Remains of An Iron Age Tribe Reveal A Matrilocality Community
In this community, and other early British societies, men left home to join their wives' families
Hiya!
Since the dawn of humanity, every couple has had to make the same decision — where to live. In today’s world of advanced technology, high-speed travel, and (slightly) more gender equality, where a couple sets down roots may seem inconsequential, but entire societies are and always have been, shaped by this decision.
While workplace location is a major factor for modern couples when choosing where to live, deciding whose family to live with or near is historically the most significant one. Modern couples come in many forms, but married couples traditionally consisted of a man and a woman. This binary also formed two cultural traditions for where couples lived, which social anthropologists call patrilocal or matrilocal residences.
About 70 percent of known cultures throughout time practiced patrilocal residence, which is when couples primarily reside with or near the husband’s family. Meanwhile, records of matrilocal residences, when couples more often live with or near the wife’s family, are less common. However, recent research suggests there may have been more matrilocal communities throughout history than we thought.
The Discovery
In 2009, near the Winterborne Kingston village in Dorset, southwest England, archaeologists discovered a large cemetery containing human remains dating back to between 100 BCE and 100 CE, during the end of Britain’s Iron Age (750 BCE to 43 CE).
Finding human remains from this period in Britain is exciting because cremation and depositing bodies in local wetlands were popular funerary customs at the time. Such practices destroyed the remains, leaving a knowledge gap about the period for modern researchers. So, the cemetery in Dorest is super rare, and upon closer inspection of the remains, experts understood why they weren’t buried according to customs at that time.
The remains belonged to a Celtic tribe known as the Durotriges. This tribe occupied the central-southern English coast during the precise dates the remains date to, and it’s believed they helped spread the Celtic language in Britain. The Durotriges also differed in their funerary customs by burying their dead in formal cemeteries within the chalk landscape, which coincidentally helped preserve them.
Another thing that sets the Durotriges apart from other societies at the time is that women were often buried with valuable objects, suggesting they held high status. Because there are so many of these burials, archaeologists believe the Durotriges were a society that revolved around women.