Perinatal burials at pre-Hispanic noncemetery sites in Gran Canaria: Tophet, infanticide, or natural mortality?

Abstract

In this paper, we perform the first multidisciplinary study of perinatal burials at a pre-Hispanic domestic site in Gran Canaria. For that, we carried out bioanthropological analyses, the genetic determination of the molecular sex of the individuals, and the contextualization of their chronological and cultural affiliations. To date, these remains had been associated to a local re-interpretation of a Phoenician-Punic tophet or as evidence of female infanticide within the mechanisms of demographic control of the ancient Canarians. However, these proposals did not take into account the recurrence of this type of human remains outside the normative cemeteries of the indigenous population or considered the demographic profile of coetaneous necropolises. In the light of the age of death and the molecular sex of the individuals, and the results obtained from the taphonomic and chronological analyses, we propose an alternative historical scenario, directly linked to high perinatal mortality rates and the development of specific burial practices for those individuals that died around the time of birth.