Sunday, November 15, 2026

Archaeologists shed new light on wealth and status among Europe's early herders

A new study by researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the Max Planck Institute indicates that early herding communities in Central Europe only gradually developed social inequality – it was not imported by the steppe migrants

University of Copenhagen

Artistic reconstruction of young girl with copper neck ring — image:
Artistic reconstruction of the young girl with the copper neck ring (and hair spirals) in grave 41 at Čachovice. Red ochre face paint inspired by decorations on the pottery in her grave.
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Credit: Oil pastel by Solveig Chaudesaigues-Clausen

How unequal were prehistoric societies? And how can archaeologists measure wealth in cultures that left behind no written records, no tax registers and no census data?

A researcher from the University of Copenhagen has developed a multi-proxy method called QuantWealth that uses archaeological evidence from graves to reconstruct social status, wealth display, and inequality thousands of years ago.

In a new study published in Journal of Neolithic Archaeology, the method was applied to almost 300 4-5,000-year-old graves in present-day Bohemia. The researchers compared the analyses of the graves with genetic ancestry and Y-chromosome patterns of the skeletal remains to track paternal lineages, including pathologies, age, and gender to give unprecedented detail to the story of the so-called Corded Ware culture.

The researchers found that social inequality emerged gradually in Bohemia over several centuries following migrations from the steppe. These migrations spread early Indo-European dialects across Europe, but, at least in Bohemia, inequality was not deeply entrenched:

"Archaeologists have long debated whether steppe populations migrating across Europe from Ukraine brought with them a highly unequal social system and patriarchy. Our results suggest a much more dynamic picture, where social differences developed gradually. Achieving status through life-actions appears to have been more important than through inheritance, at least during the first 400 years", says University of Copenhagen archaeologist Mikkel Nørtoft, main author of the study, who developed the QuantWealth method in his PhD thesis.

A society in transition
Mikkel Nørtoft and his colleague Adam B. Rohrlach analysed 296 burials from the Corded Ware culture in Bohemia dating between approximately 2,900 and 2,300 BCE.

“Following a few harsh years of “dark sun” clouded by a devastating volcanic eruption 2,900 BCE, the earliest herder communities, settling in Bohemia around 2,900-2,700 BCE, seem to have focused mostly on building social cohesion across this new network of migrants in Central Europe. In Bohemia, they did this through shared burial rituals, and building earthen mounds, but with few grave goods”, Mikkel Nørtoft explains.

Wealth differences were small, mostly age-related, and power seems to have been distributed across multiple steppe-derived lineages, with little gender inequality.

Increased competition and inequality
Over time, circa 2,700-2,500 BCE, however, funerary competition in Bohemia intensified after a new lineage appeared. The researchers found increasing concentrations of prestige items, meat offerings, expanding exchange networks, and growing gender inequality. Adult men in particular became associated with more richly furnished graves, and younger adults became most frequent in the graves, but without clearly increasing signs of violence in skeletal trauma.

“In the final phase, roughly 2,500-2,300 BCE, we see a few rich displays of family wealth through children, and the previously new lineage now dominated the burial record. So maybe the new lineage had gained the most followers and power through the competitive burial parties, and their descendants were now competing among themselves”, Mikkel Nørtoft points out and adds:

“The few rich child graves and this prevailing lineage could indicate more inherited wealth and emerging traits of persistent inequality. Ethnographic parallels could also support the idea that parents adorned their children with ornaments to increase their social value in future marriage exchange. Brides often moved into the husband’s household in Corded Ware societies, and bridewealth or dowry is preserved in early Indo-European vocabulary, and historically common in Indo-European societies.”

This could be exemplified in one particularly rich female child grave in this late phase from the site Čachovice, the richest among all Bohemian graves in the study. This grave also included an extremely rare copper neck ring, a widespread upper-class symbol (known as “torcs”) in the later European Bronze and Iron Ages.

According to the researchers, these developments suggest growing social competition and the possible emergence of more durable forms of inequality among late Corded Ware communities.

Whether this development shows the first small steps to long-standing family dynasties documented later in the Bronze Age will require more data on both the Corded Ware Culture and the related Bell Beaker Culture who replaced them in Central Europe.

“We now have a correlation between changing Y-haplogroup lineages and unequal burial wealth display in one region, but we need more DNA data to confirm this at the family level, and elsewhere”, explains Nørtoft. The study also shows how combining DNA, archaeology, and language can enrich narratives about social changes in the past.

The study “Cooperation and Competition: Changes in Wealth, Power, and Patrilines in the Czech Corded Ware Culture” has been published in Journal of Neolithic Archaeology.

Contact
Archaeologist postdoc Mikkel Nørtoft
University of Copenhagen and National Museum of Denmark
Email: mnoertoft@palaeome.org

Geneticist postdoc Adam B. Rohrlach
Department of Archaeogenetics
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
E-mail: adam.rohrlach@adelaide.edu.au

The research was funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark and the European Research Council.

About QuantWealth
The QuantWealth method addresses a longstanding challenge in archaeology: how do researchers compare wealth and status across large numbers of prehistoric burials.

Instead of simply counting grave goods, which has been the preferred method, QuantWealth combines multiple indicators associated with social investment and prestige. These include the number and exclusivity of grave goods, the labour required to produce them, access to long-distance exchange networks, evidence of feasting and the effort invested in constructing graves.

Together, these factors allow researchers to estimate how wealth and status were expressed within ancient communities.

The researchers then combine these archaeological indicators with advanced statistical analyses to map patterns of wealth and social differentiation through time.

The Corded Ware Culture
The Corded Ware Culture was one of the most widespread archaeological cultures of prehistoric Europe, spanning large parts of northern, central and eastern Europe between approximately 2900 and 2300 BCE. It is named after the distinctive pottery decorated with impressions made by twisted cords.

Corded Ware communities practiced a mixed economy based on animal husbandry, farming, and are associated with the spread of people carrying ancestry from the East European steppe and the spread of Indo-European languages across Eurasia.

Individual burials with characteristic grave goods, such as “battle-axes” in male graves, cord-decorated beakers and amphoras, and dogtooth ornaments in female graves, are a hallmark of the culture.

DOI

10.12766/jna.2026.7

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Article Title

Cooperation and Competition: Changes in Wealth, Power, and Patrilines in the Czech Corded Ware Culture

Article Publication Date

10-Nov-2026

Early radiocarbon dates (range midpoints) for the Corded Ware culture incl. potential “proto-Corded Ware” in Southern Poland, data from Bourgeois et al. 2025, adapted and edited by Mikkel Nørtoft.

Credit

Illustration: Mikkel Nørtoft

SOCIOBIOLOGY

Curiosity and fearlessness apparent in German Shepherd genes

Uppsala University

image:
Meeting ‘ghosts’ is one part of the Dog Mentality Assessment test (DMA) that the dogs in the study underwent.
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Credit: Voichita Marinescu

German Shepherd dogs bred for working are more curious and less neurotic than German Shepherds bred for show. A new study from Uppsala University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences has shown that the differences are not only apparent in the dogs’ behaviour, but also in their genes. In previous studies, similar genes in humans have been associated with neuroticism.

A German Shepherd dog’s behaviour is very important because they are used as working dogs, for example in the police force or in the defence forces. Breeding dogs with the right traits can be difficult and costly. But with a better understanding of the genetics underlying such traits, breeding can be improved.

In a new study, ethologists and geneticists worked together to investigate how the behaviour of German Shepherd dogs is reflected in their genes. They have shown that the German Shepherd population in Sweden is comprised of two groups: one bred primarily for their appearance and the other bred for functional roles as working dogs.

“Breeders of working dogs have selected and bred the ones that really enjoy working; it’s a bit like a game for them. It’s interesting that we can now see that this selective breeding has indeed led to differences between working dogs and show dogs among German Shepherds – differences that can be seen at both the behavioural and genetic levels,” says Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, Professor of Comparative Genomics at Uppsala University and one of the study’s leaders.

Investigated German Shepherd behaviour and genetics

To measure behaviour in German Shepherd dogs, a standardised behaviour test called the Dog Mentality Assessment (DMA) was used where the dogs were confronted with a variety of situations. The DMA tests how dogs react to an invitation to play, threatening ghost-like figures, and being handled by a stranger. Today, the majority of German Shepherds in Sweden are tested using the DMA. In the study, the researchers looked at data from around 23,000 German Shepherd dogs.

“We could see that, on average, the working dogs showed less fear, more curiosity and were able to socialise well with humans. This shows how important it is to select for behaviour when selecting dogs for breeding for important functional roles in our community,” says Åke Hedhammar, Professor Emeritus at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

The researchers then took blood samples from 373 German Shepherd dogs who had undergone the DMA to be able to map their genomes.

“We could then see that there were areas in the genome where differences could be seen in the dogs depending on how curious or playful they were, for example. That meant that we were able to identify some of the genes in working dogs that are linked to curiosity and playfulness,” says Kerstin Lindblad-Toh.

In humans too, researchers have also found links between genes and behaviour. Some of the genes that have now been linked to the behaviour of German Shepherd dogs have been associated in previous studies with neuroticism in humans.

“It’s interesting that several of the genes that we identified as influencing behaviour in German Shepherds are also linked to that behaviour in humans. So we now have an example of how we might also acquire more knowledge about different behaviours in people with help of dogs in the long term,” says Kerstin Lindblad-Toh.

Bigger studies in the pipeline with the Swedish Armed Forces

Behaviour is not just controlled by individual genes: it is a complex interaction between many different genes. In collaboration with the Swedish Armed Forces, the researchers are now going to proceed with bigger studies in order to better map the genetics of behaviour.

“That would ultimately mean that these findings could be used to select which dogs have the best prospects of becoming good working dogs and which could be used in breeding. But we are not there yet. This study is just a first step and shows that there are actually clear differences in behaviour between working German Shepherd dogs and German Shepherd show dogs,” Åke Hedhammar says.

Journal

Animal Genetics

DOI

10.1002/age.70221