Alex Bentley, Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Bristol (UK), and archaeologists from universities across Europe reported new evidence that indicates wealth inequality in Europe can be traced to the Stone Age in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research was reviewed at the Eureka Alert web site on the same day.
An examination of more than 300 human skeletons from sites across central Europe produced the earliest known evidence that differential land access among the first Neolithic farmers began 7000 years ago in Europe.
Neolithic men buried with stone adzes were found to have access to better farming land that was closer to their places of residence than those who were buried without adzes. Strontium isotope analysis of skeletal remains is the basis of the conclusion. The variation of strontium levels in teeth and bones is a primary indicator that those persons buried with adzes had access to more fertile farming land and better food.
Similar analysis of female skeletal remains indicates that the mates of the Neolithic farmers studied came from other areas of Europe than where their remains were buried.
The research is the first to indicate that heritable property (land and livestock), intergenerational transfers of property, and a male centered kinship system where females moved to reside in the location of the males when they marry originated much earlier in human history than previously thought.
