Jennifer Byrnes (Anthropology) co-authored "," published in Science. This study analyzed 130 ancient genomes from the Neolithic archaeology site of Çatalhöyük, located in modern-day Turkey. The study showed how kinship patterns changed over time, but individuals from the same houses or nearby ones were primarily related through the maternal (mother's) line. Households became more communal and less focused on biological family ties while also retaining matriarchal kin patterning. Additional female-centered practices were shown through the findings that female infant burials received five times as many grave goods (gifts) as male infants. This work involved 47 geneticists, archaeologists, and biological anthropologists from 11 countries, and has been years in the making.
