Two horrific deaths in the 3rd century on Lanzarote

Two Lanzarote islanders met horrific deaths 1,700 years ago, researchers have claimed.

An article in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, by six researchers from the Tibicena company, the Canarian Museum and the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, has shed light on the violent deaths of two Lanzarote islanders in the third century.

The first set of remains, discovered in La Chifladera, Yaiza in 1968, was the headless skeleton of a man who was buried in a volcanic tube alongside a 50 cm tress of reddish hair.  The researchers believe the man died around the year 225 AD and was stabbed to death with a dagger – the first evidence of any kind of metallic weapon on the island.

They suggest that the weapon could have been brought over from North Africa by the first colonisers of the islands, or that the victim could have got into a fight with an armed sailor. There is evidence that the victim was stabbed at least eight times in the back, and wrist wounds suggest he attempted to defend himself.

The burial place is also isolated, far from other aboriginal burial grounds, meaning that the body could have been hidden or that it was being ostracised after death.   

The second body was discovered in Jameos del Agua in 1974 and is the skull of a young woman aged between 18 and 25 who investigators now believe was executed. They base their conclusion on four serious head wounds and evidence that a type of garrote was used on the victim by someone “trained” in its use. “This was an act of immense cruelty and excess of physical violence that goes beyond the intention of killing her,” the article states.