How Did the First Human Settlers of the Canary Islands Survive a Millennium of Isolation?
taylorvich writes:
https://www.science.org/content/article/humans-survive-alone-1000-years-desert-islands-off-africa
The Canary Islands-More than 1000 years ago, a young man stood on the northern shore of the island now known as El Hierro. Across the wave-swept Atlantic Ocean, he could see the silhouettes of other islands, a volcanic peak on one soaring toward the clouds only 90 kilometers away. Yet, for him, those islands were as unreachable as the Moon.
His body betrayed the rigors of life on his arid volcanic outcrop. His molars were worn almost to the gums from grinding fibrous wild fern roots. His ancestors here had farmed wheat, but he and his contemporaries grew only barley and raised livestock such as goats. His genes held evidence that his parents were closely related, like many of the roughly 1000 people on the island, who had not mingled with outsiders for centuries. Also like many of his fellow islanders, he bore signs of an old head injury, likely sustained in a fight.
"This population faced a lot of challenges," says archaeologist Jonathan Santana of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC). "Survival on this island was a challenge every day."
Yet the first Canarians, who arrived from North Africa roughly 1800 years ago, survived and even thrived on this arid, windswept archipelago for 1000 years. They numbered in the tens of thousands when Europeans arrived at the start of the 14th century. Not long after, conquest and genocide had largely erased them as a people. But their DNA lives on in many islanders today, and traces of their lives remain, in granaries, cliff dwellings, ceramic figurines, and hundreds of human remains like those of the man on El Hierro-all remarkably well preserved by the dry climate.
By applying the latest archaeological tools to this trove of material, Santana and other home-grown archaeologists are unearthing their stories, shedding light on puzzles that have mystified archaeologists since the 19th century. For instance, how did people with no apparent seafaring skills reach and survive on the archipelago? Why did their crops and cultures differ from island to island despite their common origin? The answers offer insights into how human societies cope with-and respond to-challenging environments, says Scott Fitzpatrick, a University of Oregon archaeologist who studies island cultures. "The Canaries have been sort of an enigma."
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