Christians in a Muslim world? Radiocarbon dating of the cemetery overlaying the forum of Pollentia (Mallorca, Balearic Islands)

14 C dating of human remains from the necropolis overlaying the forum of the Roman city of Pollentia (Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Western Mediterranean) has helped to solve the problem of the chronology of these burials. Traditionally, this necropolis was thought to date from the fourth century AD. Recent archaeological data suggested a later chronology with graves that follow funerary practices considered of the Late Antique Christian communities on the island. The results of the radiocarbon dating provide an unexpected dating from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, well into the Islamic period (AD 902/903–1229). The results are of extreme importance as they offer, for the first time, an absolute chronology for this necropolis. Furthermore, they may provide archaeological evidence of the existence of non-Muslim communities into the Muslim period on the island. This absolute chronology and its implications are a major breakthrough for the history of Pollentia , Mallorca and the Balearics.