Gender stereotypes challenged by discovery at Stone Age burial site

• An excavation of a 5,000-year-old Stone Age burial site in northern Latvia challenges traditional views on gender roles.
• Analysis of remains at the Zvejnieki cemetery revealed that stone tools were buried with women and children, not exclusively with men as previously believed.
• This finding overturns the long-held stereotype of 'man the hunter' and redefines interpretations of societal roles in prehistoric Europe.
• Researchers used microscopic analysis to determine the tools were used for working animal hides, with some deliberately broken as part of funerary rites.
• The study highlights that women were as likely as men, and children and older adults were the most common age groups, to receive stone artefacts in burials.

IN FULL

Ancient burial site upends what we knew about Stone Age women and children