Genetic analysis of a late Iron Age cemetery in Dorset reveals that women were closely related and likely controlled land and property, while unrelated men joined the community through marriage.
Genetic evidence from a late Iron Age cemetery in southern Britain reveals a fascinating social structure where female kinship ties formed the bedrock of Celtic society. Analysis of recovered DNA from 57 graves in Dorset, southwest England, dating back to approximately 100 B.C. to 200 A.D., shows that a staggering two-thirds of the individuals shared a single maternal lineage.
This unprecedented discovery, published in the journal Nature, suggests that women remained within the same social circles throughout their lives, maintaining strong networks and likely controlling land and property inheritance.In contrast, unrelated men appear to have integrated into the community primarily through marriage. These findings challenge conventional archaeological paradigms, which typically observed women leaving their natal homes to join their husbands' families in various ancient societies. Previous studies, ranging from the Neolithic to the early Medieval period, and even anthropological research on pre-industrial communities from 1800 to the present, have predominantly shown men joining their wives' extended families in a minority of cases (only 8%).The strong female kinship connections observed in this Iron Age cemetery provide compelling evidence of women's significant influence within Celtic society. While it doesn't necessarily indicate formal political power structures or matriarchy, the control over land and property, coupled with the robust social support system, paints a picture of a more egalitarian society compared to the Roman world. Study co-author and archaeologist Miles Russell from Bournemouth University suggests that this pattern of female agency and land ownership reflects a unique social dynamic within Iron Age Britain
Celtic Iron Age Britain Women Kinship Social Structure Genetic Analysis Archaeology
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