The two undoubtedly indigenous fetuses were left on a crack in the ground and hid beneath some stones; this may have been a burial ritual.
The Spanish invasion of the islands led to the eventual destruction of the Guanche civilization. They were hunter-gatherer tribes with a way of life similar to what is thought to have existed during the Stone Age, and they may have interred their dead in caves.
Around 1,400 meters above sea level in Gua de Isora, the human remains were found inside a volcanic tube.
The human remains of two Guanche individuals whose death occurred at some point around their birth were discovered last winter by chance inside a volcanic tube in Guía de Isora located about 1,400 meters above sea level, on the island of Tenerife, as announced two weeks ago by the Tenerife Museums website. “A hunter and a friend were looking for a special type of spider, the white spider, which lives in caves and volcanic tubes, and so they entered the volcanic tube, coincidentally finding a mummified perinatal individual. The other individual, skeletonized, was discovered by the archaeologists when they went to the cave after the first reported the finding to the Heritage Unit of the Cabildo de Tenerife“, explains Conrado Rodríguez, the director of the Archaeological Museum of Tenerife and the Canarian Institute of Bioanthropology, to National Geographic Spain.
Skull of one of the two Guanche perinatal individuals, the ancient aborigines of the island of Tenerife.
The two perinatal individuals, undoubtedly aboriginal, although their remains have not yet been dated, were deposited on a natural crack and hidden behind some stones. One of them conserves an important part of its soft tissues and is found wrapped in a sewn bundle of animal skin that “is usually common in Guanche mummies, regardless of their age; the skin is generally goat, although sometimes it can be of sheep,” says Rodríguez. Some faunal remains have been found next to the skull of this first individual: possibly goats and also a limpet, a marine mollusk. Of the other, completely skeletonized, only small fragments of skin remain, which would indicate a differential degree of conservation within the same burial place. “Undoubtedly it is a Guanche deposit that could correspond to a funerary ritual. Archaeologists are studying the case because nothing similar had appeared to date. The Archaeological Museum of Tenerife has two other Guanche fetal remains, but without any type of covered in animal skins for mummification,” he says. The previous find of Aboriginal mummified remains dates back to 1969, almost 50 years ago.
One child was wrapped in animal skin and is better preserved than the other, with soft tissue and organs in tact. The other infant is more degraded and only skeletal fragments remain
The previous finding of Aboriginal mummified remains dates back to 1969
Lava for the cave likely came from Mount Teide, the active volcano that sits atop the island in the archipelago of the west coast of Africa
It was reported that animal remains were also found in the cave that is believed to be made from lava and sits at 4,500 feet (1,390 metres) above sea level
“It does not seem that it is an arbitrary action to dispose of the bodies, but quite the opposite in order to keep them in a safe place,” says Rodríguez. The funerary deposit is currently in the MUNA, in the premises of the Archaeological Museum of Tenerife, and is being analyzed and investigated by various institutions. Among other things, an attempt will be made to discover the possible relationship between the two perinatal individuals through DNA studies.
One of them conserves an important part of its soft tissues and is found wrapped in a sewn bundle of animal skin that “is usually common in Guanche mummies, regardless of their age; the skin is generally goat, although sometimes it can be of sheep,” says Rodríguez.
Remains of the bundle
The mummified infants are believed to be Guanche children, the aboriginal inhabitants of the Canary Islands before the Spanish conquest which began in 1402
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