A new analysis shows that female family ties formed the core of social networks within Celtic society before the Roman invasion.
The genetic evidence from an Iron Age graveyard shows that the women in this community were all closely related, while men who weren’t close relatives tended to enter from other places after marriage.
The ancient DNA found in 57 graves located in Dorset, southwest England, shows that the two thirds of individuals are descended from one maternal lineage. The cemetery was in use from 100 B.C. The cemetery was used from around 100 B.C.
Lara Cassidy is a geneticist from Trinity College Dublin and co-author of the study. She said, “That was jaw-dropping. It’s never before been observed in European prehistory.”
Nature published the findings on Wednesday. They suggest that women maintain the same social circles and inherit or manage land and property throughout their lives.
Cassidy said that “your husband is the one who comes in as a relative foreigner, dependent on your wife’s family to provide land and livelihood.”
This pattern, called matrilocality, is rare.
In an article that accompanies the study, the authors write, “Such a matrilocal structure is not described in European prehistory. However, when we compare mitochondrial haplotype variation across European archaeological sites over a period of six millennia and find that British Iron Age cemeteries have marked reductions in biodiversity due to the presence dominant matrilines.”
Guido Gnecchi Ruscone, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute, Germany, who wasn’t part of the study, says that the reverse pattern – where women leave their homes and join their husbands’ family – was only observed in grave sites from other ancient times, such as the neolithic period to the early Medieval periods.
Cassidy said that in studies of preindustrial societies dating from 1800 to today, anthropologists have found that only 8% men are part of their wives’ extended families.
Archaeologists knew that women played a special role in Iron Age Britain. Before the Roman invasion of 43 A.D., a patchwork tribes living in England with similar languages and art styles were sometimes called Celtic. Roman writers like Julius Caesar wrote about the relative independence of Celtic women and their fighting prowess with contempt.
Researchers found that strong female connections to their kin were not always indicative of formal political power held by women, also known as matriarchy.
According to Miles Russell, a Bournemouth University Archaeologist and co-author of the study, it is clear that women in Celtic Britain had some power over land and property and enjoyed strong social support. This made Celtic Britain “more equalitarian” than Roman Britain.
Russell stated that “when the Romans arrived they were amazed to see women in positions of power.”
He told AFP that some had questioned these accounts. “Some believed the Romans exaggerated British women’s liberties to create a picture of a untamed society,” he said.
He said: “But archaeology and genetics suggest that women were influential in many areas of Iron Age society.”
It is quite possible that the maternal ancestry shaped group identities.
Agence France Presse contributed to the report.
