Title: "Bodies, Objects and Spaces. Converging deaths, divergent deaths"Fu
nding entity: Fundación CajaCanarias and Fundación Bancaria La Caixa (2018PATRI
05)Start date: 01/03/2019. End date: 01/03/2022.
"Bodies, objects and spaces. Converged deaths, divergent deaths" is a multidisciplinary research project of The Canary Museum that aims to deepen the knowledge of the ways and living conditions of the societies that inhabited the island of Gran Canaria in the past, from a very specific archaeological record: the one generated around death. With the comprehensive study of the bodies, the objects associated with them and the spaces that welcomed them are aimed at inferring multiple aspects related to the social and economic organization, culture and beliefs of these human groups. The valuation of two different social realities such as pre-Hispanic and historical Gran Canaria is an opportunity to analyze cross-cutting the complexity of the manifestations associated with the fact of death and the diversity of archaeological materializations with which it is presented in each society.
This analysis of the funeral records opens new lines of work so far scarcely explored in the field of archaeology of Gran Canaria. Examples include mortuary practices bestowed on children; the strategies for the exploitation and uses of certain timbers in the burial field; the construction of identity and social memory from the connection of the deceased with certain objects (dog's wild remains, humans…); or the analysis of the entomological remains associated with the corpses, to deepen the preparation processes of the deceased or the parasites that affected these populations in life. Alongside all this, the study of bone and dental remains will allow us to investigate the diet and health status, but also in those circumstances of death that show episodes or periods of conflict and crisis. In
order to reconstruct the way in which the societies being studied were organized over time, the diachronic perspective will be essential throughout the project, incorporating a temporary analysis of the mortuary manifestations and human remains that allows to reconstruct the dynamics and developments of the populations under study. This pr
oject will allow us to bring to light and give prominence to funeral records recovered in the past that, despite their information wealth, have received little attention, analyzing them now from new premises and trying to answer with them new questions. T
he archive of The Canary Museum will have a momentous role throughout this study, as it will allow to recover unpublished information related to the deposits excavated in the past that are now analyzed. The documentary fund of The Canary Museum will also contribute to the study and interpretation of those burial deposits for which there are written sources, to correspond to periods of the Modern and Contemporary Age.
The dissemination and social transfer of the results and cultural heritage analyzed here are a cross-cutting objective of the project, which is why it contemplates the production of different tools that guarantee their socialization (3D modelling of key pieces, open days, publications in scientific journals, etc.).
