Las Cuevas de Bencomo (La Orotava, Tenerife).  De la historiografía al dato arqueológico

Marrero-Salas, Efraín; González, Hacomar Ruiz; Avila, Juan Carlos García; Sossa-Ríos, Santiago; Hernández, Ithaisa Abreu; Cancel, Sandra

doi:10.51349/veg.2021.1.19

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 20 publications

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“…Its formation is volcanogenic, possibly a blister or pressure-ridge cave, commonly associated with massive basalt lava flows (Mentzer, 2016). The first excavations in the northern part of the cave recovered a rich archaeological assemblage including pottery, lithic tools on basalt, ornaments, sheep/goat bone fragments, shells, wooden artifacts, post holes, and fireplaces (Diego Cuscoy, 1962;Navarro Mederos et al, 2013;Pais Pais, 2017). Subsequent excavation seasons (1974; 1979-1980; 2000) focused on the central area, and the latest were geared at assessing the preservation of the stratigraphic profiles, which had been affected by many tourist visits to the site, lizard and rodent activity, and torrential floods (Hernández Pérez, 1999;Morales et al, 2007).…”

Section: Site Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing formation processes at the Canary Islands indigenous site of Belmaco Cave (La Palma, Spain) through a multiproxy geoarchaeological approach

et al. 2023

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The indigenous populations of La Palma (Canary Islands), who arrived on the island from Northwest Africa ca. 2000 years B.P., were predominantly pastoralists. Yet, many aspects of their subsistence economy such as the procurement, management, and use of wild plant resources remain largely unknown. To explore this, we studied the 600–1100‐year‐old archaeological site of Belmaco Cave, which comprises a stratified sedimentary deposit representative of a fumier. Here, we present a high‐resolution, multiproxy geoarchaeological study combining soil micromorphology, lipid biomarker analysis, X‐ray diffraction, μ‐X‐ray diffraction, μ‐X‐ray fluorescence, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and μ‐Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, to characterize formation processes and explore plant sources. Recurrent goat/sheep habitation and maintenance activities are represented by interstratified layers of unburned dung, charcoal‐rich sediment, and dung ash. Lipid biomarker data show a herd diet mainly composed of herbaceous plants, which is key to understanding the mobility of indigenous shepherds. Our results also revealed an unusual suite of authigenic minerals including hazenite, aragonite, and sylvite, possibly formed through diagenetic processes involving interaction between ash, dung, urine, volcanogenic components, and bacterial activity, coupled with arid and alkaline conditions. Our study shows the potential of a multiproxy approach to a fumier deposit in a volcanogenic sedimentary context.

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Section: Site Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing formation processes at the Canary Islands indigenous site of Belmaco Cave (La Palma, Spain) through a multiproxy geoarchaeological approach

et al. 2023

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Agriculture and crop dispersal in the western periphery of the Old World: the Amazigh/Berber settling of the Canary Islands (ca. 2nd–15th centuries ce)

Morales,

Speciale,

Rodríguez-Rodríguez

et al. 2023

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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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 around the turn of the first millennium ce. The current study focuses on archaeobotanical evidence recorded in a series of pre-Hispanic/Amazigh sites of the Canary Islands (ca. 2nd–15th centuries ce). It offers new, unpublished archaeobotanical findings and direct radiocarbon datings of plant remains from the different islands. The general goal is to gain a better grasp of how the first settlers of the Canary Islands adapted their farming activities to the different natural conditions of each island. The results suggest a shared crop ‘package’ throughout the islands since at least the 3rd–5th centuries ce. This set of plants was likely introduced from north-western Africa and consists of Hordeum vulgare (hulled barley), Triticum durum (durum wheat), Lens culinaris (lentil), Vicia faba (broad bean), Pisum sativum (pea), and Ficus carica (fig). The crop ‘package’ probably arrived in a single episode during the initial colonisation and was not followed by any other plants. Subsequent to the initial settling and until the arrival of the European seafarers, the islands remained isolated from each other and from the outside world, a condition that over time led to a decline in crop diversity in all of the islands except Gran Canaria.

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Las Cuevas de Bencomo (La Orotava, Tenerife). De la historiografía al dato arqueológico

Cited by 2 publications

References 20 publications

Reconstructing formation processes at the Canary Islands indigenous site of Belmaco Cave (La Palma, Spain) through a multiproxy geoarchaeological approach

Reconstructing formation processes at the Canary Islands indigenous site of Belmaco Cave (La Palma, Spain) through a multiproxy geoarchaeological approach

Agriculture and crop dispersal in the western periphery of the Old World: the Amazigh/Berber settling of the Canary Islands (ca. 2nd–15th centuries ce)

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