Sci Rep. 2024; 14: 11150. Published online 2024 May 15. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-61731-x PMCID: PMC11096394 PMID: 38750053
New Canary Islands Roman mediated settlement hypothesis deduced from coalescence ages of curated maternal indigenous lineages Vicente M. Cabrera
Abstract Numerous genetic studies have contributed to reconstructing the human history of the Canary Islands population. The recent use of new ancient DNA targeted enrichment and next-generation sequencing techniques on new Canary Islands samples have greatly improved these molecular results. However, the bulk of the available data is still provided by the classic mitochondrial DNA phylogenetic and phylogeographic studies carried out on the indigenous, historical, and extant human populations of the Canary Islands. In the present study, making use of all the accumulated mitochondrial information, the existence of DNA contamination and archaeological sample misidentification in those samples is evidenced. Following a thorough review of these cases, the new phylogeographic analysis revealed the existence of a heterogeneous indigenous Canarian population, asymmetrically distributed across the various islands, which most likely descended from a unique mainland settlement. These new results and new proposed coalescent ages are compatible with a Roman-mediated arrival driven by the exploitation of the purple dye manufacture in the Canary Islands.
Posts: 43357 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
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As I said in your other recent thread on Imazighen genetic diversity, the Maghreb represents a relatively recent bottleneck, while the Canary Islands appears to be a bottleneck of that bottleneck. It wouldn't surprise me if there was Roman or even earlier Iberian settlement in those islands. Then there is also the claim that the Canary Islands may possibly be the location of or have some connection to the legendary Atlantis.
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Abstract of another recent paper about the Canary islands
quote:Significance
We provide insights into the period during which the Canary Islands were colonized and specifically the ways in which people dispersed throughout the archipelago. Our research indicates that the Romans first arrived on the islands around the 1st century BCE. Berber populations permanently settled the islands between the 1st and 4th centuries CE, leading to a rapid and complete colonization of the archipelago. This study sheds light on the coastal dynamics of northwestern African societies during the Late Holocene, revealing how the islands were colonized, and contributing to our understanding of the migrations of African farming communities.
Abstract
The human colonization of the Canary Islands represents the sole known expansion of Berber communities into the Atlantic Ocean and is an example of marine dispersal carried out by an African population. While this island colonization shows similarities to the populating of other islands across the world, several questions still need to be answered before this case can be included in wider debates regarding patterns of initial colonization and human settlement, human–environment interactions, and the emergence of island identities. Specifically, the chronology of the first human settlement of the Canary Islands remains disputed due to differing estimates of the timing of its first colonization. This absence of a consensus has resulted in divergent hypotheses regarding the motivations that led early settlers to migrate to the islands, e.g., ecological or demographic. Distinct motivations would imply differences in the strategies and dynamics of colonization; thus, identifying them is crucial to understanding how these populations developed in such environments. In response, the current study assembles a comprehensive dataset of the most reliable radiocarbon dates, which were used for building Bayesian models of colonization. The findings suggest that i) the Romans most likely discovered the islands around the 1st century BCE; ii) Berber groups from western North Africa first set foot on one of the islands closest to the African mainland sometime between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE; iii) Roman and Berber societies did not live simultaneously in the Canary Islands; and iv) the Berber people rapidly spread throughout the archipelago.
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Speaking of Romans here is a 3rd century AD Roman mosaic of wrestlers with one dark skinned/black wrestler from Thaenae, Tunisia put in a submission hold.
Posts: 26822 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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There is a thread with depictions of how the Italian architect Leonardo Torriani perceived the Canarians when he spent some years there in the 16th century.
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