IMC 2026: Sessions
Session 343: Quis Separabit?: Archaeological Approaches to Mobility and Sustained Connectivity in Late Roman to Early Islamic Iberia and North Africa
Monday 6 July 2026, 16:30-18:00
| Sponsor: | Initiative for the Science of the Human Past (SoHP), Harvard University |
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| Organisers: | Reed Morgan, Department of History, Harvard University / Abteilung für Archäogenetik, Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie Ailem Paladea Rojo, Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Arqueología y Patrimonio Histórico / Institut Universitari d'Investigació en Arqueologia i Patrimoni Històric, Universidad de Alicante / Universitat d'Alacant |
| Moderator/Chair: | Reed Morgan, Department of History, Harvard University / Abteilung für Archäogenetik, Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie |
| Paper 343-a | Early Christians and Their Many Faces on the Northern Shore of the Strait of Gibraltar: New Insights from an Integrated Ancient DNA and Bioarchaeological Approach (Language: English) Index terms: Anthropology, Archaeology - General, Genealogy and Prosopography, Religious Life |
| Paper 343-b | Ancient DNA Insights into Mediterranean Interactions in South Iberia, 1st-14th Centuries (Language: English) Index terms: Anthropology, Archaeology - General, Genealogy and Prosopography |
| Paper 343-c | Missing Vandals and Isolated Byzantines: New Genetic Evidence for the Population of Vandal and Byzantine Carthage (Language: English) Index terms: Anthropology, Archaeology - General, Byzantine Studies, Social History |
| Abstract | Separated by a mere 14km at the Straits of Gibraltar, Iberia and North Africa were part of a connected Western Mediterranean world in Late Antiquity. In key ways, from the Roman period through the arrival of Islam, movements of people, objects and ideas sustained a network of mobility and connectivity. The movements associated with the Roman economy and army, the migrations of Visigoths and Vandals, the Byzantine reconquest, and the Arab conquests have been extensively studied from the vantage of traditional historical sources. These movements and connections are the substrate upon which the narrative of historical transformation from ancient to medieval played out. However, new projects in bioarchaeology and ancient DNA have substantially increased the resolution with which scholars can examine the demographic and social impact of migration. Fine scale analysis of burial sites sheds new light on the dynamics of ancestry, kinship, and migration, as experienced by local communities in this period of transition. This session brings together bioarchaeological case studies from both sides of the Straits to understand the experience of mobility and connectivity in the Western Mediterranean in the period from the 3rd to the 9th Century CE. |