Editing Guanches (section)

=== Sacrifices ===
Although little is known about this practice among them, it has been shown that they performed both [[animal sacrifices]] and [[human sacrifices]].<ref name="academia.edu">[https://www.academia.edu/6630296/Sacrificios_de_ni%C3%B1os_y_sustitutorios_de_ovic%C3%A1pridos_al_dios_sol_sms_en_el_litoral_atl%C3%A1ntico_norteafricano_Child_and_Substitute_Ovicaprids_Sacrifices_to_the_Sun_God_%C5%A1m%C5%A1_in_the_North_African_Atlantic_Coast_ Sacrificios entre los Aborígenes canarios]</ref>

In [[Tenerife]] during the summer solstice, the Guanches killed livestock and threw them into a fire as an offering to the gods.<ref name="academia.edu"/> Bethencourt Alfonso has claimed that goat kids were tied by the legs, alive, to a stake so that they could be heard bleating by the gods. It is likely that animals were also sacrificed on the other islands.<ref name="academia.edu"/>

As for human sacrifices, in Tenerife it was the custom to throw a living child from the ''Punta de Rasca'' at sunrise at the summer solstice. Sometimes these children came from all parts of the island, even from remote areas of ''Punta de Rasca''. It follows that it was a common custom of the island.<ref name="academia.edu"/> On this island sacrificing other human victims associated with the death of the king, where adult men rushed to the sea are also known. Embalmers who produced the [[Guanche mummies]] also had a habit of throwing themselves into the sea one year after the king's death.<ref name="academia.edu"/>

Bones of children mixed with lambs and kids were found in [[Gran Canaria]], and in Tenerife amphorae have been found with remains of children inside. This suggests a different kind of ritual infanticide than those who were thrown overboard.<ref name="books.google.es">[https://books.google.com/books?id=GaoPAQAAQBAJ&dq=sacrificios+humanos+guanches&pg=PT341 Aparición de sacrificios de niños entre los Aborígenes Canarios]</ref>

[[Child sacrifice]] has been seen in other cultures, especially in the [[Mediterranean]]—[[Carthage]] (now [[Tunisia]]), [[Ugarit]] in what is now [[Syria]], [[Cyprus]] and [[Crete]].<ref name="books.google.es"/>{{relevant?|date=February 2025}}