부산대학교 도서관

This paper presents the results of a long-term interdisciplinary research project in the micro-region of the Lech Valley in southern Germany. The comprehensive bioarchaeological study of burials from the Late Neolithic until the early Middle Bronze Age brought to light a strict patrilocal system, where each farmstead was populated by a biologically related core family. In addition to that, women from afar – c. 400–600 km – came into the Lech Valley, lived in the different farmsteads, possessed a high status, but never had any offspring visible in local burial grounds. Finally, we identified the biologically non-related, local, and poor burials as the remains of menial staff living together with the nuclear family and the women from afar in each of the farmsteads, thus shedding completely new light on the complexity and social inequality of farmsteads in the Early Bronze Age.