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NDTV
4 days ago
- Science
- NDTV
This Turkish City Was Ruled By Women In Matriarchal Society 9,000 Years Ago, Study Finds
An ancient Turkish city was ruled by females who lived in a matriarchal society, more than 9,000 years ago, a new study has confirmed. Researchers analysed ancient DNA from Stone Age burials of more than 130 skeletons from 35 different houses at Catalhoyuk, an ancient city built around 7100 BC that remained occupied for nearly 1,000 years. The study published in the journal Science highlights that family members in Catalhoyuk were buried together, at last in the early years. However, over time, habits changed, and researchers found many of the dead had no biological connection. Where there was a genetic connection, it was through the female line, suggesting husbands relocated to the wife's household upon marriage. "With Catalhoyuk, we now have the oldest genetically-inferred social organisation pattern in food-producing societies," study co-author Mehmet Somel was quoted as saying by Live Science. Researchers estimated that 70 to 100 per cent of the time, female offspring remained connected to buildings, whereas adult male offspring may have moved away. "We weren't particularly looking for these maternal connections within buildings, but it clearly shows that male-centred practices people have often documented in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe were not universal," he added. There was also a clear pattern of preferential treatment toward females, with findings showing five times more grave goods offered to females than to males. Also Read | Viral Map Shows Paris' Pollution Drop As City Trades Cars For Bike Lanes Owing to genetic relatedness becoming less central to social organisation in the city, "fostering and adoption-like mechanisms" became widespread, which is also observed in many societies even today. "Despite this shift, female-centred practices continued at Catalhoyuk through the occupation," the study showed. The female-centred approach in Catalhoyuk is in sharp contrast to patterns observed in later European cities, which showed evidence of patrilocality, where males stay within their natal community upon attaining adulthood and females move out. Prior to the study, Catalhoyuk, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been known for its large collection of female figurines, which were long debated as possible representatives of a 'Mother Goddess' cult and signs of a matriarchal society.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Ancient 'female-centered' society thrived 9,000 years ago in proto-city in Turkey
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Ancient DNA from Stone Age burials in Turkey has finally put to rest a decades-long debate about whether the 9,000-year-old proto-city of Çatalhöyük was a matriarchal society. The research finally confirms what experts have long suspected: Women and girls were key figures in this agricultural society. "With Çatalhöyük, we now have the oldest genetically-inferred social organisation pattern in food-producing societies," study co-author Mehmet Somel, an evolutionary geneticist at Middle East Technical University in Turkey, told Live Science in an email. "Which turns out to be female-centered." The new research was published Thursday (June 26) in the journal Science. Located in south-central Turkey, Çatalhöyük was built around 7100 B.C. and was occupied for nearly 1,000 years. The vast settlement — spread over 32.5 acres (13.2 hectares) — is known for its houses that were entered from the roofs, burials beneath the house floors, and elaborate symbolism that included vivid murals and a diverse array of female figurines. When archaeologist James Mellaart first excavated Çatalhöyük in the early 1960s, he interpreted the numerous female figurines as evidence of a matriarchal society that practiced "mother goddess" worship, perhaps as a way of ensuring a good harvest following a major economic transition from foraging to cereal-based agriculture. In the 1990s, Stanford archaeologist Ian Hodder took over excavations at Çatalhöyük, and his research suggested instead that the society was largely egalitarian, without meaningful social or economic differences between men and women. Related: Rare, neolithic 'goddess' figurine discovered in Turkey To further investigate the social organization at Çatalhöyük, in a new study, a team of researchers that included both Somel and Hodder analyzed the DNA of 131 skeletons dated to between 7100 and 5800 B.C. that were buried beneath house floors. The researchers connected 109 people across 31 buildings and found that all first-degree relatives (parents, children and siblings) were buried together in the same building, while second-degree (uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces and grandparents) and third-degree relatives (such as first cousins and great grandparents) were often buried in nearby buildings. This suggests that nuclear or extended families had a role in structuring Çatalhöyük households, the researchers wrote in the study. But there was another interesting trend in the intergenerational connections among house burials, the researchers noted: They were based primarily on maternal lineages. "We weren't particularly looking for these maternal connections within buildings," Somel said, but "it clearly shows that male-centered practices people have often documented in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe were not universal." Ancient DNA analysis also revealed the biological sex of infants and young children, which is not possible to do based on skeletons alone until after puberty. Once these children's biological sex was determined, the researchers identified a female-linked trend in grave goods. "The pattern of more burial gifts for female babies was also not something we were expecting," Somel said. Çatalhöyük is the oldest society where DNA evidence has revealed a female-centered social organization. "To my knowledge, this constitutes the first systematic evidence of such a continuously matrilineally organised Neolithic community," Jens Notroff, an archaeologist at the German Archaeological Institute who was not involved in the research, told Live Science in an email. "We preferred using 'female-centered' instead of matrilineal because the latter is about how people define kin," Somel said. "Çatalhöyük households could have been matrilineal, but we think using more general terms might be preferable. It is always good to be cautious," he said. But Benjamin Arbuckle, an archaeologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who was not involved in the study, wrote in a perspective in Science that "if the sex patterns were reversed, there would likely be little hesitation in concluding that patriarchal power structures were at play." RELATED STORIES —Were the Celts matriarchal? Ancient DNA reveals men married into local, powerful female lineages —Women likely ruled in Stone Age China, DNA analysis of 4,500-year-old skeletons reveals —First Neolithic city was so overcrowded people started trying to kill each other "This is reflective of the difficulty that many scholars have in imagining a world characterized by substantial female power despite abundant archaeological, historic, and ethnographic evidence that matriarchal fields of power were and are widespread," Arbuckle said. Çatalhöyük now stands in stark contrast to the patrilineal patterns seen in Neolithic Europe, Notroff said, which "raises the intriguing question of when, how, and why such a profound shift in social organisation occurred." Analyzing skeletons from Çatalhöyük to understand social relationships is just the beginning, Somel said. Figuring out whether or not this site is unique is an important next step. "We are now producing similar data from earlier societies from the region," he said, "so hopefully we'll have an answer soon!"
