There was already Muslim genetics in the Iberian Peninsula long before the Islamic conquest

After all, the arrival and departure of the Moors in Portugal and Spain was not as linear as we thought.

So far, we have believed that with the arrival of Muslims to Portugal there was also the North African blood. However, a new team of researchers challenges this idea.

A new published in the Genome Biol revealed, through an old DNA laboratory analysis, that North African descent already existed in the region between the fourth and eighth centuries, long before the Islamic conquest of 711.

After the expulsion of the Moors in the seventeenth century, however, this genetics was fading, when about 300,000 people were forced to leave their homes, according to.

However, according to the authors in the study, “for the first time, we also demonstrate the persistence of North African ancestry in a Christian cemetery until the 17th century, in addition to Evidence of Slave Trafficking in North Africa“.

“This study reveals the complex interaction between political events and cultural changes that influenced the east of the Iberian Peninsula,” they say.

This study explains archaeologists, “highlights the existence of a slave tradeunderlines the low impact of the reconquest In the genetic landscape and shows the lasting impact of post-medieval events, such as the expulsion of the Moors in 1609 AD, in the genetic and cultural landscape of the region, through the displacement and massive replacement of the population ”.

“Thanks to tools such as old DNA analysis, it is now possible to measure and contextualize these changes with unprecedented accuracy, establishing a bridge between the biological sciences, history and archeology,” they conclude.