HAZLETON, ENGLAND—A DNA study conducted by an international team of researchers has revealed that 27 of the 35 people buried in the Hazleton North tomb, a 5,700-year-old barrow in southwest England, belonged to five generations of a lineage descended from one man and four women, according to a Live Science report. Population geneticist Iñigo Olalde of the University of Basque Country and his colleagues suggest the man had more than one wife at a time, rather than one wife after another. The barrow was split into two L-shaped chambers. The tests showed that the descendants of two of these women were buried in the northern chamber, and the descendants of the other two were buried in the southern chamber. The men were usually buried near their fathers and brothers. Two daughters who died in childhood were found in the tomb, but no adult daughters had been buried there. This suggests that family connections were made through male relatives, although four of the men in the tomb were only connected through their mothers, Olalde said. Three women and five men buried in the tomb were found to have no genetic relationship to the family. The women may have been married to men in the tomb, and then had no children or only daughters, he explained. The genetically unrelated men may have been adopted or had another sort of connection to the family. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Nature. For more on Neolithic England, go to "Neolithic Henge Feasts," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2019.
Neolithic Family Tree Constructed Using DNA Data
News December 22, 2021
Recommended Articles
Digs & Discoveries September/October 2024
Location is Everything
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2022
Neolithic Crystal Age
Digs & Discoveries September/October 2020
Stonehenge's New Neighbor
Weapons of the Ancient World May/June 2020
Bashers
-
Features November/December 2021
Italian Master Builders
A 3,500-year-old ritual pool reflects a little-known culture’s agrarian prowess
(Ministero della Cultura) -
Features November/December 2021
Ghost Tracks of White Sands
Scientists are uncovering fossilized footprints in the New Mexico desert that show how humans and Ice Age animals shared the landscape
(Jerry Redfern) -
Features November/December 2021
Piecing Together Maya Creation Stories
Thousands of mural fragments from the city of San Bartolo illustrate how the Maya envisioned their place in the universe
(Digital image by Heather Hurst) -
Features November/December 2021
Gaul's University Town
New excavations have revealed the wealth and prestige of an ancient center of learning
(Digital image by Heather Hurst)