The rapid expansion of the Arab Empire during the Muslim conquests resulted in the formation of one of the most important empires in world history, extending from the west bank of the river Indus to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. The Arab-Muslim expansion represented a major politico-religious change during the early Middle Ages in the Mediterranean region. In the western part of the Mediterranean, Arab armies expanded quickly across North Africa and incorporated numerous native Berbers populations, which rapidly adopted the Islamic religion and represented the bulk of Muslim troops who later conquered Southwest Europe.
Their arrival led to a cultural transformation and substantially modified relations between Western European societies that were being reorganized after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. They notably attest to a Muslim presence or travel in Nimes between and AD. In or , the inhabitants of Nimes surrendered, offering little resistance to Ambissa, or Anbasa b. Suhaym al-Kalbi, the new governor of Spain. Finally, in , a local Goth leader named Ansemundus or Misemundus delivered four cities, including Nimes, to Pepin the Short, marking the start of the final conquest of Septimania by the Franks.
In accodance with this, the Islamic presence in Septimania has until recently only been archeologically documented by rare ceramics, Arabic coins or seals. The multidisciplinary analyses conducted on these burials offer new data concerning the Muslim occupation in the Visigothic territory of Septimania, unraveling the complex relationship between early medieval western and Arab-Muslim societies. Interestingly, several observations suggest that the three Muslim graves were not isolated or excluded from general funerary space.
First, although the three Muslim graves were discovered in an area surrounding the city outside the borders of the early medieval town , they were found in a distinct rural area situated inside a Roman enclosure demarcated by stone walls and between urban poles. Because the Roman walls were still partially visible in the early Middle Ages, we can speculate that this funerary zone was in some way still linked to the city.
Moreover, the Muslim graves were not isolated in the area because other early medieval graves were found in the suburb of Nimes, corresponding to a well-known phenomenon in the early Middle Ages. Five human bone fragments from the three graves underwent direct radiocarbon dating S2 Table. The dates obtained, confirmed by two dating labs, cluster tightly and range between the 7th and the 8th centuries AD. These dates suggest that the remains are the earliest medieval Muslim graves known in France.
