4.7 Article

Biomolecular insights into North African-related ancestry, mobility and diet in eleventh-century Al-Andalus

Journal

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Volume 11, Issue 1, Pages -

Publisher

NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-95996-3

Keywords

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Funding

  1. BBSRC National Capability in Genomics and Single Cell Analysis at Earlham Institute [BBS/E/T/000PR9816]
  2. Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship
  3. FCT (Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia) [PTDC/EPH-ARQ/4164/2014, PTDC/SOC-ANT/30316/2017]
  4. FEDER funds (COMPETE 2020 project) [016899]
  5. Contrato-Programa [UIDB/04050/2020]
  6. FCT I.P. [CEECINST/0007772018]
  7. Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research
  8. Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen -German Research Center for Environmental Health - German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
  9. State of Bavaria
  10. Munich Center of Health Sciences (MC Health)
  11. LudwigMaximilians-Universitat, LMUinnovativ
  12. Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [PTDC/SOC-ANT/30316/2017, PTDC/EPH-ARQ/4164/2014] Funding Source: FCT

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The study presents a low-coverage genome of an eleventh century man from an Islamic necropolis in Spain, showing a mosaic of North African and European-like ancestries distinct from modern populations. It highlights the admixture between recently arrived Amazigh people and the pre-Islamic population, as well as differences with contemporary individuals from Valencia. His genome captures past genetic variation erased by demographic shifts, likely due to the expulsion of Islamic communities in the seventeenth century following the Reconquista.
Historical records document medieval immigration from North Africa to Iberia to create Islamic al-Andalus. Here, we present a low-coverage genome of an eleventh century CE man buried in an Islamic necropolis in Segorbe, near Valencia, Spain. Uniparental lineages indicate North African ancestry, but at the autosomal level he displays a mosaic of North African and European-like ancestries, distinct from any present-day population. Altogether, the genome-wide evidence, stable isotope results and the age of the burial indicate that his ancestry was ultimately a result of admixture between recently arrived Amazigh people (Berbers) and the population inhabiting the Peninsula prior to the Islamic conquest. We detect differences between our sample and a previously published group of contemporary individuals from Valencia, exemplifying how detailed, small-scale aDNA studies can illuminate fine-grained regional and temporal differences. His genome demonstrates how ancient DNA studies can capture portraits of past genetic variation that have been erased by later demographic shifts-in this case, most likely the seventeenth century CE expulsion of formerly Islamic communities as tolerance dissipated following the Reconquista by the Catholic kingdoms of the north.

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