Forensic evidence hints violence against children was rife among early Spanish island dwellers
- hace 6 años
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain), May 3 (EFE), (Camera: José María Rodríguez and Elvira Urquijo).- The bone remains of the pre-Hispanic indigenous dwellers of Gran Canaria, a Spanish island in the Atlantic Ocean, are starting to tell a story that was previously unknown to forensic science: one of a society marked by widespread violence that frequently targeted children, as seen in images released by EFE on Thursday.
Researchers from the local Museo Canario ("Canarian Museum") have been working for years on a project that seeks to examine, using medical criteria, a huge array of skulls from its collection that were unearthed at several archaeological sites from before the 15th-century Castilian conquest.
The scientists found that 27.4 percent of the crania they analyzed showed skull fractures that were not attributable to accidents and evinced clear signs of having been caused by violent assaults.
When considering only male skulls, the rate rose to 33 percent.
Out of 65 skulls of children found at nine different burial grounds, 21 percent showed similar indications of head trauma, covering the entire time period delineated in the study (6th-15th century AD).
Only those children who died under the age of five never presented symptoms of having suffered injuries resulting from violence.
The blunt force trauma was generally caused by stone and wooden weapons used by the Guanches (as the pre-Hispanic population of the Canary Islands has become known, although the term originally referred solely to the inhabitants of the neighboring island of Tenerife).
Despite so many minors showing evidence of head injuries, only two of the 65 actually died from their wounds.
"Physical violence tends to be the tip of the iceberg," Teresa Delgado, a curator at the Museo Canario, told EFE. "The root of this violence lies at the base: how a society organizes itself and the biogeographical conditions it lives in."
"We can clearly link that physical violence to a highly-hierarchical society such as Gran Canaria's aboriginal culture," Delgado added.
Meanwhile, Javier Velasco, a professor at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, said that the number of fractured skulls as a result of violence discovered at the Guayadeque gorge was larger than in any other prehistoric society in the world.
"We've always looked back on the indigenous Canary islander as a 'good shepherd' that lived in harmony with nature and his equals," Velasco explained. "Reality indicates the opposite."
"Despite its positive elements, it was a society that suffered important conflicts. Eliminating that romantic vision will help us think of it as a society more similar to ours, with its conflicts, problems and inequalities," he added.
SHOT LIST: FOOTAGE OF THE MUSEUM. SOUND BITES OF MUSEUM CURATOR TERESA DELGADO AND UNIVERSITY OF LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIA RESEARCHER JAVIER VELASCO.
TERESA DELGADO “In addition these results are identical both respect to the percentage of indiv
Researchers from the local Museo Canario ("Canarian Museum") have been working for years on a project that seeks to examine, using medical criteria, a huge array of skulls from its collection that were unearthed at several archaeological sites from before the 15th-century Castilian conquest.
The scientists found that 27.4 percent of the crania they analyzed showed skull fractures that were not attributable to accidents and evinced clear signs of having been caused by violent assaults.
When considering only male skulls, the rate rose to 33 percent.
Out of 65 skulls of children found at nine different burial grounds, 21 percent showed similar indications of head trauma, covering the entire time period delineated in the study (6th-15th century AD).
Only those children who died under the age of five never presented symptoms of having suffered injuries resulting from violence.
The blunt force trauma was generally caused by stone and wooden weapons used by the Guanches (as the pre-Hispanic population of the Canary Islands has become known, although the term originally referred solely to the inhabitants of the neighboring island of Tenerife).
Despite so many minors showing evidence of head injuries, only two of the 65 actually died from their wounds.
"Physical violence tends to be the tip of the iceberg," Teresa Delgado, a curator at the Museo Canario, told EFE. "The root of this violence lies at the base: how a society organizes itself and the biogeographical conditions it lives in."
"We can clearly link that physical violence to a highly-hierarchical society such as Gran Canaria's aboriginal culture," Delgado added.
Meanwhile, Javier Velasco, a professor at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, said that the number of fractured skulls as a result of violence discovered at the Guayadeque gorge was larger than in any other prehistoric society in the world.
"We've always looked back on the indigenous Canary islander as a 'good shepherd' that lived in harmony with nature and his equals," Velasco explained. "Reality indicates the opposite."
"Despite its positive elements, it was a society that suffered important conflicts. Eliminating that romantic vision will help us think of it as a society more similar to ours, with its conflicts, problems and inequalities," he added.
SHOT LIST: FOOTAGE OF THE MUSEUM. SOUND BITES OF MUSEUM CURATOR TERESA DELGADO AND UNIVERSITY OF LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIA RESEARCHER JAVIER VELASCO.
TERESA DELGADO “In addition these results are identical both respect to the percentage of indiv