Anthropology

Land was inherited through the female line in Iron Age Britain, with husbands moving to live with their wife’s community

Kevin O'Sullivan
Wed Jan 15 2025 - 16:00

Remarkable evidence that women in British Iron Age society were empowered politically and socially has been unveiled in an international genetic study led by researchers at Trinity College Dublin.

Their analysis of ancient burial grounds suggests husbands moved to join their wives’ communities upon marriage, with land potentially passed down through the female line.

The researchers seized upon a rare opportunity to sequence DNA from many members of a single community in Dorset, joining forces with archaeologists from Bournemouth University to decipher the structure of their society. They retrieved more than 50 ancient genomes of individuals – their complete set of genes – from burial grounds in use before and after the Roman conquest of AD 43.

TCD geneticist Dr Lara Cassidy, who led the study published by Nature on Wednesday, said: “This was the cemetery of a large kin group. We reconstructed a family tree with many different branches and found most members traced their maternal lineage back to a single woman who would have lived centuries before. In contrast, relationships through the father’s line were almost absent.

More:
https://www.irishtimes.com/science/2025/01/15/british-iron-age-society-centred-around-powerful-women-genetic-study-led-by-irish-researchers-finds/