At https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/01/250115124453.htm … ancient genomes reveal an Iron Age society centred on the female line of descent. Inheritance was apparently via the female of the species – and husbands moved to live with their wife’s family and tribe. The information comes via DNA from members of a single ccommunity. Some 50 ancient genomes were retrieved from a cemetery in Dorset. They were also dated prior to the Roman invasion. However, since then it has been found it is not unique as the researchers went on to find a similar pattern at other Iron Age burial grounds in Britain.
When the Romans arrived they were astonished to find women in positions of power – such as Boudica and Cartimandua. They could summon armies and even lead them on the battle field. Until now it has been thought the Romans were exaggerating – but first archaeology, and now, genetics, is showing that women had influence in many spheres of Iron Age life. Maternal ancestry may even have been the primary shaper of group identities. See also https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08409-6 … which is worth printing off to read.
Genetics has also shown an influx of migrants into Britain just prior to the LB Age. Here we may first note the LB in Britain differs from the Near and Middle East. For example, it is dated between 1000 and 875BC, whereas the Mediterranean LB world came to a destructive end in the 12th century BC. It was closely followed by inroads of newcomers. At first they were defined as the Sea Peoples, moving across the classical world and responsible for the destuction of cities and towns in the Aegean, the Levant and Anatolia, and into Assyro-Babylonia. Nowadays, the sea peoples depicted on Ramses III’s mortuary temple, Medinet Habu, are generally thought of as refugees. What had occurred is left hanging as catastrophism is not on the radar of academics. This period of upheaval and population decline lasted into the 9th century. Hence, we can see that a parallel exists with Britain. We may note also that the end of the LB in Italy, closer to home, is also dated to the mid 12th century, suggesting a link to the extensive low growth event dated by dendrochronologists, 1159-45BC. The source of the Italian info comes from the Bologna Museum [Museo Civico Archaeologica] in a booklet dated 2007 that came into my possession on a holiday jaunt. It travels from the Palaeolithic period, through the Mesolithic and Neolithic, and all the way down through the Bronze Ages to the 12th century BC. A supplement to the booklet then defines what occurred next. The Villanovan culture arrived from the north, location unknown, starting from the 9th century BC. Hence, Villanova is contemporary Iron Age Britain – which lasted down to the Roman invasion. Villanova was a forerunner of the Etruscans and Latins and various other Iron Age tribes we know from Roman records. Usually after their territories were annexed by conquest. We should, perhaps, view the LB in Britain and Ireland as basically the period in which the new groups went on to establish themselves in the ascendancy. The latter is included here as the Navan Fort in Ulster was constructed at this time and appears to have nothing to do with a fort, as such, but had a ritual or religious significance. Mike Baillie wrote an article on Navan around 20 odd years ago – following extensive archaeological investigation.