The sixth excavation campaign at the San Marcial de Rubicón archaeological site (Yaiza) is advancing with significant results: the discovery of three new bodies brings to sixteen the total number of individuals recovered from the necropolis, all of them buried according to the Christian rite.
Carbon-14 analyses, together with bioanthropological and genetic studies, will make it possible to establish the chronology, the way of life and the kinship relations of the island's early inhabitants. The preliminary results, expected by the end of the year, could point to the first documented cases of a population of mixed ancestry in the Canary archipelago.
This sixth intervention forms part of the collaboration agreement between the Government of the Canary Islands, Yaiza Town Council, the University of La Laguna and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and its aim is to complete the excavation of the cemetery and to document every space within the colonial-architecture building found in the area. Inside this property, which has substantial walls and high-quality construction, metal and faunal remains have been recovered along with both aboriginal and European pottery, suggesting that it may have belonged to a prominent or powerful family.
The Rubicón Project thus continues its work of reconstructing the process of exploration and conquest of the archipelago during the 15th century, while also laying the groundwork for the future archaeological park of San Marcial de Rubicón, a space dedicated to research and public engagement with science around the first European settlement in the Canaries.
The VI Jornadas Rubicenses (Rubicón Conference), held in Yaiza from 10 to 11 October, will offer a first-hand look at this progress. The programme includes a lecture on death among the aborigines of Lanzarote, given by archaeologist Verónica Alberto Barroso, the premiere of the documentary San Marcial de Rubicón, voces enterradas en el jable ("San Marcial de Rubicón, voices buried in the jable" — jable being the wind-blown sand that covers parts of the island) — produced by Desenfoque Producciones — and a round table with specialists from the project.
The conference opens on Friday 10 October at 5 p.m. at the Casa de la Cultura Benito Pérez Armas, while the guided visit to the site will take place on Saturday 11 October at 9.30 a.m. at the Barranco del Pozo. Admission is free until capacity is reached.