Posted on 06/02/2008 7:58:25 PM PDT by blam
DNA reveals sister power in Ancient Greece
02 Jun 2008
University of Manchester researchers have revealed how women, as well as men, held positions of power in ancient Greece by right of birth.
Women were thought to have had little power in ancient Greece, unless they married a powerful man and were able to influence him. But a team of researchers testing ancient DNA from a high status, male-dominated cemetery at Mycenae in Greece believe they have identified a brother and sister buried together in a richly endowed grave, suggesting that she had as much power as him.
The team, led by Professor Terry Brown and Ms Keri Brown at the Faculty of Life Sciences and Professor John Prag at the Manchester Museum, have been studying Grave Circle B at Mycenae for 10 years. Their paper Kinship between burials from Grave Circle B at Mycenae revealed by ancient DNA typing appears in the Journal of Archeological Science.
The Bronze Age citadel at Mycenae is one of the most evocative prehistoric sites in all of Europe. The legendary home of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, Mycenae held a natural attraction for early antiquarians in the years before its first systematic study by Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s. Schliemann s famous telegram, sent during his excavation of Grave Circle A in 1876, stating that he had gazed upon the face of Agamemnon , turned out to be erroneous for the burials that he had uncovered predated the Trojan War by some four centuries, but his excavations were nonetheless significant as they established Mycenae as one of the richest and, by implication, most powerful of the Aegean states during the 17th to 12th centuries BC.
Grave Circle B spans c. 1675-1550 BC and predates A with possibly fifty years overlap. Within Grave Circle B there is a development from simple cist burials to larger, deeper and richer Shaft Graves with weapons, pottery and gold ornaments including a face-mask made of electrum (a naturally-occurring gold-silver amalgam). Generally they were less well endowed than the remarkable gold-laden burials in Circle A, but the richness of both Grave Circles leaves little doubt that their occupants were elite members of early Mycenaean society.
The team, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, wanted to ascertain the relationships within this elite group, in particular whether the individuals were members of a single family or small number of families who had established themselves as the ruling dynasty in early Mycenae.
John Prag and Richard Neave of the University of Manchester had previously applied modern techniques of facial reconstruction to the seven best preserved skulls. These faces are on display in the Making Faces gallery in the Manchester Museum, and visitors can see how the results suggest that these seven individuals fall into three groups, the heart-shaped faces (which includes the brother and sister), the long faces and one beaky face . Dr Abigail Bouwman in Professor Brown s group then tested mitochondrial DNA from the bones and was able to confirm the relationships.
Professor Brown recalled: We were surprised to discover what appears to be a sister buried beside her brother in the high status, male-dominated grave circle. The implication is that she was buried in Grave Circle B not because of a marital connection but because she held a position of authority by right of birth.
DNA analysis has therefore enabled us to glimpse the factors contributing to the organisation of the higher echelons of society at the beginning of the Mycenaean age.
Keri Brown added: Homer s stories are thought to be memories : tales of the Bronze Age retold some 400 years later, as the early archaeologists who went in search of the places he described found them, not just Mycenae rich in gold but also wall-girt of Tiryns and other sites.
We certainly haven t unearthed the real Electra and Orestes. They were the brother and sister who in the Greek epic tradition avenged their father Agamemnon s death at the hands of their mother Clytemnestra, but if they were real people then they lived centuries after our pair. We will never know who our lady was but it is tempting to think that she might have been a little like the Electra of legend, who seems to have been such a powerful woman that the later stories tell how she was forced to marry a peasant to dilute her influence.
Professor Brown said: On a purely scientific note, our results also show that while it is difficult apply this type of analysis to archaeological remains ancient DNA is generally poorly preserved and the problems caused by contamination with modern DNA are more acute ancient DNA can greatly advance understanding of kinship when used to test hypotheses constructed from other evidence.
It is fascinating work and we have learned a lot. In future we hope to do similar research at other sites in Greece if we can find any at which ancient DNA is preserved.
GGG Ping.
unlike modern religions,
greek religions were populated by goddesses and gods.
But but but...this can’t be so, I thought women had been all repressed all through the ages...Hitlery told me so!
British researchers have unearthed evidence that proves Helen was much more than a chattel
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Duh.
They are sitting on half the money and all the..... other important stuff....
Since the sun rose the first time, until I'm dead for 1,000,000 years.
That's why we drink beer. And have gas.
/johnny
This is archaic, not classical. In classical Greece, there were very few grand tombs, except maybe for a few kings and tyrants. Bodies were cremated and buried in urns. If anyone knows better, tell me so.
In any case, it is a great leap from one example of grave goods to gender egalitarianism, not one that I would care to make.
Why does it prove anything or make a difference that they were brother and sister?
Also, anyone who has read any Greek mythology or Homer at all would know that women could enjoy high status from birth. But status doesn’t equal power.
Your posts are right on the money. Pagan societies did not treat women very nicely...or men for that matter. It took the arrival of Christianity to liberate the bondages of misery for both sexes.
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Thanks Blam. Nonsequitur though, IMHO. |
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Or maybe they were married to each other.
I think this english archeologist is projecting PC more than science.
Of course he could have just talked to the local anthropologists and archeologiests who could have corrected some the the mistranslations of history.
there is no need for translations as much as looking at popular culture in the form of the classic plays show women were held in levels of importance.
I think it is just projection to think that in an era of a 30 year life span there was the luxury of 100 year life span sensibilities.
Actually, the grave circles at Mycenae aren’t from either the Archaic or the Classical period. They are dated to the Late Bronze Age (Late Helladic I), and so would technically be considered prehistoric.
Strangely, both of my sisters are Greek and by coincidence so am I! And they’re both bossy as all get out and act like royalty instead of the Lesbians we are. (The family is from Lesvos)
True. Archaic is after the Dark Ages.
“Pagen societies did not treat women very nicely...”
Actually, before societies realized the contribution of the male to reproduction, women often had more power, as seen sometimes with matrilineal societies. It is theorized that as animal husbandry became common, males realized both their physical power in handling large animals, and the male contribution to parentage.
The period of 17 to 12th centuries BC. was an interesting transitional period. Murals from Thera (1600’s BC) show important goddesses. Shortly thereafter, Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt was a major power, although her successor tried mightyly to erase her name. The murals from Crete of the same period show female bull leapers who must have had some importance. In the following centuries there were rich buriels of women in the Russian steppes. They even had tall headdresses, which to my mind seemed a little like the crown of upper and lower Egypt. The Roman’s were impressed with the Germanic women warriors.
It took a lot of hard work on the part of men to subjugate women, but they finally succeeded after a fashion.
I think that human reproduction was understood by then. There were important goddesses, but then there still are. Hatshepsut wasn’t a queen, but a female king who ruled as a man. Bull leapers were of both sexes, but were expendable rather than high status entertainers (not a job you would want). Tall hair, in various forms, can be found throughout the ages.
Pagan societies did not treat women very nicely...or men for that matter.
I’ll stand by my original comment above.
The fact that the ancient Crete worshiped goddesses doesn’t make them unusual; so did classical Athenians, whose city housed one of the most magnificent images of the goddess Athena ever created. But their women had about the same legal rights as their goats.
In classical Greece, girls got no education. When a man brought guests home for dinner, his wife was not allowed to eat with them. Adult women were considered little better than chattel thus the hetairae. Correspondingly, sodomy was rampant. In Aristophanes says women are “the vilest of creatures.” Female infanticide was routine.
The Romans: Emperor Tiberius surrounded himself with nude women to wait on him while he gorged. Female prostitutes entertained him with group sex. Caligula committed incest with all his sisters while Domitian was another who specialized in incest. In Roman law, adultery was a crime that only a woman could commit. Marital faithfulness in the Roman Empire was almost unknown.
Durant is one easily accessible source for all this. In pagan Rome, a husband could divorce his wife, kill her or sell her. He could even kill his married daughter.
Much of this didn’t change, in practice, because Christianity was introduced, although Christianity did empower certain women.
For instance, how many faithful husbands were there in medieval Europe? Maybe they could have fit into a phone booth ... or a confessional. Medieval Europe could be characterized as extremely misogynistic, and extremely Christian.
While the Roman elites were obviously decadent and immoral, it is not quite fair to use Caligula as an example of them, since he was regarded in his immediate posterity as the definition of “criminally insane.”
Maybe you would think that the Christian Byzantines ought to be much more moral than their wicked pagan Roman antecedents... if so, start with Procopius’ The Secret History.
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