Ancient DNA reveals how women spread farming in Europe

For many years, it was widely assumed that agriculture rapidly swept across Europe, displacing hunting and gathering in nearly every area. New research suggests that this transition was not universal.

Across parts of present-day Belgium, the Netherlands and neighbouring Germany, communities maintained hunter-gatherer ways of life for millennia after farming had transformed societies elsewhere.

Ancient DNA enabled researchers to reveal this previously obscured history. The findings also underline the key part women played in introducing agricultural knowledge to these groups.

Unearthing ancient evidence

Professor John Stewart, a palaeoecologist at Bournemouth University, has investigated caves in this area for over two decades.

He collaborated closely with archaeologists from Belgium’s Université de Liège. The team excavated ancient human remains from the Meuse and Lower Rhine areas.

Situated across modern-day Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, these sites produced remains dating between 8500 and 1700 BCE.

Research students at the University of Huddersfield conducted the DNA analysis.

Why the Neolithic period mattered

The Neolithic period was a defining shift in European history. People began cultivating crops and keeping animals, rather than depending solely on wild food sources. Agriculture transformed food provision, settlement patterns and everyday life.

There were no national frontiers restricting movement in ancient Europe. Communities travelled substantial distances and came into contact with each other. As populations mixed over time, new cultures and languages emerged.

Researchers recognise three principal ancestral sources among European populations of this period. One derived from early hunter-gatherers, who descended from Europe’s first modern humans.

A second genetic heritage was linked to farmers migrating from the Near East. The third originated with pastoralists, or herders, travelling westwards from southern Russia.

Ancient DNA shows a gradual transition

Across much of Europe, farming’s arrival around 4500 BCE led to a major genetic transformation. Ancestry associated with farmers soon became predominant.

This area, however, followed another course. In places with plentiful rivers, wetlands and coastal resources, local communities did not adopt farming straight away.

Hunting and gathering persisted for as long as 3,000 years after farming had spread elsewhere.

DNA evidence indicated that the genetic composition of local people altered gradually. Hunter-gatherer ancestry stayed high over an extended period.

Rather than being abruptly replaced, people slowly incorporated agricultural practices.

Women brought farming knowledge

Among the most notable discoveries is the role of women. DNA patterns indicate that female farmers arriving in the region often married into local hunter-gatherer communities. Alongside their genes, they introduced farming expertise.

Rather than entire incoming groups supplanting local populations, limited numbers of women became part of established communities. Agricultural skills were gradually passed on through everyday activities, preparing food and raising children.

“This study has also brought to light the crucial role played by women in the transmission of knowledge from the incoming farming communities to the local hunter-gatherers,” noted study co-author Dr. Maria Pala.

“Thanks to ancient DNA studies we cannot only uncover the past but also give voice to the invaluable but often overlooked role played by women in shaping human evolution.”

The result demonstrates how profoundly social relationships and family life influenced human history.

Change unfolded slowly

The region’s rivers and wetlands supplied plentiful fish, birds and wild plants. Because natural resources were so abundant, local communities faced little need to give up their established lifestyles. Farming became an element of life, not a wholesale replacement.

“We expected a clear change between the older hunter-gatherer populations and the newer agriculturalists but apparently in the lowlands and along the rivers of the Netherlands and Belgium the change was less immediate. It’s like a Waterworld where time stood still,” said Professor John Stewart.

Hunter-gatherer ancestry remained substantial until approximately 2500 BCE, when Bell Beaker pottery emerged. Populations carrying ancestry from Russia then expanded across Europe.

In contrast with the earlier developments, this migration produced a far greater genetic effect, diminishing older local lineages.

Rethinking British history

The research also reshapes our view of British history. After 2500 BCE, Early Bronze Age people in Britain derived more than 90 percent of their ancestry from continental Bell Beaker populations.

Earlier groups, including the people who built Stonehenge, were almost entirely lost from the genetic record.

Ancient DNA is continuing to transform understanding of the past. Rather than presenting a straightforward narrative of swift replacement, the evidence points to a gradual and complex process in certain regions.

In the water-rich areas of north-western Europe, hunting, gathering and farming coexisted for thousands of years. Through marriage and the sharing of knowledge, women subtly shaped the direction of human evolution.