Sobre el origen del poblamiento de Canarias

Keywords: island colonizations, history of the Canary Islands, Ancient history of North Africa, African people, Mauri and Romans

Abstract

The origin of the human settlement of the Canary Islands is an open problem that tests the limits of historical knowledge. The aim of this research is to propose an explanatory model that allows us to understand the obscure process by which the archipielago became part of the inhabited world, part of humanity. The first part of this study reviews the archaeological record of the archipelago in order to establish the basic historical references. The second investigates the ethnic organisation of ancient Africa under Roman rule with the intention of revealing the complexity of the possible social contexts of origin of the first settlers of the islands. It explores the network of political, social and economic relations maintained between the Roman authorities and the African gentes, revising the old historiographical paradigms that conceived the links between them in Manichean and simplistic terms.

As a result, I propose the hypothesis of an autonomous settlement (without any external intervention) forced by necessity, as the ultimate solution to a historical conjuncture such as to face the colonisation of a territory never contemplated as a habitable world until the 3rd century A.D.

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Published
2026-06-02
How to Cite
Delgado Delgado J. A. (2026). Sobre el origen del poblamiento de Canarias. Gerión. Revista de Historia Antigua, 44(1), 139-166. https://doi.org/10.5209/geri.106209
Section
Varia