Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10553/123900
Title: 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)
Authors: Morales Mateos, Jacob Bentejui 
Speciale ,Claudia 
Rodríguez Rodríguez, Amelia Del Carmen 
Henríquez Valido, Pedro Eduardo 
Marrero Salas, Efrain
Hernández Marrero, Juan Carlos
López, Rosa
Delgado Darias,Teresa 
Hagenblad ,Jenny 
Fregel, Rosa
Santana Cabrera, Jonathan Alberto 
UNESCO Clasification: 241710 Paleobotánica
Keywords: Agriculture
Amazigh
Archaeobotany
Canary Islands
Human Colonisation, et al
Issue Date: 2023
Journal: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 
Abstract: 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 It offers new, unpublished archaeobotanical findings and direct radiocarbon datings of plant remains from the different islands.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.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10553/123900
ISSN: 0939-6314
DOI: 10.1007/s00334-023-00920-6
Source: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany [ISSN 0939-6314], (22 junio 2023)
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