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1998 by Humana Press Inc.

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0163-4984/98/6501-0045 $09.75

Bone Trace Element Pattern

in an 18th Century Population
Sample of Tenerife (Canary Islands)
Comparison with a Prehistoric One
M. ARNAY-DE-LA-ROSA, 1 E. GONZALEZ-REIMERS, 2'*
J. VELASCO-VAZQUEZ, 1 N. BARROS-LOPEZ,2
AND L. GALINDO-/V~RTIN 3
~Dpt. de Prehistoria, Antropologia e Historia Antigua,
Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife 2Dpt. de Medicina lnterna.
Hospital Universitario de Canarias, Tenerife 3Dpt. de Quimica
Analitica, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife
Received September 6, 1997; Revised December 6, 1997;
Accepted December 12, 1997

ABSTRACT
We have determined bone strontium (Sr), barium (Ba), calcium
(Ca), and zinc (Zn) content in 24 samples belonging to adult individuals who died toward the end of the 18th century and were interred
in a church's floor on the island of Tenerife, comparing the results
with those obtained in 14 prehistoric samples of the same island and
also with those of 7 modem controls. No differences were observed
between the two ancient groups, which showed higher bone strontium and barium than the modern sample, and a slightly lower Ba/Sr
ratio, thus pointing to consumption of marine sources.
Index Entries: Bone; strontium; barium; calcium; zinc.

INTRODUCTION
The Tenerife is the largest island of the Canary Archipelago. According to chroniclers' reports, it was populated by nearly 25,000 people of
North African origin (1), w h o resisted the Spanish conquest--toward the
*Author to whom all correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed.
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Arnay-de-la-Rosa et al.

end of the 15th century (2). The new conquerors founded cities inland
and several harbors, Santa Cruz de Tenerife being the most important. In
these places, a new lifestyle was imposed, in contrast with the rural
areas, the arid southern part of the island, and the central mountains,
where many prehispanic people took refuge and became slowly integrated in the new society over the following centuries.
The city of Santa Cruz, capital of the island and of the Western
Canary Islands, rapidly grew as an economically active harbor. When the
city was founded, the conquerors built the church La Concepci6n (3). Following the Catholic habit, dead were interred under the church's floor, a
custom that persisted until the late 1700s. But population growth and the
epidemics (4) that entered by the harbor quickly made the space of
the church's floor insufficient, so tombs were reused, removing the
remains of the previous dead to inter the new bodies. Recently we have
been excavating an important part of the floor of this church, having dug
up 40 tombs containing 40, generally poorly preserved, skeletons.
Taking into account the profound social changes produced by the
Spanish conquest, the economy should have varied markedly, and so
should the diet consumed by those who were interred under the church's
floor toward the end of the 18th century and that consumed in prehispanic times.
Certain trace elements may accumulate in bone depending on
the amount ingested and/or absorbed. This is the case of Sr and Ba.
These elements are normally not involved in the metabolic pathways of
human beings, so bone deposits are not used in metabolic reactions.
Therefore, bone content may indicate the amount ingested, therefore,
both elements have been widely used as paleodietary indicators (5-8).
Mammals discriminate between Sr and Ca absorption, favoring the latter. So, Sr content is higher in plants, lower in herbivores, and even lower
in carnivores (9-11). Barium becomes poorly absorbed in duodenum and
accumulates in bone. Low bone Ba would indicate consumption of
marine products, the ratio of Ba to Sr having been considered an indicator of consumption of marine resources (12). The value of other elements,
such as zinc, copper, iron or manganese, as paleodietary indicators is, at
least, controversial (13).
Based on these facts, the aim of this study is to determine bone
content of the usually measured diet-related trace elements in the 24
18th-century skeletons buried in La Concepci6n comparing the results
with those obtained in 14 prehispanic samples and in 7 modern controls.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Fourteen right tibiae of prehispanic inhabitants of Tenerife belonging
to adult individuals buried in a cave in Barranco de Agua de Dios were

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47

included in this study. Sexing of bones was performed according to Iscan

and Miller-Shaivitz (14); using this method, seven tibiae belonged to
males and seven to females.
Bone samples of each of 24 individuals buried in La Concepci6n were
also analyzed. The preservation of the skeletons was not good, so samples were obtained from those sites with intact cortical bone; samples
include both cortical and cancellous bone. Estimations of sex and ageat-death were difficult. Following Ferembach et al. (15), 5 were males
and 13 were females, and in 6 cases sex was undetermined. All were nonsenile adults.
Modern samples belong to seven male individuals, aged 22-29 yr,
who were subjected to surgical procedures affecting the proximal epiphysis of the right tibia; these samples also include both cortical and
cancellous bone.
Bone samples were dehydrated at 100~ during 24 hours. Dry
weight after this procedure ranged from 54 to 124 mg for the controls
and from 229 up to 2000 mg for the ancient samples. Samples were
then immersed in 65% nitric acid (Merck p.a.) and 10% hydrogen
peroxide (Merck p.a.), in order to digest them; solutions were quantitatively transferred to volumetric flasks, and diluted to 10 mL with ultrapure water (Milli-Q OM-140 deionization system). A part of this
solution destined for bone calcium determination was further diluted to
1:1000. Zinc concentration was also measured. In order to avoid interference due to other ions, Ba, Sr, and Ca were determined using a
nitrous oxide-acetylene flame, and in order to avoid ionization, a solution containing 2000 ppm of KC1 was added to the primitive solution of
the bone samples, following standard recommendations (16). The Ba/Sr
ratio was calculated.
All the measurements were performed with the aid of a Varian Spectra AA spectrophotometer (Victoria, Australia) by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry.
Detection limits for these elements are 0.042 ppm (~tg/mL) for Sr,
0.009 ppm for Zn, 0.05 ppm for Ca, and 0.16 ppm for Ba (1 ppm = ~tg/mL).

RESULTS
The results are shown in Table 1 and Figs. 1 and 2. Both Sr and Ba
contents were significantly lower in the modern population than in the
historic and prehistoric samples. When these two last groups were compared, no differences were found regarding bone Ca, Sr, Ba, and Zn.
Also, no differences were observed between men and women of the historic or the prehistoric samples. Bone calcium was slightly, non-significantly lower both in the 18th century and prehistoric samples than in the
modern controls.

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Table 1
Bone Trace Elements (in ~t/g Dry Tissue) in the Prehistoric Sample
and Control Group
Concept

i on

Pr ehi ~ for i c

M<;der n

Sronsium

233.8

69.4

226,7

136.7

43.3

13.9

Barium

281.2

184.7

196.3

142.7

63.9

16.9

253.4

49.1

245.2

43.7

263.7

i3.6

Zinc

237.8

147.7

174.3

134.3

20.6

Ba/'Sr

i.08~

0.889

1.036

0.4.31

Calclum

(#)

# = rag/g;

9i]._

1.406

x~

-_ ~3.487

*** = p < 0 . 0 0 0 1 ; ** = p < 0 . 0 0 2 .

760

STRONTIUM

(ppm)

720
68O

e.oi
6~
58O
52O
480
44O
4OO

F=I7,

p=0. 0001

32O
28O
24O.

t40

120
80
40

CONCEPCION

C PINTO

CTRL

Fig. 1. Bone strontium in the prehistoric, historic, and control groups.

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CALCIUM

49

(mg/g)

450
425
400

375
350
325
300
275 25O

AA

225
200

AA

AA

AAA

CONCEP

C PINTO

175
150
125
100
75
CTRL

Fig. 2. Bone calcium in the prehistoric, historic, and control groups.

DISCUSSION
Vegetal food contains relatively high amounts of Sr and Ba, whereas
marine products, although rich in strontium, have a very low Ba content. Since they accumulate in bone, both elements and the Ba/Sr allow
one to infer the kind of diet and the relative amount of marine resources
that were present in these diets (12,17). Although the value of bone
Ba and Sr as paleodietary indicators is firmly established (18), that
of bone Zn is controversial (13,19), although it has been noted that bone
Zn deposits are relatively inert and thus indicate the amount of Zn
ingested.
The prehistoric population of Tenerife arrived on the island at least
2000 years ago, and the Spanish conquered the island toward the end of
the 15th century. Lacking radiocarbon dating, the prehistoric remains
analyzed in this study belong to people who died at least 500 yr ago.
However, in prehistoric times, dead people were not interred, but
deposited on stone (or, sometimes, vegetal) layers in caves, so preservation of skeletal remains is usually excellent, as were the samples analyzed here. In contrast, preservation was not good in the historic
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Arnay-de-la-Rosa et al.

individuals buried under La Concepci6n's floor, although they offer the

advantage that only 200 years have passed since they were buried. Diagenesis may have occurred, particularly in some historic and prehistoric
samples with abnormally low or high bone calcium values (Fig. 2),
although bone Sr and Ba of these samples did not differ from those of
the others with higher bone Ca levels.
Bone Sr and Ba values are slightly higher in both prehistoric and
historic samples when compared with the controls, perhaps indicating
a higher consumption of vegetal products. However, it is remarkable
that Sr values are much lower than those obtained from prehistoric samples of Gran Canaria (20) and E1 Hierro (21)--also in the Canary Archipelago. The Ba/Sr ratio is similar in prehistoric and historic population
groups, and slightly lower in these groups than in the control group,
perhaps pointing to a more important consumption of marine products
in the past. Archaeological remains of the prehistoric time point to a
large consumption of fish--although according to chroniclers, the diet
was based on dairy and vegetal products. Historic data also show that
in the 18th century, consumption of salted fish was widespread in Santa
Cruz; thus, our results are in agreement with other historical and
archaeological data.
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