Ancient graves reveal secrets: women and their children in focus!

Ancient graves reveal secrets: women and their children in focus!

In a remarkable archaeological discovery in Saxony-Anhalt, researchers examine life and the funeral rites 6,000 years ago. During the excavations along the future Stromstrasse Südostlink, the grave of a pregnant woman found in Nessa harbors, insightful insights into the time. In the grave there was a bag with mortal remains of a fetus or newborn, which was found in 20 percent of the funerals of women. These practices show how society deals with childhood, pregnancy and loss, as MDR reports.

archaeologists dug up five burial mounds during their work, which once served to venerate ancestors. Today these hills are only visible in the form of foundation trenches. The 170 -kilometer section of the Stromtrasse will be studied archaeologically by the end of 2025. The entire route extends over 540 kilometers and ranges from Wolmirstedt near Magdeburg to the Isar location in Bavaria.

research on women in history

The role of women in history, especially in terms of pregnancy and births, is increasingly being considered from a new perspective. A recently discovered silver figure of a pregnant Viking from the 10th century in Sweden questioned the conventional ideas of passive women. This figure, which was found as part of the research project "Womb Politics", shows a pregnant warrior and illustrates that women in the Viking Age of active social roles, according to Futurezone.

In the past, it was often assumed that women only played a subordinate role in the Viking Age. But excavations in cities such as Birka show that women were recognized as warriors and also as leaders. These findings encourage to question the traditional role models and rather to consider the complex relationships and social expectations associated with pregnancy and motherhood.

A look at the reconquista of gender roles

you can look back on, you can tell that women led hunting and fighting about 10,000 years ago. At that time, the division of labor was not as rigid as later with the settling of the settling. The structural changes in society, especially the Neolithic Revolution, led to a separation of gender roles, which still has an impact today. This discovery, together with the historical analyzes of gender distribution, raises questions, such as world, about the long overtaken ideas of consistently consistently male social structures.

The connection of pregnancy to social expectations and the role of women in the society of the early Middle Ages shows how differentiated the consideration of historical gender roles can be. The latest finds and research encourage the view of women and their contributions to society and history fundamentally.