From Ancient Egypt to the Scandinavian Culture of the Viking Age, evidence of female autonomy and matriarchal political and social empowerment has been documented throughout time.
Now, a team of geneticists from Trinity College Dublin and archaeologists from Bournemouth University have discovered compelling evidence that suggests Iron Age Britain may have been even more matriarchal than previously thought.
Dr. Lara Cassidy, an Assistant Professor in Trinity’s Department of Genetics who led the study, was presented with the opportunity to sequence the DNA of 50 ancient genomes from burial grounds in Dorset, Southern England.
“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,” says Cassidy.
“This tells us that husbands moved to join their wives’ communities upon marriage, with land potentially passed down through the female line. This is the first time this type of system has been documented in European prehistory, and it predicts female social and political empowerment.”
While the findings do not prove that women during that period held political power, it is clear that women’s ancestral roots were respected and that land knowledge and strong social support were considered important enough to have females stay put in their native locales while the men were relocated. The study co-author and Bournemouth University archaeologist Miles Russell suggested that women of the time were “more egalitarian than the Roman world.”
“When the Romans arrived, they were astonished to find women occupying positions of power,” Russell states. “Indeed, it is possible that maternal ancestry was the primary shaper of group identities.”
The researchers collected DNA samples from a site near the village of Winterborne Kingston, known as “Duropolis,” which Bournemouth University archaeologists have excavated since 2009. The team had previously noted that the more elaborately furnished Durotrigan burials were those of women.
Among the human remains buried at the site, the dominant maternal lineage (mitochondrial haplogroup U5b1) was found in over two-thirds of individuals at Winterborne Kingston. Male individuals showed higher genetic diversity and were often unrelated to the core kin group, suggesting male mobility and integration into matrilineal communities. In simple terms, women stayed put while the men moved to them.
Looking deeper into the cultural and societal make-up of Iron Age Britain, it sounds like “matrilocality” was found multiple times throughout that era. Matrilocality is a social system where a married couple lives near the wife’s family, not the husband’s. While the family culture is preserved and inherited by the women’s side, females play the role of authority inside the home.
To the researchers’ surprise, the DNA also raised more questions about how the Celtic language arrived in Britain and how this cultural group migrated around the island.
“Migration into Britain during the later Bronze Age has previously been detected, leading some to hypothesize that Celtic language arrived during this period,” describes Cassidy.
“But our results point towards substantial cross-channel mobility during the Iron Age as well. Narrowing down the arrival time of Celtic will be difficult. Indeed, it is quite possible that Celtic languages were introduced to Britain on more than one occasion.”
Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and founder of VOCAB Communications. She hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on The Debrief’s YouTube Channel. Follow her on X: @ChrissyNewton and at chrissynewton.com.