Prehispanic (Guanches) mummies and natrium salts in burial ......Teide) to a...

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Anthropol. Anz. 74/2 (2017), 143–153 ArticleJ. Biol. Clin. Anthropol.Published online 4 April 2017, published in print July 2017

Prehispanic (Guanches) mummies and natrium salts in burial caves of Las Cañadas del Teide (Tenerife)

Matilde Arnay-de-la-Rosa1, Emilio González-Reimers2,*, Sergio Pou-Hernández1, Efraím Marrero-Salas1 and Carlos García-Avila1

1 Dpto. De Geografía e Historia. Facultad de Humanidades. Universidad de La Laguna2 Dpto. De Medicina Interna. Hospital Universitario de Canarias. Universidad de La Laguna. Ofra s/n 38320 Tenerife, Canary

Islands, Spain* Corresponding author: [email protected]

With 7 figures and 2 tables

Abstract: The prehispanic population of Tenerife (Guanches) buried their dead in caves. Many corpses are totally or par-tially mummified. Embalming procedures are largely unknown, besides some information recorded by chroniclers and the general idea that environmental conditions in some areas may favour natural mummification. Detailed observation of burial caves containing mummified corpses revealed the presence of a white mineral in form of crusts or powder that was not present in the vast majority of non-burial caves, especially in basaltic and trachybasaltic lava flows. We analysed these crusts and they consist of natrium carbonate salts. Therefore, we conducted a search visiting 30 caves, 3 of them harbouring mummified corpses, and made analyses if there were natrium salts in these caves and their amount. One burial cave was located in trachyphonolitic lava flow, and two further caves in trachybasaltic and basaltic lava flows. There was a significant association between presence of natrium salts and use of the cave as a burial site (χ2 = 9.37; p = 0.0259). The semiquanti-tatively assessed amount of natrium salts was also by far higher in burial caves than in non-burial ones (Z = 2.58, p = 0.01). There are no reports that support the use of natrium salts in the embalming process among the Guanches, but we found a clear-cut relationship between the presence and/or amount of natrium salts in caves and their use as burial sites by the pre-hispanic population buried in the central highlands, suggesting an intentional use of caves containing this mineral as burial caves, based perhaps on the observation of the ability of natrium salts to preserve corpses.

Keywords: Tenerife; Guanches; Prehispanic population; mummification; natron; burial caves

Introduction

Tenerife is the largest island of the volcanic Canary Archipelago, located at the north-western coast of Africa, at latitude 28° north. With an area of approximately 2000 km2, its shape is roughly triangular. Climate is strongly influenced by altitude and trade winds, passing from a warm subtropi-cal climate in the coastal areas to more rigorous conditions in the highlands. The central plateau of Tenerife, named Las Cañadas, situated over the trade winds, at an altitude of 2200 m with a central volcano (Teide peak) reaching 3700 m above sea level, has a dry, cold climate.

Before the Spanish conquest the island was inhabited by a North African population, probably related to ancient Berbers, who arrived at the Archipelago during the first mil-lennium BC (Maca-Meyer et al. 2004). Their economy was based on goat herding and agriculture, complemented with some fishing and shellfish collecting (Arnay-de-la Rosa

et al. 2010). Goat herding probably conditioned a seasonal movement from coast to mountains, explaining (in part) the abundant archaeological remains identified in the highlands. Prehispanic people buried their dead in caves (Diego Cuscoy 2008). In many cases, corpses were mummified, something which was especially marked among those buried in the highlands, possibly in relation to the dry and cold conditions that surely favoured natural mummification.

In some caves of the highlands there are small amounts of natrium carbonate salts. Mineralogically, natron means the sodium carbonate decahydrate (Taga 1969). Closely related are the following minerals: natrite, an uncommon dehydrated sodium carbonate, thermonatrite, a monohydrated sodium carbonate compound; nahcolite, a sodium dicarbonate salt; trona, a hydrated mixture of sodium carbonate and dicarbo-nate; and wegscheiderite, a mixture of sodium carbonate and dicarbonate (Appleman 1963). The main natural occurrences of these minerals are the saline lake beds which often exist

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144 M. Arnay-de-la-Rosa, E. González-Reimers, S. Pou-Hernández, E. Marrero-Salas and C. García-Avila

in arid areas. Due to the fact that all these minerals share the same occurrence in evaporitic deposits, the term “natron” has been also adopted to define the white-gray deposits of the mixture of all these minerals in evaporitic environments, usually mixed with sodium sulphate and, especially, with common salt, in considerable amounts (Shortland 2004). However, trona, thermonatrite and nahcolite, especially the first two, are also described in lava tunnels and volcanic fumaroles (Genge et al. 2001). Indeed, the presence of small amounts of natrium carbonate salts in some caves of the high-lands of Tenerife was already described in 1868 by Fritsch & Reiss (1868), and pointed out in a classic geological descrip-tion carried out nearly 84 years later (Bravo 1952). These observations lend scientific support to the vague references about the exploitation of “mountain salt” for soap or powder production referred previously by chroniclers or historians. Interestingly, it was reported that some of the caves from which natron salts were extracted also harboured prehispanic embalmed bodies.

There are many uses for natron. It was used as a domes-tic insecticide, for soap production, and it has been also used as luminaries and in the fabrication of powder. It bears antiseptic properties (Edwards 2004; Edwards et al. 2007), because, when exposed to moisture, it raises alkalinity and creates a hostile environment for bacteria. It also acts as a drying agent, and has therefore the ability to preserve fish and meat. Perhaps because of its bactericidal capacity and also in relation to its drying properties, natron was used in ancient Egypt in mummification (Brier & Wade 1997; Rosso 2014). For this purpose it was mined, in important amounts, especially in a saline lake bed (Uadi Natron, west of Cairo). The presence of common salt in these deposits led, in the past, to the idea that sodium chloride was the material spe-cifically used in the embalming process (Ruffer 1921).

Ancient Egyptians utilised different mummification pro-cedures. Although it has been largely debated if Egyptians dissolved the salt in water, and introduced the corpses and viscera in this fluid, it is more likely that bodies were packed with dry natron (Sandison 1963), because, although preserv-ing its bactericidal properties, a natrium solution possibly hampered the drying capacity of this mineral. In any case, most of the salt recovered in evaporite saline beds is natron (a decahydrated salt). Thermonatrite, being only bound to one water molecule, has an increased capacity to dry tissue (Cockburn et al. 1998).

There are no references in the Canary Islands that natron compounds were used in mummification, but intentional mummification was indeed performed to some corpses. In addition, it is known that several embalmed bodies were pre-served in Las Cañadas (Marin de Cubas 1993; Bethencourt Alfonso 1994), probably because environmental condi-tions favoured this process and perhaps because there was some kind of substance that increased preservation (Méndez Rodríguez 2014). Indeed, environmental conditions are very favourable to natural mummification: air moisture is very

low (www.iac.weather ), and temperatures are low (Table 1). The absence of water in the air, and the absence of clouds favour that in the night soil temperatures drop to –10 °C –15 °C during winter, but also, not uncommonly, below 0 °C in midsummer. In Fig. 1 we show an example of these naturally, partially mummified corpses. Preservation of soft tissue is evident, although not to the extent that is observable in intentionally embalmed bodies.

Table 1. Minimum soil temperatures, on a weekly basis, from 2001 to 2015, registered at El Portillo, Las Cañadas, (Tenerife).

Month Mean (°C) Standard deviation

1 –8.0750 2.845492 –7.8875 3.070723 –5.7553 3.449754 –5.3646 3.193645 –3.5889 3.987616 –0.3095 3.373057 3.6341 3.806288 4.0303 3.452679 0.7791 3.6860510 –2.5667 2.8655511 –5.0000 3.4229012 –6.3478 3.26066

As mentioned previously, some caves in these highlands may contain natrium carbonate salts. Detailed inspection of some caves allowed us to raise the hypothesis that the prehis-panic population (Guanches), having observed the ability of natrium carbonate salts to preserve corpses, possibly chose as burial caves those in which “natron” was more abundant. To test this hypothesis we visited many volcanic caves, includ-ing those in which mummified corpses were found, looking for the presence and abundance of natron deposits, in order to assess if there was a relationship between the presence of this mineral and the utilisation of a given cave as a burial site. A positive association would suggest an intentional use of caves with this substance as burial caves.

Material and methods

To test this hypothesis we visited 30 volcanic caves located in Las Cañadas. This area is a central plateau at an altitude of about 2000–2200 m, surrounded by sharp cliffs reaching 2717 m above sea level at the highest point (Guajara moun-tain, southern limit). In the centre of this plateau there is a huge stratovolcano, the Teide peak, reaching 3700 m alti-tude, flanked by two smaller volcanoes, one west, the Pico Viejo (3103 m), and one east, Montaña Blanca (2823 m). From these three volcanoes many lava flows were emitted, that filled the primitive caldera. Geologic composition of

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Natron and prehispanic burial caves in Tenerife 145

Fig. 1. A partially mummified child from the central highlands of Tenerife at the moment of excavation by ourselves. There are no data that allow identification of an intentional embalming procedure. Note the soft tissue remains adhered to the right arm and shoulder, extending to the whole anterior part of the right hemithorax, and also on the vault. The mummy was partially covered with goat skin. C14 dating reveals an antiquity of 510 ± 40 BP.

these lava fields vary from mainly basaltic composition (in the west and also ancient lava flows from Pico Viejo and Teide) to a trachytic/trachyphonolythic composition in the east, with considerable amounts of pumice and obsidian (Bravo 1952). In addition several smaller cones also erupted in the caldera, also giving rise to trachyphonolitic, basaltic or mixed trachybasaltic lava emissions. Therefore, in the north-eastern quarter of Las Cañadas there are several different lava flows, perfectly identifiable (Fig. 2). In this area we visited

14 trachyphonolitic caves, including 1 burial cave; 14 tra-chybasaltic caves, including one burial cave; and 2 basaltic caves, including one burial cave, searching for the presence of natrium carbonate salts. We classified the caves according to the abundance of natrium salts in 4 degrees, following a semiquantitative assessment, from absent/trace amounts (0); presence of small amounts (grams to centigrams = 1); inter-mediate amounts (= 2); or presence of large amounts (several kilograms = 3), as shown in Fig. 3a, b.


Fig. 2. The caldera of Las Cañadas in Tenerife. Burial sites are indicated in the map.

If natron was present, a sample was obtained and ana-lysed by absorption spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), recording chemical composition (Fig. 4) and crystallographic appearance (Fig. 5).

Results

They are shown in Table 2 and Figs 3–5. Natrium salts were frequently found in caves of trachyphonolitic lava flows, but it was scarce in caves of the trachybasaltic and basaltic areas, besides the two burial caves in these lava flows. In fact, there was a significant trend (Z = 1.97, p = 0.049) to higher natrium salts contents among trachyphonolitic caves compared with the other caves, and the proportion of caves without natrium salts among the non-trachyphonolitic lavas was nearly significantly higher than in phonolitic lava flows (χ2 = 3.23; p = 0.07).

There was a statistically significant association between the amount of natron present in burial caves and in non-bur-ial caves (table 2; χ2 = 9.37; p = 0.025; Fisher test comparing abundant vs few/absent natrium salts p = 0.039). In all the

three caves containing mummies, natrium was by far more abundant than in those without human skeletal remains (Z = 2.58, p = 0.01).

Discussion

In this study we have found that caves used by the Guanches as burial caves (at least those located in the central highlands) contain by far higher amounts of natrium carbonate salts than those not used as burial caves. Specifically the three major burial caves containing prehispanic embalmed bodies have been explored: one located in a trachyphonolithic lava flow (Cueva del Salitre, Fig. 6), one in a basaltic structure (Llano de Maja), and one more in a trachybasaltic lava mass (Portillo). These three kinds of lava flows cover the north-eastern part of Las Cañadas, and in this area we explored 27 further caves for comparison, looking for the presence of natrium carbonate salts. Among the trachyphonolitic lava flows, big caves are common, and in many of them there are variable amounts of thermonatrite, a mineral that can also be observed in some fissures outside the caves, as shown in


Fig. 3. Thermonatrite, classified as abundant (a), or present in moderate amounts (b).

Fig. 6. However, the amount of natrium salts present in El Salitre cave is by far greater than that observed in the non-burial caves, as shown in Fig. 3a. The results are even more striking when we compare the findings of the cave in Llano de Maja – a basaltic structure – and El Portillo – a trachyba-saltic structure – with other caves formed in the same lava fields. Among the 14 caves in addition to the aforementioned burial caves explored in the trachybasaltic or basaltic area, only in two we found small amounts of natron, whereas the cave from El Portillo showed important amounts of this min-eral, and the walls of the cave of Maja were also covered with crusts of thermonatrite, although in smaller amounts.

In this area of Las Cañadas environmental conditions may favour natural mummification. Although temperatures seem to vary markedly among different places, recorded soil temperatures show values that are usually near 0 °C the whole year – clearly below –10 °C – in midwinter (Table 1). Perhaps more striking is the relative air moisture, usually showing very low values – sometimes even below 10% (www.iac.weather ); and also the torrential nature of rain (or snow-) falls, mimicking frankly desert conditions. Indeed, in Las Cañadas it is usual that no precipitation at all takes place during the 3–4 months between mid spring and late summer, but sometimes there are also entire winter months

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Element App Conc.

Intensity Corrn.

Weight% Weight% Sigma

Atomic% Compd% Formula Number of ions

C K 3.82 0.4733 18.60 1.35 25.03 68.16 CO2 3.43Na K 6.31 0.6171 23.62 0.81 16.60 31.84 Na2O 2.28O 57.78 1.43 58.36 8.00Totals 100.00

Cation sum

5.71

Fig. 4. Spectrophotometric analyses of thermonatrite.

during which rainfall is 0 or below 5 l m–2. Perhaps these dry conditions also favoured that the deposited natrium salt was the monohydrated thermonatrite, instead of the dec-ahydrated natron. The combination of a cold dry air and an environment rich in natrium carbonate salts, covering the walls and partly the floor of the caves, possibly favoured mummification.

There are several examples from other ancient cultures in which environmental conditions have favoured the perfect mummification of some corpses. For instance, very dry and cold air have contributed to preserve the Inca’s mummies

in the high peaks of the Andes (Ceruti 2015), or the Uigur mummies from Tarim Basin (Li et al. 2015). The presence of salt may have favoured the mummification of the so called Iranian saltmen, found in a salt mine in Northwestern Iran (Aali et al. 2012). Very low temperatures have played a role in preservation of several Siberian mummies, Greenland mummies (Lynnerup 2015a) or in the recently discovered mummy in Ötztal in the Alps (Müller et al. 2003), and anaerobic conditions may be responsible, at least in part, for the excellent preservation of the so called bog bodies from Northern Europe (Lynnerup 2015b). Also, dry cold air may


Fig. 5. Cristallographic appearance of thermonatrite.

explain the preservation for more than 100 years of mum-mified tissue attached to skeletal remains in South African caves (Karodia et al. 2016).

The caves located at Maja and El Salitre harboured many embalmed bodies, as mentioned in the reports on the excavations performed decades ago (Álvarez 1947; Diego Cuscoy 1965). In other parts of Las Cañadas there are reports on caves harbouring non mummified skeletal remains of only one individual, or a few of them, and in some cases, some skeletons with small amounts of adhered soft tissue (Lorenzo Perera 1976; Diego Cuscoy 1960; Jiménez Gómez 1983). However, as commented, chroniclers wrote about an embalming ritual applied to some corpses. This procedure was surely performed at least to the deceased menceyes (kings, or leaders). Chroniclers wrote that there were specialized embalmers who washed the bodies several times and coated it with lard, several vegetal products (pine, heather, unspecified aromatic herbs) and mineral substances (milled pumice). Later, the bodies were exposed to the sun during about 15 days, and they were wrapped in goat fur. In these texts, it is unclear whether the bodies were eviscerated or not (Abreu Galindo 1977; Espinosa 1980). There are indeed excellent examples of mummies in museums of the Canary Islands and abroad, but precise locations of the caves

where these mummies were buried is not known (Brothwell et al. 1969; Criado & Clavijo 1995). Some mummies pre-serve viscerae but others seem to have been eviscerated (Aufderheide et al. 1995). Some studies have suggested that indeed diverse material was used for preservation, but natron was neither cited as a preserving substance, nor identified in the embalmed bodies (Mathiesen 1960; Sánchez Pinto & Ortega 1995; Aufderheide et al. 1995).

El Salitre cave was the most important burial cave of Las Cañadas as yet described. It consists of a huge fissure opened in a lava mass (Fig. 6). The fissure extends about 10 meters inside the lava mass, and then deepens, forming two cham-bers located , each of them, about 2 m below the floor of the previous one, and extending about 5–7 meters into the lava rock. Access to these chambers is not easy and somewhat dangerous given the risk of detachment of lava blocks from the walls and ceiling. The cave contained several dozens of corpses, many of them mummified, covered with goat skin. The amount of thermonatrite is comparatively enormous, by far more than in any other cave, including other caves of the trachytic/trachyphonolitic flows. This mineral is present from just the mouth of the cave, but it is even more abun-dant in the 2 chambers in which the corpses were found. In fact the name of the cave (Salitre) refers to the presence of natrium salts, and there are vague reports in chronics from


Table 2. Explored caves, providing latitude and longitude, if they were used as burial caves or not, specifying the type of rock in which they formed (1 = Trachyphonolitic; 2 = trachybasaltic; 3 = basaltic), and the abundance of natrium salts (1 = minimal/absent; 2 = inter-mediate; 3 = abundant).

Cave number

Latitude (north)

Longitude (west)

Burial (1 = yes)

Type of rock

Abundance of natrium salts

1 28.293 16.597 2 1 12 28.293 16.568 2 1 13 28.292 16.568 2 1 14 28.283 16.585 1 1 35 28.283 16.585 2 1 36 28.283 16.586 2 1 17 28.278 16.581 2 1 18 28.279 16.581 2 1 29 28.280 16.582 2 1 210 28.276 16.582 2 1 111 28.279 16.566 2 1 112 28.269 16.593 2 1 313 28.270 16.593 2 1 214 28.269 16.598 2 1 215 28.292 16.567 2 2 216 28.292 16.568 2 2 117 28.292 16.567 2 2 118 28.290 16.567 2 2 119 28.288 16.569 2 2 120 28.293 16.597 2 2 221 28.291 16.569 2 2 122 28.296 16.573 2 2 123 28.292 16.570 2 2 124 28.292 16.576 2 2 125 28.292 16.576 2 2 126 28.292 16.571 2 2 127 28.305 16.568 1 2 328 28.288 16.568 2 2 129 28.293 16.548 1 3 230 28.271 16.549 2 3 1

the 19th century that natron was mined in caves from Las Cañadas (Viera y Clavijo 2014).

The second most important cave is Llano de Maja. Maja was excavated in 1945 and 1963, and it harboured 45 indi-viduals (Diego Cuscoy 1965), some of them partially mum-mified (C14 dating = 1050 ± 30BP; Arnay-de-la Rosa et al., unpublished data), and even remains of mummified dogs – although antiquity of the latter is uncertain; possibly they belonged to modern hunting dogs that fell down in the cave and later became naturally embalmed. It is interesting that

the walls of the cave are covered by thermonatrite crusts (Fig. 7), therefore creating an environment that favoured preservation of the corpses.

There are references in the late 16th century that the ancient prehispanic population still inhabited the central mountains, living in the same way that their ancestors did (Espinosa 1980; Thevet 1995). An important support to this idea was provided when the burial of El Portillo was ana-lysed. It contained 4 corpses, belonging to two men, young to middle aged, a young woman and an older one. These


Fig. 6. Cueva del Salitre.

individuals were partially mummified, and were interred following the ritual of the prehispanic burials: in supine position, deposited on wooden layers. Radiocarbon dating yielded an antiquity ranging 1560–1580, that is 70–90 years after the Spanish conquest (Arnay-de-la-Rosa et al. 2011). Interestingly, this burial cave is located in El Portillo, at an altitude of 2000 m, in a trachybasaltic lava field. In this lava field, caves do not contain at all, or, in a few cases, only very small amounts of thermonatrite. In contrast, thermo-natrite was abundant in this cave, in amounts comparable to the distant caves of the trachyphonolitic flows. Possibly, the election of this cave as a burial site by Guanches still living in the mountains after the Spanish conquest strongly suggests that they were aware of the preserving properties of natrium salts.

Brier & Wade (1997), and Zimmermann et al. (1998) practised an experimental mummification of an old indi-vidual who donated his corpse. The mummification pro-cedure was performed following the methods used by the ancient Egyptians. They employed 270 kg of natron imported from Uadi Natrun, and achieved a good mummi-fication result (Zimmermann et al. 1998). These amounts of natron are not available for mummification in the Canary Islands.

Possibly, in contrast with ancient Egyptians, the election of caves containing natron as burial sites by the Guanches was rather derived from the observation of the dessicant properties of natron than from a programmed use of this material. It is tempting to speculate that the Guanches had observed that in caves in which natron was present, corpses (for instance of dead animals) were preserved. Therefore, they probably chose caves in which this mineral was abun-dant, independently of the possible utilization of other mate-rials (as those mentioned by the chroniclers) in those cases in which embalming procedures were intentionally performed. In any case, in this study we conclude that there was a clear-cut relationship between the existence and/or the amount of natrium salts present in caves, and their use as burial sites by the prehispanic population, suggesting an intentional use of caves containing this mineral as burial caves, at least in the central highlands of Tenerife.

Acknowledgements: We are especially indebted to Mr. Juan Luis González-Álvarez, technician of the SEGAI (University of La Laguna, section scanning-electron microscope and spectrometry) for his implication in this study and cooperation in the analyses performed, by far beyond his duty as technician.


Fig. 7. Crusts of thermonatrite in a lava fissure.

Disclosure and funding

This study was partly financed by “Red de Parques Nacionales” (38/2011) and “Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad” (HAR2015–68323-P) (MINECO/FEDER).

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Manuscript received: 19 April 2016Revisions required: 12 September 2016Revised version received: 17 November 2016Accepted: 21 November 2016

Prehispanic (Guanches) mummies and natrium salts in burial ......Teide) to a...

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