A new study has confirmed that more than 9,000 years ago, an ancient city in Turkey was ruled by women who lived in a matriarchal society. The city is called Catalhoyuk, and it was built around 7100 BC. People lived there for nearly 1,000 years.
Researchers studied the ancient DNA of more than 130 skeletons buried in 35 houses. The findings were published in the journal Science. The study found that people were often buried with family members, especially in the early years of the city. But later, this changed — many of the buried people had no biological connection to each other.
Interestingly, where there was a genetic connection, it came from the female line. This means that men moved into their wives’ homes after marriage. This is different from many ancient cultures where women moved to the husband’s home.
“With Catalhoyuk, we now have the oldest genetically inferred social organisation pattern in food-producing societies,” said Mehmet Somel, one of the study authors, to Live Science.
The researchers found that 70 to 100 per cent of the time, female children stayed in the same house, while male children likely moved away when they grew up.
“We weren’t particularly looking for these maternal connections within buildings, but it clearly shows that male-centred practices people have often documented in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe were not universal,” Somel added.
The study also found that women were given more importance. There were five times more grave goods found with female bodies than with male ones.
Even though family ties became less important over time, “fostering and adoption-like mechanisms” became common. This is something still seen in many parts of the world today.
Catalhoyuk has long been known for its many female figurines, which many experts believed represented a “Mother Goddess” cult. This new study supports the idea that a female-led society existed here.
The city of Catalhoyuk is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and this discovery gives us new insight into one of the oldest examples of female-led social systems in human history.
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