In the Bowels of the Volcano. Lethal violence in the dissemination of AMAZIGH groups to the Canary islands

• Published in: Quaternary science reviews 2024-11, Vol.343, p.108895, Article 108895
• Main Authors: Alberto-Barroso, Verónica, Delgado-Darias, Teresa, Moreno-Benítez, Marco, Suárez-Medina, Ibán, Mendoza-Medina, Félix, Velasco-Vázquez, Javier
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Colonisation process; Island archaeology; Island-amazigh population; Lethal violence; Overkilling; Sharp/blunt force trauma
• ISSN: 0277-3791
• DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108895

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 few available human bones is providing transcendental data for the knowledge of the ways and conditions of life and, especially, of conflicts involving physical violence. The aim of this paper is to analyse the evidence of bone trauma in two individuals, male and female respectively, and to discuss the cause of their deaths. The results indicate the male was repeatedly stabbed, with a kind of dagger that could not be manufactured in the Canary Islands due to the absence of metal ores. This suggests a form of deadly violence unknown among the indigenous population. In contrast, the traces observed in the female individual, consisting of several energetic blows to the skull, are in line with the lethal violence practices of the Canarian indigenous populations, albeit executed to an extreme degree. Both cases display patterns of lesions revealing different forms of violence of significant interest for the comprehension of the conflicts and historical contexts in which they occurred. Apart from the lethal injuries themselves, the early chronology of the remains and the type of weapons used provide new data to explore the initial stages of the island's stable colonisation. For this same reason, it is a good opportunity to reflect on the expressions of violence among mainland Amazigh populations, scarcely known from an archaeological perspective, based on the behavioural models they bring to the islands. •We explore the early stages of colonisation of an oceanic island by indigenous North African groups at the beginning of the first millennium CE.•Two cases of lethal violence are analysed, allowing the identification of hitherto unknown cultural scenarios.•High rates of physical violence are identified in the oldest human remains of the Canary Islands.•The type of weapons and the pattern of wounds allow the distinction between indigenous and foreign models of violence.