Unveiling Ancient Celtic Feminine Influence

Iron Age Celtic Women’s Social and Political Power Just Got a Boost

Excavations of Iron Age skeletons from Celtic sites in southern England have produced genetic evidence reflecting social practices that enhanced women’s power.

Celtic women’s social and political standing in Iron Age England has received a significant boost, thanks to DNA clues indicating that married women in a Celtic society, known as Durotrigians, stayed in their home communities while their partners came from outside the area. This female-centered marriage pattern, called matrilocality, tends to accompany greater opportunities for women to wield household and community power.

DNA Evidence Reveals Matrilocality

Analyses of mitochondrial DNA, typically inherited from the mother, revealed that most individuals of both sexes shared maternal ancestry. However, a subset of individuals, mostly men, shared no genetic relationships. This suggests that those men migrated into a female-dominated society. The investigators believe that this pattern is evidence of matrilocality.

Matrilocal Practices Characterized Many British Celtic Communities

The scientists compared mitochondrial DNA from people buried at 156 British and continental European archaeological sites spanning about 6,000 years. They found shared maternal ancestries at six other British Iron Age locations, most of which date to between 400 B.C. and 50 B.C. This suggests that matrilocal practices were widespread in ancient Britain.

Celtic Women’s Status Confirmed by Archaeological Finds

Previous archaeological finds and historical accounts had suggested Celtic women held considerable status. Greek and Roman writers described powerful female political leaders in Iron Age England, including two Celtic queens. Prestigious ornaments and other items placed in the graves of western European Celtic women hinted at societies in which property was inherited through maternal lines.

Genetic Signatures of Matrilocality

The researchers found that Iron Age Celtic people in southern England show genetic signs of substantial mating with continental Europeans who must have crossed the English Channel. This infusion of continental European ancestry in England and Wales first occurred before the Iron Age, as early as around 1000 B.C. to 875 B.C.

Implications for Our Understanding of Ancient Societies

The new DNA findings raise intriguing questions about how Iron Age Celtic cultures worked. For instance, genetic studies at western European Iron Age sites have produced weak evidence of matrilocal practices, yet female graves on the continent contain more sumptuous goods than those at British Durotrigian sites where matrilocality reigned.

Unexplored Questions Remain

The ethnic and geographic origins of men who married Durotrigian women are unknown. Ways in which male newcomers were integrated into their wives’ communities remain a mystery.