry unknown to some of the affected populations. Among the first places to suffer this violence were the Canary Islands, whose conquest lasted the whole of the fifteenth century. Documentary information about this historical epis...
Background
Canarian Black (CB) pigs belong to an autochthonous and endangered breed, which is spread throughout the Canarian archipelago. It is commonly accepted that they represent a relic of the pig populations that were bred by the Berbers in North Africa over millennia. It is important to note that the geographic isolation of the Canary Islands...
«In the ambiguity of your skin. About mummies and tombs». We offer some reflections on
the mortuary practices of the ancient canaries and, particularly, about the phenomenon of
mummification. It begins with a brief historiographical review of the basis on which it has
built the notion of mummy. Next, the analysis of this entity is proposed, not as...
Sex determination using mandible parameters is population dependent. In order to assess which measurements better characterize sex in prehispanic individuals from the Canary Islands, we blindly contrasted the results obtained by visual inspection and osteometric measurements with those obtained by molecular sexing using amelogenin ancient DNA analy...
In the prehispanic Gran Canaria there are some anthropological differences between the coastal inhabitants who buried their dead mainly in tumuli, and those from the central mountains, mainly buried in caves. Some data, as the prevalence of auricular exostoses, and a different bone Ba/Sr ratio support the view that there were differences in economy...
The island of Gran Canaria was inhabited in pre-Hispanic times by people of North African origin who arrived on the island towards the second half of the first millennium BC. In previous studies, we reported that there are some differences between the coastal inhabitants from Gran Canaria, mainly buried in tumuli, and those from the central mountai...
1. INTRODUCCION La participación en los últimos años de diferentes estrategias de investigación en la reconstrucción de grupos humanos del pasado ha puesto de manifiesto la posibilidad de desarrollar aproximaciones desde análisis más diversificados que contribuyan a profundizar en el conocimiento de sus formas de vida. Un repaso a la bibliografía a...
