Hereditary inequality dates back to Stone Age

Hereditary inequality began more than 7,000 years ago in the early Neolithic era, with new evidence showing that farmers buried with tools had access to better land than those buried without. By studying more than 300 human skeletons from sites across central Europe, an international team of colleagues led by Professor Alasdair Whittle from the University's School of History, Archeology and Religion and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council uncovered evidence of differential land use among the first farmers of Europe, called the Neolithic period. Also carried out by archaeologists from the Universities of Bristol and Oxford, By analyzing the strontium isotopes from the teeth of skeletons, the geographical origins of individuals can be suggested. Professor R. Alexander Bentley (University of Bristol), who carried out the strontium analysis, found that men buried with distinctive Neolithic stone adzes (tools used for smoothing or carving wood, probably in building the large timber longhouses for which this Early Neolithic culture is famous) had less variable isotope signatures than men buried without adzes. This suggests those buried with adzes had access to closer - and probably better - land than those buried without. Professor Bentley said: "The men buried with adzes appear to have lived on food grown in areas of loess, the fertile and productive soil favoured by early farmers. This indicates they had consistent access to pr eferred farming areas." The strontium isotope analysis also revealed that early Neolithic women were more likely than men to have originated from areas outside those where their bodies were found.