Anthropology

Both matrilocality and matriliny are predicted by cultural factors that increase female involvement in subsistence labour and decrease paternity certainty28,29,44,45,46. External warfare can encourage both of these through male absence and has long been theorized to induce transitions to matrilocality through various mechanisms45,47,48, a hypothesis recently strengthened through quantitative modelling49. Matrilocality also predicts a history of migration into a new territory, which often is accompanied by frontier warfare4,45. The British Iron Age was debatably a time of high societal violence, indicated by the early proliferation of hillforts, weapons, human remains displaying violence-related injuries and instances of intergroup conflict recorded by Roman writers such as Julius Caesar and Tacitus50,51,52,53. Importantly, although matrilocality does not necessitate female political and social empowerment, it is strongly associated with these4,27,54,55,56 and resonates with Roman descriptions of Celtic women1. Although classical depictions of conquered peoples are often viewed with scepticism, we find here some truths in these writers’ appraisal of Iron Age Britain.