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Farming was demanding labor, and women in prehistoric Central Europe—who spent their days tilling fields, harvesting crops, grinding grain, and hauling produce without modern tools—likely had the physical strength to match, according to a recent study highlighted by Discover.
Published in Science Advances, the study compared the bones of modern female athletes with those of female farmers from Central Europe over four different time periods spanning 5,500 years: the Neolithic, Bronze, Iron, and Medieval Ages. Cambridge archaeologist Alison Macintosh and her team used laser scans and molds to analyze the shapes and rigidity of the bones, which reflect the muscle mass they once supported. These findings were then compared to CT scans of Cambridge University female rowers, endurance runners, soccer players, and non-athletes.
Not only were the leg bones of Neolithic women as strong as those of rowers, but their arm bones were 11 to 16 percent stronger. When compared with sedentary students, the strength difference increased to as much as 30 percent. The study also found variation in strength among prehistoric women, indicating that some specialized in certain types of manual labor.
These findings challenge the idea that prehistoric women focused solely on domestic tasks rather than manual labor. About 10,000 years ago, humans transitioned from hunting and gathering to farming. This shift not only altered their diets but also their skeletal structure, as bones adapt to stresses. While men became less active in running, resulting in straighter, less rigid shinbones, women's shinbones remained similar over time, leading some scholars to assume their work was less physically demanding. However, the authors of the paper argue that this theory fails to recognize the significant physical labor women engaged in during prehistoric times.
Moreover, as noted by Discover, studies of prehistoric behavior often compare female skeletons to male ones, which is an unfair comparison given the different ways men's bodies respond to physical strain.
"We believed it was an oversimplification to suggest that prehistoric women were either doing very little, not doing as much as men, or were largely inactive," Macintosh told Science.
