When the Romans first inscribe the British Isles , they find a land rule bywarrior queensand other high-pitched - status charwoman – or at least , that ’s how Julius Caesar and other witnesses described the situation in this new and strange territory . And while modern historian have tended to distrust these ancient Roman accounts as over - exaggerated and inaccurate , a new psychoanalysis of 2,000 - twelvemonth - onetime DNA suggests that women really were the big detent in prehistoric Britain .
The estimation that these ancient societies may have revolved around female has previously been supported by finds in Gaelic cemeteries in Dorset , southerly England , where a tribe known as the Durotriges experience from roughly 100 BCE to 100 CE . At these sites , distaff burials typically contain the most munificent dangerous goods , hint that women may have held positions ofpolitical , armed forces , and social influence .
build up on these old discoveries , researchers have now sequence the desoxyribonucleic acid of 55 individuals from the Durotrigian burial site of Winterborne Kingston , along with two more from other nearby cemeteries . To gain a sense of how these ancient societies were structured , the survey authors analyzed levels of diversity inmitochondrial DNA – which is inherited only from the female parent – as well as theY chromosome , which is transmitted from father to son .
 Bournemouth University. She was buried with a mirror (right panels) and jewellery, including a Roman coin amulet showing a female c.jpg)
This Durotrigian was buried with jewelry including an amulet depicting military victory.Image credit: Bournemouth University
These two portions of the genome can therefore be used to trace a individual ’s parental and paternal genealogies , and divulge that more than two - thirds of those buried at Winterborne Kingston descend from a exclusive , previously unknown paternal lineage .
“ We reconstruct a family tree with many dissimilar branches and found most members traced their maternal lineage back to a single woman , who would have lived 100 before , ” excuse study author Dr Lara Cassidy in astatement . “ In dividing line , human relationship through the father ’s line were almost absent , ” as demonstrate by high stratum of Y - chromosome multifariousness among the cemetery ’s manpower . Such a determination suggest that these humankind all do from elsewhere , while the women were local .
“ This tells us that married man moved to conjoin their wife ’ community upon marriage , with ground potentially passed down through the female line of products , ” say Cassidy . Such an arrangement is known as matrilocality , and is in contrast to the patrilocal society that until now were assumed to be the norm throughout most of prehistory .
“ This is the first clock time this type of system has been documented in European prehistory and it predicts female social and political authorisation , ” summate Cassidy . “ It ’s comparatively rare in mod societies , but this might not always have been the typeface . ”
inquire how far-flung matrilocal societies may have been in the ancient world , the researchers then examined the genomes of individuals from 156 burying ground across Europe , sweep from the Neolithic to the Iron Age . Fascinatingly , they found evidence of matrilocality at six dissimilar situation , all from Iron Age England .
“ Across Britain we visualise graveyard where most individuals were motherly deign from a little set of distaff ascendent , ” excuse study source Professor Dan Bradley . “ In Yorkshire , for example , one predominant matriline had been ground before 400 [ BCE ] . To our surprisal , this was a far-flung phenomenon with thick roots on the island . ”
Bringing thing full roofy , the researcher say their findings provide acceptance to the tales told by the likes of Julius Caesar and other Roman authors . accord to these written report , the earliest British rulers were fair sex , including the legendary warrior queensBoudiccaand Cartimandua , both of whom kicked a significant chunk of papistic butt in the first century CE .
“ It ’s been indicate that the Romans exaggerate the liberties of British women to paint a picture of an untamed society , ” explains excavation director Dr Miles Russell . “ But archaeology , and now genetic science , implies char were influential in many welkin of Iron Age aliveness . ”
The study is published in the journalNature .
