Uncovering a Medieval Pogrom : Genetic History of a Jewish Community in Catalonia (Spain)
Pallares Viña, Laura (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia)
Cuesta-Aguirre, Daniel R. (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia)
Campoy Caballero, Maria Rosa (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia)
Armentano Oller, Núria (Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya)
Colet, Anna (Museu Comarcal de l'Urgell)
Malgosa Morera, Assumpció (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia)
Santos, Cristina (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia)

Fecha:	2026
Descripción:	22 pàg.
Resumen:	Background/Objectives. The Black Death pandemic, combined with the antisemitic climate of 14th-century Europe, led to widespread violence against Jewish communities, including numerous pogroms such as the one in 1348 in Tàrrega (Catalonia, Spain). In the Roquetes necropolis of Tàrrega, six communal graves containing at least sixty-nine individuals, with signs of violence, were dated to the mid-14th century. Based on the hypothesis that Iberian medieval Jewish communities preserve genetic similarities to other ancient and modern Jewish communities, our study aims to provide genomic information on medieval Iberian communities, which to date have been unknown. Methods. We analyzed DNA from sixteen individuals from the Roquetes necropolis using Twist ancient DNA enrichment capture. Several paleogenomic analyses based on nuclear DNA and uniparental markers were conducted to determine their genetic relatedness and population origin. Results. PCA and ADMIXTURE analyses revealed genetic affinities with ancient and modern Jewish populations. Uniparental markers, which exhibited high diversity, aligned with typical patterns within the Jewish community. The qpAdm modeling suggested that the genetic composition of the Roquetes population can be explained by a mixture of Canaan individuals (0. 69) and the Iberian non-Jewish non-Islamic medieval population (0. 31). No close genetic kinship was detected, but RHO analyses indicated a certain level of background endogamy. Conclusions. This is the first study to report genomic data for medieval Iberian Jews. Our findings reveal genomic affinities of the Roquetes individuals with ancient and modern Jewish populations and corroborate the previous attribution of the burials to victims of the 1348 Tàrrega pogrom.
Ayudas:	Generalitat de Catalunya 2021/SGR-00186
Derechos:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Lengua:	Anglès
Documento:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Materia:	Admixture analysis ; Iberian Peninsula ; Jewish populations ; Medieval period ; Molecular anthropology ; Population genomics ; ancient DNA (aDNA) ; SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Publicado en:	Genes, Vol. 17, Num. 3 (March 2026) , art. 358, ISSN 2073-4425

DOI: 10.3390/genes17030358

22 p, 2.0 MB

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