Study dispels stereotype of Stone Age hunter-gatherer

A study has revealed new insights into life and death in the Stone Age, showing that stone tools were buried with women and children as likely as with men.

The discovery , made at the Zvejnieki cemetery in northern Latvia, one of the largest Stone Age archaeological sites in Europe, challenges the idea that stone tools were strictly associated with men.

The research was published in PLOS One, Europa Press reported on Thursday.

The site was used for over 5,000 years and contains over 330 graves. However, until now, the stone artifacts found in the graves had not been studied, and the stone tools at Zvejnieki and other Stone Age archaeological sites were often considered utilitarian and therefore uninteresting.

As part of the Stone Dead project, led by Aimée Little of the University of York in the UK, and in collaboration with the Latvian National Museum of History and colleagues across Europe, the team brought a powerful microscope to Riga to observe how tools were made and used.

Research has shown that stone tools played a much more important role in funerary rituals, as not only have tools used to work animal hides been discovered, but some appear to have been specifically made and then broken as part of funerary rites.

They found that women were just as likely, or even more likely, than men to be buried with stone tools, and that children and the elderly were the most common age group to receive stone artifacts.

The ingrained stereotype about women at that time was that they played a more domestic role, such as cooking the animals hunted by men, making crafts and taking care of the family.

Little, quoted in a statement, highlighted that “the Latvian archaeological site has been the scene of extensive investigations of human remains and other funerary goods, including thousands of animal tooth pendants.”

“One missing piece of the story was a deeper understanding of why people gave seemingly utilitarian objects to the dead,” he stressed.

"Our findings debunk the long-standing stereotype of the male hunter, which has been a dominant theme in Stone Age studies and which even occasionally influenced the sex determination of some babies based on the provision of stone tools," he added.

Tools never before used suggest their symbolic significance in funerary practices , particularly as some appear to have been deliberately broken before being placed beside the deceased, suggesting a shared ritual tradition in the Eastern Baltic region, where similar funerary practices have been observed.

"The study highlights how much there is still to learn about the life and death of early European communities and why even the simplest objects can reveal information about our shared past and how people responded to death," added Aimée Little.