+
upworthy
More

Ancient skeletons are upending what we know about how far women traveled in the Stone Age.

[rebelmouse-image 19475450 dam="1" original_size="500x187" caption="GIF from "300"/Warner Bros." expand=1]GIF from "300"/Warner Bros.

Early man. Aproud, chiseled, oil-chested warrior who roamed the land, hauling boulders to build his boulder house and punching mastodons in the throat.


Early woman. A helpless homemaker who to tended her 15-37 children and gathered grapes from the local grape bush.

It's an enduring image, oft repeated in literature, film, and car insurance commercials.

And it might just be a little-to-a-lot wrong.

A new study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that Stone and Bronze Age women did a lot more traveling than their male counterparts — at least in one region of Europe.

[rebelmouse-image 19475451 dam="1" original_size="700x455" caption=""HEY!" Photo by Stadtarchaologie Augsburg." expand=1]"HEY!" Photo by Stadtarchaologie Augsburg.

The researchers examined the remains of 84 individuals buried south of Augsburg, Germany. Through chemical and genetic analysis, they determined that a majority of the men were born locally, while the bulk of the women hailed from Central Germany or Bohemia in modern-day Czech Republic, hundreds of miles away.

"We see a great diversity of different female lineages, which would occur if over time many women relocated to the Lech Valley from somewhere else," Alissa Mittnik, one of the study's lead researchers, said in a statement.

The "foreign" women were buried with the same rites as the men, indicating that they had been integrated into local society.

Most traveled as individuals, rather than in groups, suggesting that they were "moving for marriage, not for servitude or something like that,” Mittnik told Inverse in an interview.

Researchers believe this "institutionalized form of individual mobility" was a key driver of cultural exchange.

Many of the tools and technology found at the sites were determined to have originated farther north, evidence that they may have been brought by the women.

By the standards of their era, these women were world travelers.

The researchers hope that further study will provide more clues as to how freely, frequently, and extensively Bronze Age humans migrated.

[rebelmouse-image 19475452 dam="1" original_size="700x467" caption="A car maybe woulda helped. Photo by Alex Mihis/Pexels." expand=1]A car maybe woulda helped. Photo by Alex Mihis/Pexels.

The ancient women of Central Europe may not have hunted mastodons, but they're continuing to upend conventional wisdom of gender dynamics in millennia-old human societies and assumptions about the way things have always been.

While the historical record frequently marginalizes the contributions of women, the study is evidence that, in at least one region of the world, their migration was crucial to the cultural and technological advancement of their societies, even if it was for marriage.

Certainly beats picking grapes.

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

Keep ReadingShow less

An English doctor named Edward Jenner took incredible risks to try to rid his world of smallpox. Because of his efforts and the efforts of scientists like him, the only thing between deadly diseases like the ones below and extinction are people who refuse to vaccinate their kids. Don't be that parent.

Unfortunately, because of the misinformation from the anti-vaccination movement, some of these diseases have trended up in a really bad way over the past several years.

Keep ReadingShow less

A woman looking at her phone while sitting on the toilet.


One of the most popular health trends over the last few years has been staying as hydrated as possible, evidenced by the massive popularity of 40-oz Stanely Quencher cups. The theory among those who obsess over hydration is that, when you pee clear, you’ve removed all the waste in your body and are enjoying the incredible benefits of being 100% hydrated. Congratulations.

However, according to Dr. Sermed Mezher, an NHS doctor in the UK, peeing clear isn’t always a sign of being healthy.

Keep ReadingShow less
Innovation

A student accidentally created a rechargeable battery that could last 400 years

"This thing has been cycling 10,000 cycles and it’s still going." ⚡️⚡️

There's an old saying that luck happens when preparation meets opportunity.

There's no better example of that than a 2016 discovery at the University of California, Irvine, by doctoral student Mya Le Thai. After playing around in the lab, she made a discovery that could lead to a rechargeable battery that could last up to 400 years. That means longer-lasting laptops and smartphones and fewer lithium ion batteries piling up in landfills.

Keep ReadingShow less
via PamTina_/Twitter

Pam's little brother is so sweet.

Pam has a little brother, who recently learned that he is actually her half-brother.

Of course, half-siblings are still very much siblings, but Pam's brother doesn't quite grasp the concept yet and seems upset about having to part with 50% of his sister.

Keep ReadingShow less

Jennifer Garner's Ziploc care package.

Homelessness has been on the increase in America since 2016 and the numbers exploded in 2020. On a single night in January 2020, there were more than 580,000 individuals who were without a home.

There are many reasons for the increase in homelessness and one of the leading causes is a lack of affordable housing across the country. Housing prices have been on a steady increase and, according to PBS, we are about 7 million units short of affordable housing in the country.

So what can the average person do about this human tragedy taking place in America’s streets? Some people who would like to help don’t feel comfortable giving money to homeless people, although experts in the field say that most of the time it is OK.

Keep ReadingShow less