What is it about?
We estimate the chronology of human colonization of the Canary Islands as follows: First, we identified Roman presence in the islands from the 1st century BCE to the 1st century CE. Second, we detected that North African indigenous groups, specifically Berbers or Amazigh, arrived between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE. These groups rapidly spread across the archipelago and eventually became the Indigenous populations encountered by Europeans in the Middle Ages.
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Photo by Jorge Fernández Salas on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Our findings, based on radiocarbon dates and Bayesian analyses, reveal that Berber populations arrived in the easternmost islands between the first t third century CE, and rapidly expanded across the archipelago.
Perspectives
This model of colonization provides a framework to consider the timing of human arrival in the Canary Islands, the onset of human impact on the island ecosystems, and the adaptation of these populations to the island settings.
Jonathan Santana
Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
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This page is a summary of: The chronology of the human colonization of the Canary Islands, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2302924121.
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