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August 03, 2010
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Earliest family reportedly unearthed
Nov. 17, 2008
Courtesy University of Bristol
and World Science staff
Four ancient skeletons unearthed in Germany in 2005 appear to be the
earliest family in the archaeological record, researchers say. Scientists describe this
as a group burial of a 4,600-year-old nuclear family, with the children (a boy of 8-9 and a boy of 5-4 years)
buried facing their parents. (Credit: Haak et al.)
The scientists dated remains from four multiple burials discovered in Germany in 2005. The 4,600-year-old graves contained groups of adults and children buried facing each other—an unusual practice in
the late Stone Age culture of their time.
One grave contained an adult couple and two children, the investigators said. Using DNA
analysis, they found that the group consisted of a mother, father and their two sons aged 8 to 9 and 4 to 5 years.
“We have established the presence of the classic nuclear family in a prehistoric context in Central Europe—to our knowledge the oldest authentic molecular genetic evidence so far. Their unity in death suggests a unity in life,” said Wolfgang Haak of the University of Adelaide, Australia, lead author of a
new paper describing the finds.
“However, this does not establish the elemental family to be a universal model or the most ancient institution of human communities.”
The research appears in this week’s early online issue of the research journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The burials at Eulau, Germany were unusual for the great care taken in the treatment of the dead, according to the research group. The remains of thirteen people were found in total, all of whom had been interred simultaneously.
The arrangement of the dead seemed to mirror their relations in life, the scientists added. Several pairs of individuals were buried face-to-face with arms and hands interlinked in many cases. All the burials contained children ranging from newborns up to 10 years of age and adults of around 30 years or older; there were no adolescents or young adults.
Many showed injuries indicating they were victims of a violent raid, according to the research group. One female had a stone projectile point embedded in a vertebra, another had skull fractures and several bodies had what scientists described as “defense injuries” to the forearms and hands.
The investigators said they also were able to shed light on the people’s social organisation using strontium isotope analysis, which involves measuring the quantities of different variants of a chemical element found in the teeth.
This gives “an indication of where these people spent their childhood. Strontium from the food you eat is incorporated into your teeth as they grow. We can relate the proportion of different strontium isotopes
[variants] back to regions with different geology,” said Hylke de Jong, a PhD student working on the Eulau graves at the University of Bristol, U.K.
“The strontium analysis showed that the females spent their childhood in a different region from the males and children. This is an indication of exogamy [marrying out] and patrilocality [the females moving to the location of the males],” said Alistair Pike, head of archaeology at the University of Bristol and co-director of the project. “Such traditions would have been important to avoid inbreeding and to forge kinship networks with other communities.”
The burials have been put on permanent display at the Landesmuseum Sachsen-Anhalt in Germany.
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Four ancient skeletons unearthed in Germany in 2005 appear to be the earliest “nuclear family” in the archaeological record, researchers say. The scientists dated remains from four multiple burials discovered in Germany in 2005. The 4,600-year-old graves contained groups of adults and children buried facing each other—an unusual practice in late Stone Age culture. One grave was found to contain a female and male adult and two children, the investigators said. Using DNA analysis, the researchers established that the group consisted of a mother, father and their two sons aged 8 to 9 and 4 to 5 years. “We have established the presence of the classic nuclear family in a prehistoric context in Central Europe – to our knowledge the oldest authentic molecular genetic evidence so far. Their unity in death suggests a unity in life,” said Wolfgang Haak of the University of Adelaide, Australia, lead author of a paper describing the finds in this week’s early online issue of the research journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “However, this does not establish the elemental family to be a universal model or the most ancient institution of human communities.” The burials at Eulau, Germany were unusual for the great care taken in the treatment of the dead, according to the research group. The remains of thirteen people were found in total, all of whom had been interred simultaneously. The arrangement of the dead seemed to mirror their relations in life, the scientists added. Several pairs of individuals were buried face-to-face with arms and hands interlinked in many cases. All the burials contained children ranging from newborns up to 10 years of age and adults of around 30 years or older; there were no adolescents or young adults. Many showed injuries indicating they were victims of a violent raid, according to the research group. One female had a stone projectile point embedded in a vertebra, another had skull fractures and several bodies had what scientists described as “defense injuries” to the forearms and hands. In an article published this week in the research journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers reconstructed the “Stone Age tragedy” using genetic and chemical techniques, physical anthropology and archaeology. The investigators said they also were able to shed light on the people’s social organisation using strontium isotope analysis, which involves measuring the quantities of different variants of a chemical element found in the teeth. This gives “an indication of where these people spent their childhood. Strontium from the food you eat is incorporated into your teeth as they grow. We can relate the proportion of different strontium isotopes back to regions with different geology,” said Hylke de Jong, a PhD student working on the Eulau graves at the University of Bristol, U.K. “The strontium analysis showed that the females spent their childhood in a different region from the males and children. This is an indication of exogamy [marrying out] and patrilocality [the females moving to the location of the males],” said Alistair Pike, head of archaeology at the University of Bristol and co-director of the project. “Such traditions would have been important to avoid inbreeding and to forge kinship networks with other communities.” The burials described are on permanent display at the Landesmuseum Sachsen-Anhalt in Germany.