Five thousand-year-old family tree discovered in Cotswolds tomb

Blog

The world’s oldest family tree has been discovered from human bones found in a 5,700-year-old tomb in the Cotswolds.

Once scientists analysed and tested 35 sets of teeth and bones, discovering that 27 of the bones and teeth found in the tomb belonged to one extended family; with five continuous lines of descent from four women, who all had children with the same man.

The Guardian website reports The prehistoric group of people in question lived around 3700–3600BC and were some of Britain’s first farmers, with the tomb constructed about 100 years after cattle and cereal cultivation had been introduced from continental Europe.

The research project was a collaboration of archaeologists from the universities of Newcastle, Central Lancashire, Exeter, and York, and the geneticists from the universities Harvard, Vienna, and the Basque country.

Dr Fowler lead archaeologist in the study said “This is of wider importance because it suggests that the architectural layout of other Neolithic tombs might tell us about how kinship operated at these tombs”

It was also found that males who today are considered as stepsons had also been found in the tombs, suggesting that the concept “blended” isn’t only a modern phenomenon.