Anthropology: Family matters in an Early Neolithic tomb

 
A detailed genetic analysis of 5700 people buried in a Neolithic tomb about 35 years ago in Gloucestershire, England, gives new clues to the rules of kinship that dominated this ancient society. was gotten.A paper reporting this finding will be published in Nature.This study suggests that adoption was considered to have taken place in this society, suggesting that it was a polygamous society in which both paternal and maternal offspring were emphasized.

All bodies were buried in Hazelton North.Hazelton North is a long Neolithic stone mound with two L-shaped rooms facing each other, named north and south, respectively.Now, David Reich and colleagues combine genomic-scale data from ancient DNA with archaeological analysis to show that 2 out of 35 people belong to the same family.The family is a five-generation lineage consisting of the descendants of one male and four females.

Fifteen of them are connected by paternal lineage, which suggests paternal influence, but on the other hand, there is creativity in the burial sites of maternal offspring, and maternal lineage is also important. It is shown that. Two descendants of the four mothers were buried in the south room, and the descendants of the other two mothers were buried in the north room.This finding suggests that the maternal subline was grouped into branches that were found to be highly independent during the construction of the tomb.

Reich et al. Also identified four men whose mothers were included in the lineage but not their fathers.This finding suggests that adoption kinship may have been as important as biological kinship.Eight people who are not biologically related to the main lineage are also buried in this tomb, and its significance is unknown, but it is possible that non-biological kinship was also important for this ancient society. It is clearly shown.

doi: 10.1038 / s41586-021-04241-4
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* This article is reprinted from "Nature Japan Featured Highlights".
Reprinted from: "Anthropology: A glimpse of kinship from the early Neolithic tombs'
 

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