Posted on 01/02/2022 11:32:10 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Most of the people buried in one of the best-preserved Neolithic tombs in Britain were from five continuous generations of a single extended family, new research involving the University of York has revealed.
In a study published in Nature, researchers analysed DNA extracted from the bones and teeth of 35 individuals entombed approximately 5700 years ago at Hazleton North long cairn in the Cotswolds-Severn region. They found that 27 of them were descended from four women who all had children with the same man.KinshipThe group lived around 100 years after farming had been introduced to Britain and the authors of the study say that the results provide new insights into kinship and burial practices in Neolithic times.
Co-author of the study, Dr Lindsey Büster from the Department of Archaeology at the University of York, said: “This breakthrough study demonstrates the potential of fully integrated cultural and biomolecular approaches to understanding past societies and offers us a glimpse into the ways people who lived and died thousands of years ago articulated their relationships with one another”.
The cairn at Hazleton North included two L-shaped burial chambers which were located north and south of the main ‘spine’ of the linear structure. The research findings indicate that men were generally buried with their father and brothers, suggesting that descent was patrilineal with later generations buried at the tomb connected to the first generation entirely through male relatives.
While two of the daughters of the lineage who died in childhood were buried in the tomb, the complete absence of adult daughters suggests that their remains were placed either in the tombs of male partners with whom they had children, or elsewhere.
(Excerpt) Read more at york.ac.uk ...
it might not have been all at once. Women often died in childbirth not too long ago and a man would simply marry again.
27 children from 4 mothers means that each had, on average, about 7 children. Taking into account the dangers of childbirth and infant mortality, that is astonishing.
I imagine (although I have not researched this) that woman giving birth to seven live children would have been noteworthy, even in the Middle Ages.
My great times 5 grandfather married 3 times and fatered 87 children.
A lot of the kids died young from disease. 6 in one month alone in 1870s.
Haha, yes. This is nothing unusual and still goes on to this very day.
It’s good to be king. Or Khan. Or just a village chief.
There were also eight "step-sons" where the woman apparently joined along the community with her child.
Really a fascinating find. I will need to locate the original paper in order to answer a lot of questions I have.
Guy has no sons and his Y line vanishes.
Woman has no daughters and her X line will still show up in her granddaughters.
I am curious as to why there is a Homo sapiens bottleneck at 50 to 70k years ago. Modern humans were nearly extinct due to a possible super volcano, but the Neanderthals and Denisovans didn’t seem to have suffered this set back. Curious, in my opinion.
Fascinating! Thanks for posting!
“They found that 27 of them were descended from four women who all had children with the same man.”
I know woman from Uganda who has 27 brothers and sisters from one father with 7 wives.
Maybe location? Homo sapiens were in African savannahs so more affected?
Or perhaps we are the weaker sub species physically?
And since they were buried with honor, one should presume they were wives or concubines not slaves.
Or given the high death rate in childbirth, it might be one after another.
Actually a tribal leader might have lots of wives, to show status. In some societies, men have a high mortality from hunting accidents or war, these extra women might be married by the chief, especially if they are widows,so that they and their other children wouldn't starve to death. And of course young women might prefer living a leisurely life as a third wife instead of marrying a poor schmuck.
Finally, many tribes have taboos against intercourse when the wife is pregnant or breast feeding, because if a woman gets pregnant her breast milk dries up and the baby dies. And they might breast feed 2 to 4 years.
African proverb: poor guy, 4 wives, all pregnant or nursing. He might as well be single.
I was just being flip. I presume the consequences for a male of sex and getting a woman pregnant have, with brief exceptions, such as war and rapine, or the social breakdown caused by folks trying to cause a progressive revolution, are pretty much constant throughout human existence, at least where any sort of permanent human culture has remained.
My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!
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