Frühislamische Bestattungen in Munigua (prov. Sevilla / E)

Abstract

Two post-antique burials were discovered in 2005 in Munigua which were interpreted as graves of Muslims given the specific way of burial. This is the first evidence for the presence of Muslims in the former Roman town. The two bodies were interred in simple East-West oriented earth graves and were stretched out on the back or on the right side with slightly flexed legs. Two radiocarbon dates suggest a dating to the 8th-9th century, i. e. in the early period of the Arabic-Islamic rule on the Iberian Peninsula. The question remains whether there is evidence in the burial custom indicating the origin of the buried individuals (groups which immigrated to the Iberian Peninsula only after 711 or natives of the Romano-Hispanic population).