Mondújar Nazari Community (1500s)

The graves at Mondújar (Lecrín) and the Nécropolis de Torna Alta in Granada belong to communities living in the turbulent aftermath of the Nasrid kingdom's fall (1492 CE). Archaeological data indicates continued use of Islamic funerary spaces and material culture into the 16th century, reflecting cultural persistence under new political realities.

Limited evidence suggests these burials preserve a community that navigated shifting identities: outwardly Christianized in law yet maintaining local traditions. The landscape — terraced fields, olive groves, and watchful hills — framed a way of life shaped by centuries of Mediterranean exchange. Ceramic assemblages and burial orientation hint at continuity with earlier Nasrid practices, but the archaeological record remains fragmentary. Given only eight genetic samples, any reconstruction of population origins is provisional, and archaeological signals must be read alongside documentary silence and later upheavals.

Genetic data from eight individuals offers a preliminary window into the biological heritage of these Nazari‑period Muslim communities. Y‑DNA results (R: 2, E: 1, CT: 1) suggest mixed paternal ancestries: R lineages are common across Iberia and Europe, whereas haplogroup E is often associated with North African and Mediterranean populations. CT here denotes a broad upstream lineage where downstream resolution is limited in these samples.

Mitochondrial diversity (U:3, H:2, H1:1, L:1, W6a:1) reveals predominantly Western Eurasian maternal lineages (U, H, W6a) alongside one L lineage indicative of sub‑Saharan maternal input. This pattern is consistent with historical records of Mediterranean mobility, the trans‑Saharan and Atlantic slave trades, and centuries of Iberian–Maghrebi contact. Archaeological DNA indicates admixture at the household level, but with only eight samples conclusions are tentative. Sampling bias, preservation, and laboratory resolution affect haplogroup calls; broader datasets are needed to clarify kinship, population structure, and the timing of admixture events.