Gender on the move: chronology and exogamic practices at the beginning of farming. The case of North Carpathian Basin.

01/06/2020 to 31/12/2022

This project will explore the presence of patrilocality and its possible consequences regarding women’s quality of life and gender construction within the first european farming communities (5500-4900 cal BC). Specifically, we will focus our attention on the The North Carpathian Basin (East Czech Republic - West Slovakia), a well-known area for being the entrance gate of neolithization to Central Europe and the place where the first Early Neolithic funerary contexts were documented. Bioarchaeological studies of these communities identified a significant number of non-local female individuals, that greatly differed from the almost absence of non-local males. This sex-biased difference of origins have been explained by the presence of exogamic patrilocal practices. However, more data is needed so as to determine to what extend it was an homogenous and recurring mobility pattern, that can be considered explanatory. The aims of this project is to carry out a new set of radiocarbon and isotopic data of some of the most representative funerary contexts of this period in this region, so as to test the role of women’s mobility in the spread of Neolithization across Europe.