Western Europe’s earliest known mule died 2,700 years ago — and it was buried with a partially cremated woman
Around 2,700 years ago, a partially cremated woman was buried with a mule – the oldest remains of the hybrid animal ever discovered in Western Europe, a new study reveals.
The mule and woman were buried in an ancient rock-lined pit that served as a silo at the Hort d’en Grimau archaeological site in northeastern Spain. Although the skeletons were discovered in 1986, genetic testing recently identified one set of remains as those of a mule.
Mules are generally sterile and it is difficult to breed a male donkey with a horse. The ancients who bred them had to train donkey stallions “from a young age to ride mares,” the team wrote, noting that these difficulties made mules valuable throughout history.
The oldest known mules date back more than 4,000 years ago and were found in the Middle East, Brother Javier López Cacheroarchaeologist at the University of Barcelona and co-author of the paper, told Live Science in an email.
During the time this mule lived, sailors called Phoenicians were active in Spain. They were based in the Middle East and may have brought their knowledge of how to raise a mule, the team noted in the newspaper.
Scientists looked at the ratios of isotopes (atoms with varying numbers of neutrons in their nuclei) in the mule’s remains because these chemical remains may provide clues about the food it ate. They discovered that the mule was fed a diet rich in cultivated grains, while an anatomical analysis of its bones indicated that the mule was widely used for horse riding.
“The mule clearly shows that it was ridden and well fed, suggesting that it had considerable social value,” López Cachero said.
The woman buried with the mule was between 20 and 25 years old when she died, but little is known about her.
“Unfortunately, the condition of the skeletal remains does not allow any assessment of the woman’s state of health or the determination of the cause of her death,” López Cachero said. However, an analysis revealed that the woman had been partially cremated before her burial and that her remains were in pieces when buried, rather than carefully arranged.
“The mule, however, shows no signs of cremation,” he noted. “This remains a difficult question.”
Horses in or near human burials sometimes indicated “warrior” status in the ancient world, but it is unclear why this woman was buried with a mule.
“The funerary treatment of the human remains is unconventional and the absence of funerary goods prevents definitive conclusions from being drawn about the social status of the woman,” said López Cachero.
Albizuri, S., Nadal, J., Cuervo, MM, Grandal-D’Anglade, A., Orlando, L., Fages, A., Mercadal, O., Mestre, J., Farré, J. and Cachero, JL (2025). The oldest mule in the Western Mediterranean. The case of the early Iron Age at Hort d’en Grimau (Penedès, Barcelona, Spain). Reports of the Journal of Archaeological Sciences, 69, 105506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105506
