🇪🇸 Medieval Iberia was already mixed across the Mediterranean

Ancient DNA from an early medieval individual buried at the Menga dolmen in southern Spain shows that people living in Al-Andalus (8th–11th centuries CE) were not genetically isolated or “purely Iberian”. This individual carried a mixed ancestry profile, combining local Iberian roots with clear North African and Levantine-related ancestry.

When modeled genetically, his ancestry can be approximated as ~45% Iron Age Iberian–like, ~20% deep North African–related, and ~35% Levantine–related ancestry. This kind of profile closely matches other Roman and early medieval individuals from southern Iberia and Italy, showing that Mediterranean gene flow was already well established before and during Islamic rule.

Importantly, this North African and Levantine ancestry was not unique or exotic. Similar proportions appear across southern Iberia from Late Roman times onward, reflecting centuries of movement across the Mediterranean through trade, empire, and later intensified contacts with North Africa after 711 CE. Genetics here does not map cleanly onto religion or culture: individuals with similar DNA could have been Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or pagan.

Takeaway: By the early Middle Ages, southern Iberians were already genetically Mediterranean, shaped by long-term admixture with North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, rather than sudden population replacement.

Source: Silva et al., 2026. Genetic and historical perspectives on the early medieval inhumations from the Menga dolmen, Antequera (Spain).