Stone Age mass grave contains mostly adult males who were related

September 10, 2024 report

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

A team of archaeologists and paleo-geneticists from Université de Bordeaux, working with colleagues from Université Côte d'Azur, both in France, has found that a mass grave from the Neolithic contains the remains of mostly adult males who were related.

In their study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group conducted a genetic analysis of the remains of some of the people buried at the site.

A mass burial site from the Neolithic at Aven de la Boucle was discovered in a cave in southern France in a prior dig. For the present study, the research team in the lab studied the remains of 75 exhumed people. The team analyzed the genomes of 37 of the individuals who had been uncovered throughout the burial site.

Radiocarbon dating had already shown that people were buried at the site over the years 2,800 BC to 3,600 BC, a finding that suggested that the site had been used for almost 1,000 years. In this new effort, the researchers found that 76% of the remains were male and that most of them belonged to a single paternal line. They suggest this points to the possibility that social status was passed down through the males of the society.

More:
https://phys.org/news/2024-09-stone-age-mass-grave-adult.html