Abstract
Querns for grinding cereals were essential in the everyday life of the Pre-European population of the Island of Gran Canaria as their agriculture was based mainly on barley and wheat, cereals processed for the most part in the form of roasted flour. Rotary querns and other grinding stones, nonetheless, have rarely been the object of research in the Canary Islands and the study of their operational sequence of production has only recently been initiated. Volcanic tuff (compact lapilli) was the most commonly quarried rock. Other raw materials such as basalt, and to a lesser extension tephrite, were also worked. Since metal tools were not known in the Canary Islands in Pre-European contexts, all of the stages of extraction and fashioning had to be carried out with stone tools.This paper analyses the operational sequence, that is, the different phases of the extraction and fashioning techniques of basalt rotary querns based on the recent finds of two quarries located near the coast (Cardones and Cebolla) and a quern manufacturing workshop (Cave 36, Arucas Municipality) in a ravine about 600 m inland. Traditionally it was thought that the Pre-European population of Gran Canaria fashioned their querns from naturally detached volcanic surface blocks collected in ravines or along the coast. This supposition was based on the idea that the early Canarians were not capable of extracting blocks from bedrock with stone tools. This notion, however, has been proven wrong by the circular extraction negatives on the quarry faces and by finds of stone fashioning tools in the workshop.
Highlights
Introduction and objectivesThe Pre-European period in the Canary Islands began sometime in the first millennium BCE
The preliminary findings of our research have identified three main types of grinding stones that can be classified by their morphology: (1) rotary querns, (2) variations of saddle doi:10.2218/jls.v3i2.1779
Among the archaeological sites from Gran Canaria studied to date, volcanic tuff is by far the dominant rock exploited for grinding stones and in particular for rotary querns
Summary
The Pre-European period in the Canary Islands began sometime in the first millennium BCE. According to archaeological and genetic data, the archipelago was first populated by Journal of Lithic Studies (2016) vol 3, nr. There is still very little data regarding the geographical origin and the timeframe of the first waves of humans attaining the different islands of the archipelago. The most recent research suggests dates ranging from the 9th century BCE for the Island of Lanzarote (Atoche 2013) and up to the 3rd-4th centuries CE for the other islands (Maca-Meyer et al 2004; Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al 2012)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have