The Early Colonial Atlantic World: New Insights on the African Diaspora from Isotopic and Ancient DNA Analyses of a Multiethnic 15th–17th Century Burial Population From the Canary Islands, Spain Jonathan Santana, 1,2 * Rosa Fregel, 3 Emma Lightfoot, 4 Jacob Morales, 5 Martha Alam on, 6 Jos e Guill en, 6 Marco Moreno, 6 and Amelia Rodr  ıguez 2 1 State University of Peninsula de Santa Elena, La Libertad, Ecuador 2 G.I. Tarha. Deparment of Historical Sciences, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain 3 Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, United States of America 4 University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom 5 University of the Basque Country, Vitoria, Spain 6 Tibicena, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain KEY WORDS African Diaspora; ancient DNA; stable isotopes; skeletal markers of physi- cal activity; Canary Islands ABSTRACT Objectives: The Canary Islands are considered one of the first places where Atlantic slave plantations with labourers of African origin were established, during the 15th century AD. In Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain), a unique cemetery dated to the 15th and 17th centuries was discovered adjacent to an ancient sugar plantation with funerary practices that could be related to enslaved people. In this article, we investigate the origin and possi- ble birthplace of each individual buried in this cemetery, as well as the identity and social status of these people. Materials and Methods: The sample consists of 14 individuals radiocarbon dated to the 15th and 17th centuries AD. We have employed several methods, including the analysis of ancient human DNA, stable isotopes, and skeletal markers of physical activity. Results: 1) the funerary practices indicate a set of rituals not previously recorded in the Canary Islands; 2) genetic data show that some people buried in the cemetery could have North–African and sub-Saharan African line- ages; 3) isotopic results suggest that some individuals were born outside Gran Canaria; and 4) markers of physical activity show a pattern of labour involving high levels of effort. Discussion: This set of evidence, along with information from historical sources, suggests that Finca Clavijo was a cemetery for a multiethnic marginalized population that had being likely enslaved. Results also indicate that this population kept practicing non-Christian rituals well into the 17th century. We propose that this was possible because the location of the Canaries, far from mainland Spain and the control of the Spanish Crown, allowed the emergence of a new society with multicultural origins that was more tolerant to foreign rituals and syncretism. Am J Phys Anthropol 159:300–312, 2016. V C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. European colonization of the Americas and the exploi- tation of its natural resources required a slave popula- tion to satisfy the labour shortages and maintain low production costs. African populations were selected to be enslaved because they came from tropical environments and had lower death rates as well as agricultural and technological skills (Goucher et al., 1998). The Atlantic slave trade promoted by Europeans between the 16th and 19th centuries forcibly moved at least 12 million people from Africa to America to be sold mainly as labourers on large plantations in the Caribbean and South America (Frank, 1978; Suret–Canale, 1988; Thomas, 1997; Curtin, 1998; Worger et al., 2010). During the 16th century, this phenomenon was closely con- nected with the sugar industry, one of the main pillars of the new Atlantic economy (Goucher et al., 1998; Lobo–Cabrera, 1982, 2000). However, the earliest Atlantic slave plantations were located in the Macaronesian archipelagos, including Madeira, the Canary Islands, and the Cape Verde Islands, at the central–eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean (Curtin, 1998; Thomas, 1997). Textual evidence indicates the existence of sugar cane factories in these regions from the early middle 15th century (Curtin, 1998; Vi ~ na, 2014). In this historical and geographical Grant sponsor: Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Spain; Grant sponsor: Research project HAR2013–41934 funded by MINECO (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness). *Correspondence to: Dr. Jonathan Santana, Prometeo researcher, State University of Peninsula de Santa Elena, Av. La Libertad–Santa Elena, La Libertad, Ecuador. E-mail: jonathan. santana@ulpgc.es (or) jonsantana82@gmail.com Received 16 February 2015; revised 9 September 2015; accepted 21 September 2015 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22879 Published online 12 October 2015 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). Ó 2015 WILEY PERIODICALS, INC. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 159:300–312 (2016)