The surprising amount archaeologists learned from 10,000-year-old teeth
Scientists have made new discoveries about the lives of the world’s first farming communities after analyzing 10,000-year-old teeth.
Researchers from Durham University used jaws from 71 individuals dating to the Neolithic period to understand how people moved between communities in ancient Syria.
By analyzing strontium and oxygen isotopes in tooth enamel dating to between 11,600 and 7,500 years ago, scientists were able to determine whether individuals grew locally or were transported from other populations.
Study published in the journal Nature Scientific Reportsfound that women were more likely to move between communities, suggesting that men were more likely to stay in their communities and women joined them through marriage. They added that this cycle of movement may also have evolved to prevent inbreeding within populations.
Experts wrote that this mobility has “profound social implications” in terms of community integration. But researchers found evidence that individuals from elsewhere were buried together with local people in the same way and utilized similar autopsy practices.
The team said their research suggests that newcomers were welcomed into these Neolithic communities and were able to assimilate themselves to the point of receiving the same treatment in death.
“The transition to local communities in general following the establishment of village life suggests the consolidation of group membership and deep connections to specific locales, perhaps aimed at social cohesion,” the study’s authors wrote.
They said mobility “increased” during the later Neolithic period and there was a “high degree” of evidence of interregional movement between communities. “The gender bias towards female mobility during this period may indicate the formation of patriarchal traditions,” they added.
According to experts, these newcomers were likely to be welcomed and their funeral rites were the same as those growing up in the community.
“At our sites, both non-local and local individuals received similar mortuary treatment, suggesting inclusivity in group membership and the attachment of mobile individuals to new places in the environment,” they wrote.
The Neolithic communities of Southwest Asia are understood to be the first establishment of permanent settlements, including the villages that now form our modern way of life.
By better understanding the movement between these early communities, archaeologists can improve our knowledge of social behavior and changing connections thousands of years ago, the scientists said.
In August, a team of archaeologists in Türkiye unearthed a series of animals carved in 11,500-year-old stone, offering an unprecedented insight into how prehistoric communities constructed narratives.
The figurines discovered at the archaeological site of Karahantepe, one of the oldest Neolithic settlements in the world, represent the earliest known example of objects deliberately arranged to tell a story.
Karahantepe excavation head Necmi Karul said the findings prove that these ancient communities shared a “common memory”.
“Modern people always see themselves on top compared to the past,” he said. “Karahantepe shows us how successful people were at art and storytelling between 11,000 and 12,000 years ago.”
