Sacred ground; the Maipés necropolis of north-west Gran Canaria

Abstract

Gran Canaria, like most of the Canary Islands, shows evidence for young basaltic volcanism in the form of cinder cones and valley-hugging lava flows. These landforms were of no particular use to the aboriginal population, nor to the subsequent Spanish settlers, and young lava flows and lava fields are still referred to as ‘malpaís’ (badlands) in the Canary Islands. In north-west Gran Canaria, one such lava flow fills the bottom of a steep-sided valley, which reaches the sea at the present day village of Agaete. The lava flow erupted c. 3030 ± 90 yr bp and displays a total length of ∼ 11 km. At its distal end, just outside Agaete, it hosts one of Europe’s largest and most important pre-historic burial sites constructed of volcanic rock: the Maipés necropolis. Over 700 pre-historic tombs (or tumuli) constructed from the aa-type clinker materials have been identified on top of the valley-filling lava flow. The up to soccer-ball sized vesicular clinker fragments are sufficiently low in density to provide abundant, workable basalt blocks for the construction of the tumuli, allowing the pre-hispanic aboriginal population to create a large and magnificent ‘sacred ground’ in an otherwise barren landscape.