Researchers have uncovered genetic evidence suggesting that ancient Celtic societies in Iron Age Britain were matrilineal and matrilocal, with women holding status and influence.

Around 2,000 years ago, before the Roman Empire conquered Great Britain, women were at the very front and center of Iron Age society.

Julius Caesar, in his account of the Gallic Wars written more than more than century earlier, also described Celtic women participating in public affairs, exercising political influence — and having more than one husband.

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 Iron Age burials of powerful women revealed land and leadership may have been passed down through a mother’s line, new research says. Bournemouth University When the Romans reached Britain in the first century,

Ancient DNA analysis has revealed that an Iron Age community in Dorset, England, was centered around bonds of female-line descent.

An international team of geneticists, led by researchers from Trinity College in collaboration with archaeologists from Bournemouth University, has uncovered secrets of the social structure of Iron Age Britain.