ArticlePloS one2020
Kinship and social organization in Copper Age Europe. A cross-disciplinary analysis of archaeology, DNA, isotopes, and anthropology from two Bell Beaker cemeteries.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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23 citing papers in PubMed.
- Exploring matrilocality in history: insights from ancient DNA.Evolutionary human sciences · 2026Article
- Tracing social mechanisms and interregional connections in Early Bronze Age Societies in Lower Austria.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Genomic insights from a final Bronze Age community buried in a collective tumulus in an Urnfield settlement in Northeastern Iberia.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Spatiotemporal reconstruction of Corded Ware and Bell Beaker burial rituals reveals complex dynamics divergent from steppe ancestry.Science advances · 2025Article
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- Variations in dietary patterns in the ancient Greek colony of Abdera: insights from isotopic evidence and Bayesian modelling.Archaeological and anthropological sciences · 2025Article
- READv2: advanced and user-friendly detection of biological relatedness in archaeogenomics.Genome biology · 2024Article
- Kinship practices at the early bronze age site of Leubingen in Central Germany.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Biological and substitute parents in Beaker period adult-child graves.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- A genetic window into the human social past.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Descent, marriage, and residence practices of a 3,800-year-old pastoral community in Central Eurasia.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
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- Inferring biological kinship in ancient datasets: comparing the response of ancient DNA-specific software packages to low coverage data.BMC genomics · 2023Article
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- A multidisciplinary study on the social customs of the Tang Empire in the Medieval Ages.PloS one · 2023Article
- Kinship practices in the early state El Argar society from Bronze Age Iberia.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Ancient DNA gives new insights into a Norman Neolithic monumental cemetery dedicated to male elites.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Pedigree-based Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates.PloS one · 2022Article
- Fitness and Power: The Contribution of Genetics to the History of Differential Reproduction.Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior · 2021Article
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15 authors.
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Abstract
We present a high-resolution cross-disciplinary analysis of kinship structure and social institutions in two Late Copper Age Bell Beaker culture cemeteries of South Germany containing 24 and 18 burials, of which 34 provided genetic information. By combining archaeological, anthropological, genetic and isotopic evidence we are able to document the internal kinship and residency structure of the cemeteries and the socially organizing principles of these local communities. The buried individuals represent four to six generations of two family groups, one nuclear family at the Alburg cemetery, and one seemingly more extended at Irlbach. While likely monogamous, they practiced exogamy, as six out of eight non-locals are women. Maternal genetic diversity is high with 23 different mitochondrial haplotypes from 34 individuals, whereas all males belong to one single Y-chromosome haplogroup without any detectable contribution from Y-chromosomes typical of the farmers who had been the sole inhabitants of the region hundreds of years before. This provides evidence for the society being patrilocal, perhaps as a way of protecting property among the male line, while in-marriage from many different places secured social and political networks and prevented inbreeding. We also find evidence that the communities practiced selection for which of their children (aged 0-14 years) received a proper burial, as buried juveniles were in all but one case boys, suggesting the priority of young males in the cemeteries. This is plausibly linked to the exchange of foster children as part of an expansionist kinship system which is well attested from later Indo-European-speaking cultural groups.
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