According to two recent studies, prehistoric migration impacted the genetic history of the Iberian Peninsula. Findings suggest that North Africans called Iberia home more than 4,000 years ago. The Iberian Peninsula had an interesting history, that was related to North Africa thousands of years before the Muslim conquest. Migration and trade were two factors that brought Moroccans and other North African inhabitants to Iberia. These findings were based on two recent scientific studies that shed light on the genetic history of the region, known in modern day as Spain and Portugal. Ancient DNA studies conducted by a group of researchers, led be Inigo Olalde, a geneticist from the Harvard Medical School, and published, Thursday, in peer-reviewed journal Science, shows that Iberia was home to North Africans 4,400 years ago. Tracing back the genetic history of the peninsula, the study revealed that «archaeological human remains dating from about 7000 years ago to the present elucidate the genetic impact of prehistoric and historic from migrations from Europe and North Africa». North Africans and the Muslim conquest Researchers found out that migration from the two continents brought changes, throughout all these years, to the DNA of those who once inhabited the European peninsula. The study, quoted by New York Times, shows that a 4,400-year-old skeleton of a man who was buried in a central Spain grave is «100 percent North African». According to Harvard Medical School geneticist David Reich, who is a co-author in the study, the findings looked «crazy». «We double-checked it because it was so weird». However, further discoveries confirmed this theory. Studying the DNA of a 3,500-year-old skeleton of a woman, researchers realized that she had a «North African grandparent». These striking findings unveiled an unknown chapter in the history of the region. To put it in other words, Iberia was inhabited by North Africans, 3,000 years ago, before the Roman Empire took control of the peninsula. North African ancestry kept growing in the region, during the Iron Age, according to the study's findings and Mediterranean trade was seen as a factor that pushed North Africans to settle down in Iberian towns. The journey of North African ancestry did not stop there but was extended even after Iberia became part of the Roman empire. This study was supported by a second one entitled «Patterns of genetic differentiation and the footprints of historical migrations in the Iberian Peninsula». Conducted by a group of researchers, the study showed that North African DNA survived, even after Muslims left the region.
