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.
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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.
The source article https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08409-6