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<p>This study presents the first systematic analysis of deliberately modified, perimortem-processed human crania from the island of La Palma (Canary Islands). The assemblage—comprising seven manipulated skulls recovered from different funerary caves—constitutes an unprecedented corpus both within the Canary archipelago and across the broader Amazigh cultural sphere of North Africa, from which the indigenous island populations originated. Although cranial manipulation has been documented worldwide, from the Upper Paleolithic to contemporary periods, no parallels have been identified either in the Canary Islands or in the Maghreb during the period corresponding to the permanent settlement of the archipelago (1st–fifteenth centuries CE). Through detailed macroscopic assessment of cutmarks, chopmarks, drilling, trauma, and perimortem processing, combined with radiocarbon-dating models, this research reveals standardized technical practices linked to the acquisition, preparation, and display of isolated human heads. These findings expand the interpretive frameworks concerning the ritual, symbolic, and socio-political uses of human remains among early island societies and offer new comparative insights for the study of North African Amazigh populations of the first half of the second millennium CE.</p>

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Impaled and Displayed: Human Skull Manipulation and Mortuary Practices in the Prehispanic Canary Islands

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年5月1日

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  • Javier Velasco-Vázquez,
  • Verónica Alberto-Barroso,
  • Teresa Delgado-Darias

摘要

This study presents the first systematic analysis of deliberately modified, perimortem-processed human crania from the island of La Palma (Canary Islands). The assemblage—comprising seven manipulated skulls recovered from different funerary caves—constitutes an unprecedented corpus both within the Canary archipelago and across the broader Amazigh cultural sphere of North Africa, from which the indigenous island populations originated. Although cranial manipulation has been documented worldwide, from the Upper Paleolithic to contemporary periods, no parallels have been identified either in the Canary Islands or in the Maghreb during the period corresponding to the permanent settlement of the archipelago (1st–fifteenth centuries CE). Through detailed macroscopic assessment of cutmarks, chopmarks, drilling, trauma, and perimortem processing, combined with radiocarbon-dating models, this research reveals standardized technical practices linked to the acquisition, preparation, and display of isolated human heads. These findings expand the interpretive frameworks concerning the ritual, symbolic, and socio-political uses of human remains among early island societies and offer new comparative insights for the study of North African Amazigh populations of the first half of the second millennium CE.