Quote Originally Posted by sumskilz View Post
It's a possibility suggested by the authors.

Some context:

In addition, only one maternal lineage (mtDNA) lasts longer than a single generation.





Out of 104 individuals, 10 parent-offspring pairs were found, 6 of which were mother-offspring pairs. In 9 out of 10 of those pairs, the offspring was a male. Males with relatives buried nearby were mostly higher status and all from the same lineage.

So out of 46 adult females, only 4 had offspring among the burials. 3 out of 4 of these mothers were high status. Among the 42 women for whom no offspring were discovered, 3 were high status females of non-local origin. While it's worthwhile to note the observation, I personally don’t find it particularly remarkable, considering the number of individuals for whom no offspring, no spouse, and/or no parents were found, and that it appears that any adult female offspring would have been buried elsewhere.

EDIT: It's 6 mother-offspring pairs but only 4 mothers because 1 mother had 3 sons.
This pattern is.exactly what you would expect for a society where the sons inherited and the daughter's married and moved to live with their husband's family. The daughter's would be buried with their husband's family, and the only daughters you would expect to find here would be ones that died too young, before they were married.

For those women without children, they might have only had daughters, who would have been buried with their husbands' families, or their sons died afar, in hunting, in some far off battle, or on some trading trip, and the body of the son was unable to be recovered and buried with the rest of the family.

I would expect you could find a similar pattern at some American farm grave site. The daughters would be buried with their husbands' families, and the woman would not be generically related, coming from other areas to join their husbands who inherited thd farm. Some women might not have any descendants buried in the family gravesite, since they only had daughters, or their sons were killed in some far off battle and buried there (like at Normandy).

I don't see the big mystery in the results ofnrhe results..All they are saying is that it was sons who inherited, and all women married and moved to be with their husbands' families. And the marriages might have been arranged when the females were quite young, and the girls are up in their future husbands' family. Can