The research, carried out by archaeologists from the Universitiesof Bristol, Cardiff and Oxford, is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) , May 28. By studying more than 300 human skeletons from sites across centralEurope, Professor Alex Bentley and an international team ofcolleagues funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Counciluncovered evidence of differential land access among the firstNeolithic farmers -- the earliest such evidence yet found. Strontium isotope analysis of the skeletons, which providesindications of place of origin, indicated that men buried withdistinctive Neolithic stone adzes (tools used for smoothing orcarving wood) had less variable isotope signatures than men buriedwithout adzes. This suggests those buried with adzes had access tocloser -- and probably better -- land than those buried without. Professor Bentley, Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology at theUniversity of Bristol, said: "The men buried with adzes appearto have lived on food grown in areas of loess, the fertile andproductive soil favoured by early farmers. This indicates they hadconsistent access to preferred farming areas." The strontium isotope analysis also revealed that early Neolithicwomen were more likely than men to have originated from areasoutside those where their bodies were found. This is a strongindication of patrilocality, a male-centred kinship system wherefemales move to reside in the location of the males when theymarry. This new evidence from the skeletons is consistent with otherarchaeological, genetic, anthropological and even linguisticevidence for patrilocality in Neolithic Europe. The results haveimplications for genetic modelling of how human populationsexpanded in the Neolithic, for which sex-biased mobility patternsand status differences are increasing seen as crucial. Professor Bentley said: "Our results, along witharchaeobotanical studies that indicate the earliest farmers ofNeolithic Germany had a system of land tenure, suggest that theorigins of differential access to land can be traced back to anearly part of the Neolithic era, rather than only to laterprehistory when inequality and intergenerational wealth transfersare more clearly evidenced in burials and material culture. "It seems the Neolithic era introduced heritable property(land and livestock) into Europe and that wealth inequality gotunderway when this happened. After that, of course, there was nolooking back: through the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Industrial erawealth inequality increased but the 'seeds' of inequality were sownway back in the Neolithic.". We are high quality suppliers, our products such as China Medical Respirators , Medical Cotton Wool Manufacturer for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Medical Grade Tube.
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