Prehistoric tombs contain many clues to human societies before us. from cemetery dating Neolithic Discovered at Fleury-sur-Orne in Normandy, has made an important discovery at this time as to the complexity of the concept of people’s identity. Actually, many tumulus Dating from the Neolithic is present in the Paris Basin and contains skeletons of men and women in equal proportions.

A woman to embody masculinity?

However, a research team has recently published the results of the analysis. DNA Of the fourteen people buried at the level of the Tumor of Fleury-sur-Orne (Calvados) in news paper PNAS, Thirteen of these were male and only one was female. Other than this, arrow was traditionally placed in the tomb of this woman associated with men,

Replicas of arrowheads and other artifacts found in the tombs have been made. The latter is characteristic of hunters in the local culture at this time. © Pascal Redigg, CC BY-SA 4.0

If it is impossible to confirm that this woman was thought to be a hunter, she nevertheless probably embodied masculinity. One of the study authors indicates that , These Male Gender Artifacts Keep Him Beyond His Biological Sexual Identity,, Therefore the right of burial in this huge tumor was limited to people of the male gender.

It is possible that this woman was also of high social status, which may have contributed to her burial at this prestigious site. However, isotopic analysis that would provide information about this female’s diet as well as her geographic origin, has to be performed to test this hypothesis.

The Neolithic Cemetery of Fleury-sur-Orne was discovered in the 1960s by aerial photographs. The National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) has been conducting a major “rescue excavation” there since 2014. © Pascal Redigg, CC 4.0. By

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