The Empowered Women of the Ancient Celtic Tribe: A Societal Revolution

For thousands of years, couples faced the choice of where to reside.

“For the overwhelming majority of human history,” states Lara Cassidy, a geneticist at Trinity College Dublin, “communities revolved around familial bonds, so you’re deciding whose family you will reside with.”

In Britain, throughout the Neolithic Era (noted for the advent of agriculture) and the Bronze Age, spanning approximately from 4000 to 800 BCE, prehistoric human societies were typically patrilocal. “That’s where women relocate,” explains Cassidy. “They depart their home upon marriage and join the village, the community of their husbands.”

This is the reason Cassidy and her research team were astonished to uncover remnants of a Celtic tribe that existed during the Iron Age in Britain, approximately from 100 BCE to 100 CE, where post-study of their DNA indicated that women occupied a central role in their social structure. The findings are published in Nature.

“It’s an extremely uncommon pattern.” remarks Cassidy. “Never before observed in European prehistory to have so many individuals all linked through the female lineage. This contributes to the growing body of evidence suggesting women were capable of exercising substantial social and political influence in these communities.”

A common difficulty for women

Patrilocality often proves to be a more challenging arrangement for women. “It positions them away from their families,” remarks Cassidy. “You’ve lost your childhood support network. You arrive as someone who is relatively unknown.”

Researchers determine that women integrated into their husbands’ communities by analyzing the ancient DNA of groups interred together from the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.

“When most of the men share the identical Y chromosome,” Cassidy comments, “which is inherited from father to son repeatedly, it signifies they all stem from a recent male ancestor via the male lineage.”

Subsequent to the Bronze Age, the Iron Age commenced. In Britain, it began around 800 BCE and represents a time of relatively limited understanding about the structuring of societies, although there are indications that some women in Britain possessed a degree of influence.

“Often there’s a knee-jerk reaction—whenever you hear about a female leader or come across a notably wealthy burial—to assume it’s an anomaly or that she must merely have been the wife of someone significant instead of holding importance in her own right,” stated Cassidy.

An extraordinary burial site

Cassidy was enthusiastic about collaborating in the analysis of the Iron Age burial site of a Celtic tribe named the Durotriges, dated approximately from 100 BCE to 100 CE in today’s southern England. “Cemeteries featuring unburnt burials are relatively rare,” she states. “The funerary practices during the Iron Age in Britain appear to have varied widely, yet cremation and scattering of remains across the landscape are predominant. Hence, it provided a remarkable opportunity to sample numerous members of a single community.”

Cassidy and her colleagues analyzed the ancient DNA from over 50 individuals drawn from the dense bone surrounding their inner ears.

The males from this community did not share a Y chromosome. Instead, individuals shared mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited by children from their mothers.

“And that’s when I thought, ‘Oh my God,’ ” Cassidy expresses. “This is a community where many individuals are connected through the female lineage. This denotes matrilocality and it’s rare. I was not anticipating that.”

Matrilocality stands in contrast to patrilocality—men departed their families to reside with their wives, while women remained in their communities.

“So they’re not only mothers and wives,” clarifies Cassidy. “They’re also daughters, sisters, and cousins. They are woven into a much broader network of relatives and individuals they’ve known since birth. Hence, they possess a significantly greater support system.”

This did not constitute a matriarchy where women necessarily wielded dominant authority, but Cassidy mentions they had status and sway over financial matters, decisions, and property.

She and her colleagues discovered similar findings when they examined hundreds of Iron Age genomes from burial sites across Britain. “The majority of individuals interred there were descendants of a limited number of women,” Cassidy states. “At that moment, we realized, ‘This is prevalent across the island. This is likely a custom that extends back many centuries.’ “

“The findings are fascinating because they depict a distinctly different scenario compared to other regions of Europe,” states Marta Cintas Peña, a prehistoric archaeologist at the University of Seville who was not part of the research. Nonetheless, she cautions that the data documentation for this epoch is limited. “I wouldn’t assert that prior to this, patrilocality was the norm everywhere and afterward, there was a shift,” she advises. “I believe we require more data to substantiate or dispute that.”

Of language and conflict

“I was struck by the article,” shared Carol Ember, a cultural anthropologist and president of the Human Relations Area Files at Yale University who was also not involved in the study. “However, I am not surprised that matrilocal societies existed in the past.”

“This is because while matrilocality is not widespread, it accounts for approximately 15% of the anthropological record,” including instances in Central Africa and among certain Native American populations, she notes.

Ember mentions there’s an additional intriguing aspect concerning matrilocal societies. They frequently communicate in a language different from that of their neighbors (in this instance, Celtic)—indicative that they likely migrated from elsewhere. “If you successfully intruded into other people’s territory,” she states, “it suggests that you had to be quite effective at warfare.”

It appears that matrilocal societies excel at engaging in external conflicts. Ember, Cassidy, and others propose this is likely attributed to an absence of internal discord and a broader sense of tribal unity. “It is not conclusive, but it is a plausible theory,” states Cassidy.

Nonetheless, much remains uncertain about this Celtic tribe, as well as the multitude of prehistoric human groups dispersed throughout time and space. However, Cassidy is confident that ancient DNA will assist in unraveling some of those enigmas.

“I believe there will be numerous surprises,” she remarks, “and we need to maintain an open mind as we begin to explore it.”