Genomic evidence of female political empowerment in the Iron Age

Madrid. In a study to decipher the structure of Iron Age British society, geneticists and archaeologists found evidence of female political and social empowerment. The researchers, led by scholars from Trinity College Dublin and Bournemouth University, took advantage of a unique opportunity to sequence the DNA of many members of the same community.

They recovered more than 50 ancient genomes from a set of cemeteries in Dorset, southern England, that were used before and after the Roman conquest of 43 AD. The results, which are published in Naturerevealed that this community was focused on ties of descent through the female line.

Lara Cassidy, associate professor in Trinity’s Department of Genetics, led the study. According to her, This was the cemetery of a large family group. We reconstructed a family tree with many different branches and discovered that most members traced their maternal lineage to a single woman, who would have lived centuries earlier. On the contrary, relations through the paternal line were almost non-existent. This tells us that husbands moved to join their wives’ communities upon marriage, and that land could be passed down through the female line. It is the first time that this type of system has been documented in European prehistory and predicts the social and political empowerment of women. It is relatively rare in modern societies, but may not always have been this wayhe declared in a statement.

Incredibly, the team discovered that this type of social organization, called matrilocalitywas not limited to Dorset.

They analyzed data from previous genetic studies of Iron Age Britain and, although the number of samples from other cemeteries was smaller, they observed that the same pattern emerged again and again.

Dan Bradley, professor of population genetics at Trinity and co-author of the study, reflects: Throughout Britain we have seen cemeteries in which the majority of individuals were maternally descended from a small group of female ancestors. In Yorkshire, for example, a dominant maternal line had been established before 400 BC. To our surprise, it was a widespread phenomenon with deep roots on the island..

Iron Age cemeteries with well-preserved tombs are rare in Britain. Dorset is an exception, due to the unique burial customs of the people who lived there, whom the Romans called Durotriges. The researchers took DNA samples from a site near the town of Winterborne Kingston, nicknamed Duropoliswhich archaeologists at Bournemouth University have been excavating since 2009. Previously, the team had observed that the best-decorated Durotrigan tombs were those of women.

Greeks and Romans

Miles Russell, director of the excavation and co-author of the study, comments: Beyond archaeology, knowledge of Iron Age Britain comes mainly from Greek and Roman writers, but they are not always considered the most reliable. That said, his comments about British women are notable in light of these findings. When the Romans arrived, they were surprised to find women in positions of power. Two of the first recorded rulers were queens, Boudica and Cartimandua, who commanded armies. It has been suggested that the Romans exaggerated the freedoms of British women to paint a portrait of an untamed society. But archaeology, and now genetics, imply that women were influential in many spheres of life in the Iron Age. In fact, it is possible that maternal ancestry was the main factor shaping group identities.

Following the writings of Julius Caesar, the researchers also discovered a trace of Iron Age migration to the southern coast of England, which had not been detected in previous genetic studies. This will add fuel to the debates surrounding the arrival of the Celtic language in Britain. Dr. Cassidy summarizes: Migration to Britain had already been detected during the Late Bronze Age, leading some to hypothesize that the Celtic language arrived during this period. But our results point to significant cross-channel mobility during the Iron Age as well. It will be difficult to specify the moment of the Celtic’s arrival. In fact, it is quite possible that Celtic languages ​​were introduced to Britain on more than one occasion..