It is the oldest known family in the world. It was revealed by a DNA study. No adult daughters were found in the grave. It suggests that they may have been buried with their spouses.
Stone Age the oldest family tree in the world has been compiled from the tombs, says the University of Newcastle.
The bodies were found in the Cotswolds, England From the long mound of Hazelton North. Excavations at the mound revealed several tombs, from which the remains of 35 people were identified. Based on DNA analysis, 27 of them were related to each other.
With the help of heredity, they were able to retaliate for a family tree that spanned five generations at most.
Archaeologist leading the study Chris Fowler The University of Newcastle notes in a university bulletin the findings help to understand how the tombs of the Neolithic period describe the kinship of the era.
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The status of first-generation mothers was socially significant in the community.
The deceased is estimated to be buried shortly after the advent of agriculture in Britain, in the 3,700 to 3,600 century BC.
Thus, the family tree made of them is 5,700 years old. This makes the deceased the oldest known family in the world.
Two chambers were revealed from the tomb.
Tombs were found in two chambers, slightly resembling the letter L, in the middle stages of the rock mound. Scholars called them the northern and southern tombs.
Family tree the starting point was a man buried in the northern tomb with children with at least four women.
Along with him, two women with whom the man had had children were buried in the northern chamber.
The children and grandchildren of these women were also buried in the same tomb.
Two women with whom the man had children and their descendants up to the fifth generation were also buried in the southern tomb.
This may suggest that the positions of first-generation mothers were socially significant in the community.
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The right to enter the grave was inherited primarily through male offspring.
Interesting was that after the first generation no bodies of adult daughters were found in the tomb. Instead, girls who died as children and women who had children with boys were found in the grave.
Based on the grave, it would appear that the right to access the grave was inherited primarily through male offspring.
Indeed, the researchers assume that the daughters were buried elsewhere, possibly along with the spouses with whom they had children.
Based on the grave, the relatives did not reproduce with each other. Only one man was found in the tomb, a woman representing the fourth generation, whose parents were from different branches of the family tree.
The two of you the distinction between the tomb was not entirely unambiguous.
Of the families buried in the northern tomb, a few representatives of later generations had been buried in the southern chamber. Investigators concluded that the northern tomb chamber may have collapsed before the burials.
Two more distant relatives of the male were also found in the graves, as well as eight deceased who were not related to the others. Apparently, kinship was not the only criterion by which people were accepted into the grave.
Admittedly, three of the unrelated deceased were women, so it is possible that they may have also had a spouse in the grave, but they have not had children or their children have been buried elsewhere.
Family tree the construction was an international project involving archaeologists from the universities of Newcastle, York, Exeter and central Lancashire, as well as geneticists from the universities of Vienna, the Basque Country and Harvard.
It was published by scientific journal Nature.
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