DNA analysis suggests Iron Age societies in Britain were built around women rather than men.

Some scholars have suggested that the Romans exaggerated the liberties of women on the British Isles to imply that this was a more uncivilized society. However, this genetic and skeletal evidence implies that women were likely influential and could have been shaping group identity through matrilineal lines.

Scientists analysing 2,000-year-old DNA have revealed that a Celtic society in the southern UK during the Iron Age was centred around women, backing up accounts from Roman historians, a study said Wednesday.

Scientists uncover evidence that women controlled land, power, and marriage DUBLIN — Scientists have made a remarkable discovery about women’s roles in ancient British society by analyzing DNA from skeletal remains dating back about 2,

When the Romans first entered the British Isles, they found a land ruled by warrior queens and other high-status women – or at least, that’s how Julius Caesar and other witnesses described the situation in this new and strange territory.