Women were at the centre of early Iron Age British communities, a new analysis of 2,000-year-old DNA reveals.
The research, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, found that British Celtic societies were matrilocal with married women staying in their ancestral communities.
Human societies have often been shaped by where married couples choose to reside culturally.
For instance, in patrilocal communities partners mainly reside with or near the families of the male, whereas in matrilocal societies, couples live near the female’s parents.
Previous studies confirm that patrilocality was widely followed in the European Neolithic, Copper and Bronze ages.
However, earlier research hinted that in the case of Celtic societies, women had higher status.
Romans documented their astonishment at finding women occupying positions of power, writing about queens – Boudica and Cartimandua – who commanded armies and finding the empowerment of Celtic women remarkable.
…
Scientists analysed the genomes of 57 individuals buried in Iron Age cemeteries associated with Durotrigian communities in southern Britain.
They found that most individuals were related through the maternal line.
Unrelated individuals found in the cemetery were also found to be predominantly male, indicating they migrated to the area after marriage.
“This tells us that husbands moved to join their wives’ communities upon marriage, with land potentially passed down through the female line,” study co-author Lara Cassidy said.
“This is the first time this type of system has been documented in European prehistory and it predicts female social and political empowerment,” Dr Cassidy said.
That’s interesting, I hadn’t considered the tradition might go back that far. My family tree has loads of examples of men marrying in their brides parish and then staying there, well into the 1800s.
Lol man, I went to go say, yeah, until the fucking Roman’s showed up, then I thought of my good friend Pug, and i reined that shit in.
Great share, thanks! Bring back the women!
She died by falling in a hole
Typical politician
The source article https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08409-6
Abstract
Roman writers found the relative empowerment of Celtic women remarkable1. In southern Britain, the Late Iron Age Durotriges tribe often buried women with substantial grave goods2. Here we analyse 57 ancient genomes from Durotrigian burial sites and find an extended kin group centred around a single maternal lineage, with unrelated (presumably inward migrating) burials being predominantly male. Such a matrilocal pattern is undescribed in European prehistory, but when we compare mitochondrial haplotype variation among European archaeological sites spanning six millennia, British Iron Age cemeteries stand out as having marked reductions in diversity driven by the presence of dominant matrilines. …
If they did it so well, I wonder why it was literally lost to antiquity?
Christianity, dark ages, witch trials, Equal Protection Act.
Lots of reasons.
Patriarchal societies are more likely to be warmongering which destabilizes neighbors.
It literally isn’t. Matrilineal or matrilocal societies are common amongst Native Americans and found in parts of Africa and Asia.
Some sort of roman equivalent of “Andrew Taint”.
