New archaeological finds offer a glimpse of family life 6,500 years ago
In the sixth millennium B.C.E. the first farmers reached Western Europe. Who were these people, how did they live, and what was their family structure like? Some of these questions may now be answerable, thanks to gene and isotope analyses in combination with archaeological observations. By studying the remains of more than 100 dead individuals buried between 4850 and 4500 B.C.E.
From the genetic data, the team pieced together two family trees. One lineage, to which at least 20 women and 44 men belonged, spanned seven generations. The researchers were also able to assign 12 people to a second, smaller family tree that consisted of seven women and five men. Other remains in the Neolithic cemetery at Gurgy either represented more distant relatives or were unrelated to the two families.
After arriving in Gurgy, the evidence suggests women entered into monogamous unions—that is, neither men nor women had multiple life partners. This insight came from genetic analyses that revealed numerous siblings but no half siblings. “That is a bit mind-boggling,” Haak says. Even highly monogamous societies, after all, frequently include half siblings because an adult might seek another partner if their spouse dies.
The locations of graves in the cemetery were also revealing. For example, once the genetic analysis was completed, the archaeologists realized that fathers were often buried next to their sons, and siblings were placed next to each other. This arrangement implies that people knew who was buried where—which, the scientists write, means there were likely markers above the graves, similar to today’s tombstones.
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