Necrópolis de La Cucaracha: único enterramiento con restos humanos asociados a una erupción prehistórica de La Palma (Islas Canarias)

Abstract

The La Cucaracha site is an important burial ground of archaeological and human remains located in a cavity excavated in the SE flank of Montana de La Cucaracha volcano, an eruptive vent dated at over 20.000 years. The profusion and diversity of the materials found: pottery shards, stone hand tools and bones, justify the importance of this interment site, although the most significant finding is the presence of human bone fragments embedded in volcanic scoria. The study of this site is focused on identifying the eruptive vent responsible for this event and assessing the incidence of a volcanic eruption on the structure and elemental composition of the recovered osseous materials. For this purpose, radiometric 14C dating has been carried out of the bones affected by the prehistoric eruption in addition to the petrographic and geochemical analysis of the different bone fragments and of the basaltic scoria in which the bone fragments are embedded in relation to the possible surrounding volcanoes. The results obtained point to Montana Goteras, an eruptive vent close to La Cucaracha volcano, as being responsible for the event, and provide evidence of the preservation of both the mineralogical composition and the crystallographic parameters of the osseous materials. A comparative study reveals significant differences between the bones corresponding to interments and those from cremation ceremonies, the latter showing a marked increase in crystallinity with occasional loss of significative elemental components, variations in contrast to a notable enrichment in trace elements and rare earths undergone by the bone fragments affected by the volcanic eruption. The content in certain oligoelements and SrICa ratios have provided complementary dietary information.