A groundbreaking study reveals evidence that, in Iron Age Britain, land inheritance followed the female line, with husbands relocating to live within their wives' communities. This marks the first documented instance of such a system in European prehistory.

Roman writers found the relative empowerment of Celtic women in British society remarkable, according to surviving written records. New DNA research from the University of Bournemouth shows one of the ways this empowerment manifested—inheritance through the female line.

A new DNA-based study challenges the conventional understanding that Iron Age Britain society was dominated by men.

The site belonged to a group the Romans named the “Durotriges,” researchers said, and this ethnic group had other settlements, including a site near Dorset nicknamed “Duropolis” by the archaeologists who work there.

Women led early British society 2,000 years ago, archaeologists find - Findings suggest in some parts of early British society husbands moved to join their wives

An international team of geneticists, led by those from Trinity College Dublin, has joined forces with archaeologists from Bournemouth University to decipher the structure of British Iron Age society,

Some scholars have suggested that the Romans exaggerated the liberties of women on the British Isles to imply that this was a more uncivilized society. However, this genetic and skeletal evidence implies that women were likely influential and could have been shaping group identity through matrilineal lines.

The social fabric of Iron Age Britain, spanning roughly from 800 BC to AD 100, has long puzzled historians and archaeologists. Recent breakthroughs in genetic analysis are now shedding light on the lives and social structures of these ancient communities.

Real authority behind most decision-making rested with female leaders such as Boudica, say academics

Land was inherited through the female line in Iron Age Britain, with husbands moving to live with their wife’s community

Iron Age cemeteries with well-preserved burials ... Two of the earliest recorded rulers were queens -- Boudica and Cartimandua -- who commanded armies. "It's been suggested that the Romans ...