No abstract

The introduction of the rotary quern into the Iberian Peninsula during the Iron Age represents a great technological innovation with regard to processing cereals. These mechanisms arrived several centuries later in the Canarian archipelago with the first North African colonists. Contacts with the African continent appear to have either been cut off or minimised a short time later, obliging the colonists to subsist autonomously and adapt to the features of the new territory. Moreover, the archipelago's volcanic character does not offer minerals that could be transformed into metals obliging the new populations to resort to stone tools, an adaptation evidenced by the manufacture of rotary querns. Currently few technological studies of these querns have combined experimental work with hypotheses stemming from archaeological evidence. This article presents two experimental programs that have attempted to reconstruct the operational sequence (chaîne opératoire) of the two main types of rocks exploited for querns in the Canary Islands: volcanic tuff and vesicular basalt.

Highlights: The combination of biomechanical analysis and open-access Kinovea software enables the study of musculoskeletal and articular wear of experimentally reproduced tasks. The repeated use of the right arm during indirect percussion and abrasion in lithic production could increase the changes in bone robusticity of specific muscle attachments observed in the osteoarchaeological record. Motion ranges and postural angles analysis can generate more accurate representations of "virtual humans" in their archaeological context. Abstract: Understanding the physical impact of ancient labours has become an important experimental bioarchaeology area. Complex motion capture systems and digital tools have been used in biomechanical analysis during the reproduction of manual tasks. However, these systems are costly, so the researchers have explored alternative digital solutions. Therefore, the open-access Kinovea software was checked to confirm its reliability in characterizing the physical loads associated with particular works of ancient times. In this case study, the authors have analyzed the central postural angles and muscle chains involved in the indigenous manufacturing process of rotary stone mills, in the high mountains of Tenerife. The study included a virtual motion capture analysis carried out during the different phases of the experimental reproduction of this process; it was defined from the archaeological record of the quarries-workshops of Las Cañadas del Teide National Park (Canary Islands, Spain) volcanic millstones. The results of this study have demonstrated the software's effectiveness to virtually analyze the significant differences in posture between work techniques, observing a predominance of the use of m. biceps brachii, the m. brachioradialis, and the elbow joint during the manufacture of stone mills. On the other hand, Kinovea also has excellent potential in virtual archaeology, giving users tools to generate the average postural angles. As a result, building "virtual skeletons" in more precise work postures has been possible. This may serve as the base element to create complete body representations in virtual environments.

El Parque Nacional del Teide (PNT) fue declarado Patrimonio Mundial de la Humanidad por la Unesco en el año 2007 con categoría de Bien Natural. Además de la gran riqueza geológica y faunística que atesora la alta montaña de Tenerife, el territorio que ocupa el actual Parque Nacionalentraña también todo un paisaje cultural evidenciado a través de numerosas manifestaciones arqueológicas y etnográficas, lo que pone de manifiesto la importancia histórica de este enclave de la isla desde época prehispánica. En la última década se han realizado varias excavaciones arqueológicas que han permitido determinar mejor el modo de vida guanche y los usos de este territorio en su diacronía. La ubicación, la conservación que presentan los bienes arqueológicos y la información que están aportando, junto con las fuentes escritasgeneradas sobreeste territorio tras la conquista, constituyen un importante referente estratégico para el desarrollo de fórmulas de gestión e investigación integral dentro de las actividades de difusión del Parque, lo que podría contribuir a su conservación, y a un mejor conocimiento de nuestro pasado para poder transmitirlo a toda la población de la isla, así como a los que la visitan.