In the heart of southern Spain, a prehistoric stone monument built millennia ago has yielded a genetic puzzle that bridges the gap between the Neolithic era and the Middle Ages. Even as recent DNA analysis has successfully mapped the ancestral roots of a man buried there, the spiritual life he led remains an enigma, leaving researchers to wonder if he belonged to a single faith or a complex blend of beliefs.
The burials were discovered within the atrium of the Dolmen de Menga, a massive megalithic structure dating back to the fourth millennium B.C. While the monument was a product of the New Stone Age, two men were laid to rest there much later, during the medieval period. A new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports reveals that one of these men possessed a genetic tapestry reflecting the vast migrations and cultural exchanges of the Mediterranean world.
Genetic testing of the remains from the 10th or 11th century identified a man over the age of 45 whose ancestry was a mix of European, North African, and Middle Eastern populations. The findings highlight the fluid nature of identity in medieval Iberia, where borders were permeable and genetic lineages often spanned continents.
Mapping a Mediterranean Lineage
To reconstruct the man’s history, researchers looked at two different types of genetic markers. His Y-chromosome, which is passed from father to son, matches a lineage that has been present in the Iberian Peninsula since at least the Chalcolithic, or Copper Age, roughly 3200 to 2200 B.C.
However, his maternal lineage—traced through mitochondrial DNA—revealed a more complex story. While this lineage has been known in Iberia since the Early Neolithic, it is likewise prevalent in modern-day northwest Africa. The genetic analysis was precise enough to identify a specific mutation shared by the medieval man and two living individuals in a genetic database, one located in Morocco and another in Algeria.
Such a genetic profile is not unexpected for the region. Southern Iberia saw significant movement of people from the third to fourth century, driven by trade networks established by the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians, and later expanded by the Roman Empire. By the time these men were buried, the area was part of Al-Andalus, a Muslim kingdom where contacts with North Africa became even more frequent following the Islamic onset in 711 CE.
The Enigma of Faith and Orientation
While the man’s DNA revealed where he came from, his burial position creates a conflict of interpretation. Both men—the later burial and an earlier one from the 8th or 9th century—were placed in simple pits without grave goods. Their heads were positioned on their right sides, facing southeast toward Mecca, a hallmark of Islamic burial practice.
However, there is a contradiction: the bodies were also aligned with the axis of symmetry of the Dolmen de Menga, pointing toward the interior of the ancient monument. This dual orientation is unusual. Leonardo García Sanjuán, a professor at the University of Seville and study co-author, noted that this alignment differs from typical Islamic necropolises in the region.
The choice of location—the entrance of a structure that was already thousands of years old at the time of their deaths—suggests a profound reverence for the prehistoric site. García Sanjuán suggested that the men’s world view may have been a mixture of Islamic and pagan beliefs.
Interpreting the Sacred Space
Other experts suggest that the medieval inhabitants may have viewed the megalithic structure through a different lens. Yves Gleize, an archaeologist and biological anthropologist at the University of Bordeaux, noted that caves hold significant spiritual weight in the Islamic world, citing the cave of Hira, where the prophet Muhammad received his first revelations. The dolmen was interpreted as a cave, serving as a place of spiritual retreat.
The reuse of prehistoric monuments in the Middle Ages is not isolated to Spain. Leonor Rocha, an archaeology professor at the University of Évora in Portugal, noted similar evidence of monument reuse in the Alentejo region, although preserved bones have not been found in those instances. The presence of viable DNA in the Menga burials provides a rare opportunity to link physical ancestry with archaeological context.
The study was unable to extract DNA from the earlier 8th- or 9th-century burial due to fragmentation and the intrusion of plant roots into the bone, leaving the genetic profile of the first medieval man a mystery.
As researchers continue to analyze the orientation and genetic markers of these remains, the focus shifts toward understanding how the diverse populations of Al-Andalus integrated their ancestral heritage with the spiritual landscapes they inherited. Further comparative studies of medieval burials in the region may provide more clarity on whether such “hybrid” burial practices were common during the era.
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