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Kinship and social organization in Copper Age Europe. A cross-disciplinary analysis of archaeology, DNA, isotopes, and anthropology from two Bell Beaker cemeteries

Karl-Göran Sjögren, Inigo Olalde, Sophie Carver, Morten E. Allentoft, Tim Knowles, Guus Kroonen, Alistair W.G. Pike, Peter Schröter, Keri A. Brown, Kate Robson-Brown, Richard J. Harrison, Francois Bertemes, David Reich, Kristian Kristiansen, Volker Heyd
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/863944
Karl-Göran Sjögren
1Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Inigo Olalde
2Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
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Sophie Carver
3Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
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Morten E. Allentoft
4Lundbeck Centre for GeoGenetics, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Tim Knowles
3Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
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Guus Kroonen
5Department for Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
6Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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Alistair W.G. Pike
7Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
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Peter Schröter
8Staatssammlung für Anthropologie und Paläoanatomie, München, Germany.
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Keri A. Brown
9School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
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Kate Robson-Brown
3Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
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Richard J. Harrison
3Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
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Francois Bertemes
10Institut für Kunstgeschichte und Archäologien Europas, Martin-Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany.
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David Reich
2Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
11Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, USA.
12Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, USA.
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Kristian Kristiansen
1Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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  • For correspondence: volker.heyd@helsinki.fi kristian.kristiansen@archaeology.gu.se
Volker Heyd
13Department of Cultures / Archaeology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
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  • For correspondence: volker.heyd@helsinki.fi kristian.kristiansen@archaeology.gu.se
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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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Posted December 11, 2019.
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Kinship and social organization in Copper Age Europe. A cross-disciplinary analysis of archaeology, DNA, isotopes, and anthropology from two Bell Beaker cemeteries
Karl-Göran Sjögren, Inigo Olalde, Sophie Carver, Morten E. Allentoft, Tim Knowles, Guus Kroonen, Alistair W.G. Pike, Peter Schröter, Keri A. Brown, Kate Robson-Brown, Richard J. Harrison, Francois Bertemes, David Reich, Kristian Kristiansen, Volker Heyd
bioRxiv 863944; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/863944
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Kinship and social organization in Copper Age Europe. A cross-disciplinary analysis of archaeology, DNA, isotopes, and anthropology from two Bell Beaker cemeteries
Karl-Göran Sjögren, Inigo Olalde, Sophie Carver, Morten E. Allentoft, Tim Knowles, Guus Kroonen, Alistair W.G. Pike, Peter Schröter, Keri A. Brown, Kate Robson-Brown, Richard J. Harrison, Francois Bertemes, David Reich, Kristian Kristiansen, Volker Heyd
bioRxiv 863944; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/863944

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