Wandering Bronze Age women ‘were the true source of culture’
THE concept that men stay at home while independent women venture out into the world is considered a rather modern phenomenon.
But a study suggests that, in fact, the practice was rooted in ancient times, when Bronze Age men stayed put and adventurous women were the key to spreading culture and ideas.
The research reveals that over a period of 800 years, European women travelled between 180 and 300 miles from their home villages to start families, while men tended to stay near where they were born.
German archaeologists examined the remains of 84 people buried between 2500BC and 1650BC, discovering that at the end of the Stone Age and in the early Bronze Age, families were established in a surprising manner.
While the majority of women came from outside the area where they were buried, the men usually remained in the region of their birth. The researchers said the so-called “patrilocal” pattern combined with individual female mobility was not a temporary phenomenon, but persisted throughout the transition from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age.
The findings, published in the journal PNAS, come from a research project headed by Professor Philipp Stockhammer of Ludwig-maximiliansuniversität in Munich.
Prof Stockhammer said: “We all know these stories about warrior men out fighting and bringing home food while the women and children stayed at home but it appears things were quite different. Our study suggests that almost none of the men had travelled, while two thirds of the women had.”
As well as an archaeological dig, the researchers conducted stable isotope and ancient DNA analyses.
‘We all know these stories about warrior men out fighting … but it appears things were quite different’
Prof Stockhammer added: “We have three types of molar in our mouths and they are mineralised at different ages.
“Every soil has a different signature such as chalk or clay, and the water drunk from these different soils provides a different signature on the tooth, enabling us to have some indication of where they have been.”
He said individual mobility was a “major feature” characterising the lives of people in Central Europe even in the third and early second millennium BC. The researchers suspect that it played a significant role in the exchange of cultural objects and ideas, which increased considerably during the Bronze Age, in turn promoting the development of new technologies.
The study focused on settlements located in the Lech valley, south of Augsburg in present-day Germany.
Prof Stockhammer said that from an archaeological point of view, the new insights proved the importance of female mobility for cultural exchange, and also allowed us to view the “immense extent” of early human mobility in a new light. He added: “It appears that at least part of what was previously believed to be migration by groups is based on an institutionalised form of individual mobility.”
Doctor Alissa Mittnik, of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, said: “We see a great diversity of different female lineages, which would occur if over time many women relocated to the Lech Valley from somewhere else.”
She said the burials of the women did not differ from that of the native population, indicating that the formerly “foreign” women were integrated into the local community.