The period captured by these samples spans the early Islamic expansions into Iberia and centuries of dynastic change across the Mediterranean and South Asia. Archaeological contexts include urban and rural deposits from Palau Castell de Betxí and Plaza Parroquial in Vinaròs, late-medieval stratigraphy at Calle Panaderos and Cueva Romero in Granada province, Anatolian island and inland sites such as Zeytinliada (Erdek) and Yenişehirkapı (İznik), the Mesopotamian frontier at Aktaş Mevki (Midyat), and the Ghaznavid-era cemetery at Udegram in Swat Valley.
These places testify to networks of trade, pilgrimage and military movement that intensified after the 7th century. Archaeological data indicates urban continuity and reuse of Roman and Visigothic infrastructure in al-Andalus, while Anatolian and Levantine contexts show Byzantine, early Islamic and later Ottoman layers. Genetic evidence aligns with this picture of mobility: there are clear signatures of western Eurasian maternal lineages alongside Y-chromosome diversity reflecting both local European and broader Near Eastern/North African paternal inputs.
Limited evidence suggests regional differences in ancestry; however, the dataset’s temporal span (665–1652 CE) and uneven geographic coverage mean that fine-grained demographic reconstructions remain provisional.
