Did the ancients practice equality? While misconceptions may suggest otherwise, the remains of a Neolithic society show evidence that men and women, natives and foreigners, were all equal, at least in the crucial aspect of life: what they ate.
The Neolithic saw the beginning of agriculture and animal husbandry about 6,000 years ago. Now in Valais, Switzerland, the type and amount of food people ate was the same regardless of gender or where they came from. Researchers led by Deborah Rosslet-Christos at the University of Geneva discovered this by analyzing isotopes in the bones and teeth of adults buried in what is now known as the Barmaz Necropolis. Based on the 49 individuals studied, people at the Barmaz site found nutritional parity.
“Unlike other similar Neolithic burials, the Barmaz people seem to have collected their protein resources from the same area, with similar resources available for both adults and men,” the researchers said recently in Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
to the bone
To determine whether food was balanced among the people buried at Barmaz, Rosslet-Christ and her team needed to analyze isotopes in bones and other teeth. Certain types of bones may or may not allow the content of those bones to be linked to a person’s place of birth or what they ate in their last years.
Being able to tell if an individual is local or foreign can be done by analyzing the various strontium isotopes in their tooth enamel. Because tooth enamel is formed at a young age, it does not regenerate itself, so the isotopes in the enamel indicate that the food that a person eats comes from the environment. This can be used to identify whether an individual was born somewhere or moved after their early years. If you know what the strontium ratios are at a site, you can compare the ratios in the tooth enamel to determine if the tooth owner came from that area.
While strontium in tooth enamel can tell whether a person was born young or moved somewhere, different carbon, nitrogen and sulfur isotopes from food told the research team what and how much they ate. In the last years of their lives. Bones such as the humerus (which was the best-preserved bone in most individuals) are constantly regenerated with new material. This means that recently deposited bone tissue is placed in a place close to death.
Something for everyone
Near the Rhone River Valley in the Swiss Alps, the Barmaz Necropolis is located in an area covered in forests that were once replaced by villages and farmland. Most of the population of Barmaz is thought to be indigenous. Strontium isotopes found in their teeth show that only a few did not live in the area during the first few years of life, when enamel was formed, although it was difficult to determine whether other individuals moved there later in life.
An analysis of Barmaz’s diet showed that it was heavy on animal protein, supplemented by some plant products such as peas and barley. Isotopes were analyzed mostly from young goats and pigs. Based on the high levels of carbon and nitrogen isotopes found in their bones, the researchers think these young animals may not have even weaned yet, meaning that the people of this agricultural society were willing to accept lower meat yields for higher quality meat.
Rosslet-Christos’ most important discovery was that similar intermediate fractions of certain carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur isotopes were found in the bones of men and women. It didn’t matter whether these people were local or foreign – the values of these isotopes were the same with different concentrations of strontium isotopes in the tooth enamel. All adults ate the same amount of food, which was not always the case in Neolithic societies.
“The individuals buried in Barmaz – male or female – seem to have lived together with equal opportunities, painting a picture of a society that reflects equality,” the research team in the same study.
Other things in this society were equal. Regardless of gender, whether the dead are local or foreign, the same materials are usually buried in the same way. While this egalitarian society is not often associated with Neolithic people, it does show that some of our ancestors believed that no one should be left out. Maybe they are more like us than we think.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2004. DOI: 10.1016 / j.jasrep.2024.104585