A Stone Age mass grave has given up some of its secrets thanks to DNA. A team of French archaeologists and paleo-geneticists analyzed the genomes of 37 of the 75 individuals that had been exhumed from the burial site at Aven de la Boucle in the Languedoc region. Radiocarbon dating had already indicated that the people were buried there over an 800-year period spanning from 3,600 BC to 2,800 BC. In their study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the team found 76% of the remains were male, and that most of them belonged to a single paternal line.
As the researchers write, "A major challenge in the study of collective burials and commingled assemblages is to decipher the pre-established rules of selection and identify the biological and/or social principles according to which an individual is entitled to access the grave." Their work at this site made for a few theories:
- That most of the men belonged to the same paternal line suggests "the possibility that social status was passed down through the males of the society," per a press release.
- As for why fewer women were buried at the site, two theories emerged: that those included were the "special" ones, or that women had left their families to partner with males in other groups and were returned to their relatives after death so they could be buried with their ancestors.
It remains unclear why burials occurred in this location for centuries. LiveScience posits that it's possible the location held some sort of "significant meaning" for them. (More discoveries stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
