Head banging is hardly a new phenomenon
It seems that head banging is nothing new on the island of Tenerife.
Long before holiday revellers brought head banging from the London clubs to the nightspots of Playa de las Americas, Tenerife had its own variation of the phenomenon
A study of the skulls of the island’s original inhabitants by scientists at the Canarian Institute of Palaeopathology and Bioanthropology in Santa Cruz found that fractures were common among males in their 20s and early 30s, according to the Journal of Paleopathology.
The scientists examined over 400 skulls pre-dating the Spanish invasion of the island in 1496.
Some 10 per cent of the skulls showed circular cranial fractures, an injury rarely found among archaeological human skeletons.
The pre-Hispanic inhabitants of the island, the Guanches, had weapons similar to the Argentinean bolas – two or more heavy balls attached to a cord.
Over 80 per cent of the fractures show clear signs of healing, says the report, though the scientists suspects that brain damage must have resulted from the injuries.