TAUSTE, SPAIN—CNN reports that more than 4,500 graves have been identified at a cemetery in northeastern Spain, in an area thought to have been largely untouched by the Arab invasion of the Iberian peninsula in the early eighth century A.D. Radiocarbon dating suggests the necropolis was in use from the eighth century through the eleventh century A.D. Miriam Pina Pardos of the Anthropological Observatory of the Islamic Necropolis of Tauste said that more than 400 of the graves have been exhumed, and all of the bodies had been buried facing southeast toward Mecca, according to Islamic customs. “We can see there was a big Muslim population here in Tauste from the beginning of the presence of Muslims in Spain,” explained archaeologist Eva Gimenez. “It is very important—the 400 Muslim tombs show the people lived here for centuries.” To read about medieval Muslim burials in Nimes, France, go to "Islam North of the Pyrenees."
