3 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Researchers believe mass immigration to Orkney during the Bronze Age was mostly led by women

Researchers believe mass immigration to Orkney during the Bronze Age was mostly led by women.

 Mass migration to Orkney during the dawn of the Bronze Age was led mostly by women, new scientific research suggests.

Orkney, an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, experienced large-scale immigration during the early Bronze Age period.

Genetic studies of ancient DNA from human remains found on the islands off the north coast of Scotland show an influx of predominantly women as Europe moved into the Bronze Age approximately 4500 years ago.

Researchers say the new evidence, compiled by Edinburgh and Huddersfield universities, contradicts previous assumptions that Orkney was a relatively insular community after the Neolithic period.

The Story Behind Orkney's Skara Brae
Neolithic houses on Orkney, Scotland

But while most resettlements across Europe were typically led by men as livestock farming expanded, the opposite was the case in Orkney.

Bronze Age newcomers were mainly women, with survival in Orkney of male lineages from the original Neolithic population for at least another thousand years – a unique phenomenon that scientists have not seen anywhere else.

Researchers believe new arrivals were probably the first visitors to Orkney speaking Indo-European languages and carried genetic ancestry derived in part from livestock farmers living on the steppe lands north of the Black Sea.

Jim Wilson, professor of human genetics at the University of Edinburgh’s Usher Institute, said: “It’s absolutely fascinating to discover that the dominant Orcadian Neolithic male genetic lineage persisted at least 1000 years into the Bronze Age, despite replacement of 95% of the rest of the genome by immigrating women. This lineage was then itself replaced and we have yet to find it in today’s population.”

Dr. Graeme Wilson and Hazel Moore of the Orkney-based Ease (Environment and Archaeology Services Edinburgh) Archaeology, who excavated the Links of Noltland, suggest that the long-term stability and self-sufficiency of farmsteads on Orkney, which the genetic data suggests may have already been dominated by men at the peak of the Neolithic era, made the island less susceptible to the arrival of outsiders.

‘This shows that the third-millennium BC expansion across Europe was not a monolithic process but was more complex and varied from place to place,’ said Dr. George Foody, one of the lead researchers on the project from the University of Huddersfield.

The results have been surprising for both the archaeologists and geneticists on the team, although for different reasons: the archaeologists did not expect such large-scale immigration, whereas the geneticists did not foresee survival of the Neolithic male lineages.

The University’s Director of the Evolutionary Genomics Research Centre Professor Martin Richards said: “This research shows how much we still have to learn about one of the most momentous events in European prehistory – how the Neolithic came to an end.”

The work was part of a Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Scholarship program awarded to Professor Martin Richard and Dr. Maria Pala, and the excavations at the Links of Noltland were funded by Historic Environment Scotland.

The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cover Photo: Ness og brodgar rekonstruksiyon

The University of Edinsburg

Related Articles

Carvings at Göbeklitepe could be World’s Oldest Calendar

6 August 2024

6 August 2024

Experts suggest that markings on a stone pillar at the 12,000-year-old Göbeklitepe archaeological site in Türkiye probably represent the oldest...

1,300-year-old shipwreck found in southwest France

19 June 2022

19 June 2022

Archeologists in France have discovered the wreck of a ship that navigated the Garonne river in southwestern France in the...

Ancient Fish Traps in Denmark Challenge the Neolithic Revolution Narrative and Rewrite Stone Age History

1 July 2025

1 July 2025

A stunning archaeological discovery on the Danish island of Lolland is transforming our understanding of the Neolithic transition. Researchers from...

Ancient Latin texts written on papyrus reveal new information about the Roman world

11 January 2023

11 January 2023

Researchers funded by the European Union have deciphered ancient Latin texts written on papyrus. This work could reveal a lot...

3,000-Year-Old Lost Anatolian language ‘Kalašma’ deciphered

5 July 2024

5 July 2024

In 2023 excavation site at the foot of Ambarlikaya in Boğazköy-Hattusha in Turkey, a cuneiform tablet with a previously unknown...

Using Algorithms, Researchers Reassemble Jewish Text Lost Centuries Ago

27 January 2022

27 January 2022

Using new technology, researchers were able to comb a 19th-century text for the original study of a Bible interpretation attributed...

Archaeologists find 4 Umayyad epigraphs in the ancient city Knidos

24 May 2022

24 May 2022

Archaeological excavations in the ancient city of Knidos connected to Datça District of Muğla province in western Turkey have unearthed...

Rock tombs dating back 1,800 years have been discovered in Turkey’s ancient city of Blaundus

1 October 2021

1 October 2021

In the ancient city of Blaundus, located in the Ulubey neighborhood of the western Anatolian city of Uşak, 400 rock-cut...

Researchers discover America’s oldest mine

23 May 2022

23 May 2022

Archaeological digs headed by Wyoming’s state archaeologist and including University of Wyoming experts have revealed that people began producing red...

Mosaics found in Türkiye’s Sinop belong to dining room of a wealthy family

24 June 2023

24 June 2023

The pebble mosaics unearthed during the excavation of a building complex in the province of Sinop on Turkey’s Black Sea...

5,000-Year-Old Fortress Discovered in Romania Using LiDAR Technology

22 March 2025

22 March 2025

Archaeologists have unveiled a 5,000-year-old fortress hidden deep within the forests of Neamț County, Romania. This remarkable find, made possible...

The human remains dating back 10,000 years unearthed in Vietnam

15 November 2023

15 November 2023

In Ha Nam Province, northern Vietnam, skeletal remains dating back 10,000 years have been discovered. This is marking the oldest...

Royal-Memorial Inscription Attributed to King Sargon II Discovered in Western Iran

25 April 2021

25 April 2021

In western Iran, Iranian archaeologists discovered a part of a royal memorial inscription attributed to the Neo-Assyrian king Sargon II....

Ice Age Cave Entrance that Nobody has Entered for 16,000 Years found in Germany

4 August 2023

4 August 2023

Researchers report they have discovered the official entrance to an Ice Age cave near Engen, Germany, that nobody has entered...

Archaeologists uncovered an Aztec altar with human ashes in Mexico City

1 December 2021

1 December 2021

Archaeologists in Mexico have discovered a 16th-century altar in Plaza Garibaldi, the center in Mexico City famous for its revelry...