In Search of the Durotriges

Investigating kinship practices using population biology in southern coastal Britain during the transition from the late Iron Age to the Roman period.

Presented by:
Dr. Phillip Endicott

University of Tartu, Estonia

University of Bournemouth, United Kingdom

Thursday, November 21, 5:00 pm

230 Hale Science, Department of Anthropology

The use of ancient DNA for the study of European prehistory is hailed by some as a ‘paradigm-changing’ revolution, but it is also polarising opinions in archaeology. Many high-profile studies are critiqued for privileging of biological over social relatedness when attempting to interpret kinship practices operating in the past. Many assume, contrary to evidence from cross-cultural ethnographic surveys, that specific subsistence strategies can be equated with specific kinship practices, resulting in a growing belief that Europe since the Neolithic was a patrilocal society, with descent organised on patrilineal lines.

I will present a feasibility study of southern coastal Britain either side of the Roman conquest in 43 CE. Shortly after the hillforts of Dorset fall into disuse ~100 BCE, a new cultural horizon appears, characterised by a distinctive funerary tradition, and lasts into the early 2^nd century CE. The site under study, Winterbourne Kington, is central to its distribution. Genetic pedigrees, based on 45 individuals, are consistent with matrilocal post-marital residence and male exogamy. Using haplotypes and chromosome painting reveals a significant increase in mobility from the continent commencing prior to the Roman conquest, which is not witnessed outside of the southern coastal region.

This study demonstrates both the strengths and limitations of population biology for understanding social structure in the past. I will explain how distinguishing between different possible descent groups associated with matrilocal residence, and the geographical origin of male partners, will be addressed in an extended study using detailed settlement archaeology, and stable isotopes of mobility. Moreover, by increased sampling density it will be possible to study transformations in kinship before, during, and after the Roman conquest, establish whether this distinctive funerary tradition is a local development and if it could be connected to the regional polity named as the Durotriges by Ptolemy in the 2^nd century CE.

feasibility study of southern coastal Britain either side of the Roman conquest in 43 CE. Shortly after the hillforts of Dorset fall into disuse ~100 BCE, a new cultural horizon appears, characterised by a distinctive funerary tradition, and lasts into the early 2^nd century CE. The site under study, Winterbourne Kington, is central to its distribution. Genetic pedigrees, based on 45 individuals, are consistent with matrilocal post-marital residence and male exogamy. Using haplotypes and chromosome painting reveals a significant increase in mobility from the continent commencing prior to the Roman conquest, which is not witnessed outside of the southern coastal region.

This study demonstrates both the strengths and limitations of population biology for understanding social structure in the past. I will explain how distinguishing between different possible descent groups associated with matrilocal residence, and the geographical origin of male partners, will be addressed in an extended study using detailed settlement archaeology, and stable isotopes of mobility. Moreover, by increased sampling density it will be possible to study transformations in kinship before, during, and after the Roman conquest, establish whether this distinctive funerary tradition is a local development and if it could be connected to the regional polity named as the Durotriges by Ptolemy in the 2^nd century CE.