Tombs Yield Clues to Neolithic Family Structure

CARDIFF, WALES—An international team of researchers has conducted a genetic study of human remains recovered from early Neolithic tombs in northern Scotland and confirmed that the families buried there were organized through the male line, according to a Live Science report. The DNA samples were taken from 22 individuals interred in five different tombs in the county of Caithness and the Orkney Islands between 3800 and 3200 B.C. Two of the tombs held the remains of fathers and sons. One of the tombs contained the remains of brothers. Two other tombs held the bones of half brothers or paternal uncles and nephews. A father, son, and grandson were also identified in one of the tombs. Meanwhile, the closest relationship detected among the women’s remains in the tombs was first cousins once removed. “It is incredible to think that, over 5,000 years after these people were deposited in these tombs, we were able to reconstruct how they were related to each other through the analysis of ancient DNA,” said team leader Vicki Cummings of Cardiff University. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Antiquity. To read about grand funerary monuments that farmers built in Europe some 7,000 years ago, go to "Letter from France: Neolithic Cultural Revolution."