A 7,000-year-old piece of leather reveals a deep history of Spanish goats

 

Ancient DNA supports a deep history of Iberian domestic goats

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

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Approximately 7,000-year-old tanned goat leather preserved in Cueva de los Murciélagos, Albuñol (Granada, Spain), from which ancient DNA was recovered for this study.

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Credit: MUTERMUR Project, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Ancient DNA reveals that denizens of the Iberian Peninsula made leather from domestic goats as far back as 7,000 years ago, according to a study published November 4, 2026, in the open access journal PLOS One by Jolijn A. M. Erven of University College Dublin, Ireland and colleagues.

Research into the history of ancient livestock use and trade is helped immensely by ancient genetic data. Unfortunately, well-preserved ancient DNA is generally limited to cold and dry habitats, with much fewer examples from warm regions. In this study, Erven and colleagues report a rare well-preserved genetic sample from a fragment of goat leather found at the burial site of Cueva de los Murciélagos in southern Spain.

This leather was likely part of a garment or protective covering and shows evidence of having been tanned and perforated before being interred alongside human remains. Radiocarbon dating of the specimen recovered an age of around 7,000 years old, during the Early Neolithic period. Researchers were able to recover both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from the specimen. The genetic material is extensively fragmented, but intact enough to be identified as domestic goat with a close relation to the modern-day Bermeya breed from northern Spain. This indicates that Neolithic people already used domestic goats rather than wild Iberian ibex, and it also demonstrates a continuous goat lineage in Spain going back several thousand years.

Of note is that this analysis recovered no African genetic heritage in the sample, contrasting with modern European goats. This might indicate that Iberian-African cultural connections weren’t established until after the Neolithic period, but the authors caution that the genetic sample is incomplete. With the recovery of well-preserved Iberian ancient DNA, the possibility exists that further samples might provide more details into the deep history of European livestock.

Francisco Martínez-Sevilla adds: “The preservation of this 7,000-year-old goat leather is exceptional. Cueva de los Murciélagos has preserved organic materials that rarely survive in the archaeological record, offering us a unique opportunity to investigate prehistoric technologies, animal husbandry, and the relationships between human communities and domestic animals.” 

Kevin Daly adds: “It is rare to for such ancient, organic materials to retain DNA - but this was one of the few exceptions. With a tiny amount of surviving DNA, we were able to show a link with Iberian breeds today - a genetic connection spanning 7,000 years. This study demonstrates what can done through the collaboration of international multidisciplinary teams - transforming an archaeological object into a link with the living present.”

 

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/4BmWRQO

Citation: Erven JAM, Guyet ZR, L’Hôte L, Mattiangeli V, Fernández-Domínguez E, Laidlaw G, et al. (2026) Genetic analysis of 7,000 year old preserved goat leather from Cueva de los Murciélagos (Albuñol, Spain). PLoS One 21(11): e0358468. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0358468