Social attitudes in our culture have led to the assumption that early advances in human knowledge were the achievements of men: the role of women in prehistoric times has been largely overlooked. In this thought-provoking book, however, Margaret Ehrenberg argues that the true contribution of women, especially in the discovery and development of agriculture, was much greater than has been acknowledged to date. Examining the evidence from archaeological, anthropological, and classical documentary sources, she throws new light on the lives of women and their social status in Europe from the Palaeolithic era to the Iron Age.
The relationship between the role of women and economic production is a central theme of this survey. The high status almost certainly enjoyed by women as the main providers of food in early prehistoric societies probably diminished in the later Neolithic Age, as men assumed an increasingly dominant role in farming. Even so, in Bronze Age and Iron Age societies individual women are seen to be in positions of power: Ehrenberg considers the possibility that Minoan Crete was a matriarchy, and that Boudica was only one of a number of female Celtic leaders.
Although available evidence is fragmentary and often controversial, Ehrenberg shows how information can be gathered from skeletons and grave goods found in burials, from settlement sites, from rock carvings and sculpted figurines, as well as from anthropological parallels, to enable significant inferences to be drawn about the life of prehistoric women.
Margaret Ehrenberg studied in the University of Wales. She has been a lecturer in European Prehistory in the University of Leeds and in the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and has taught archaeology, anthropology, and women's studies.
Contents
Introduction 7
1 The Search for Prehistoric Woman 10
Anthropological evidence 15
The behaviour of other animals and primates 20
Later documentary sources 21
Archaeological evidence 23
2 The Earliest Communities 38
The role of women in human evolution 41
Women in modern and Palaeolithic foraging societies 50
Matriarchy, patriarchy or equality 63
Mother goddesses or Venus figurines? 66
3 The First Farmers 77
The discovery of agriculture 77
The expansion of agricultural communities 90
The secondary products revolution 99
4 The Bronze Age 108
Was Minoan Crete a matriarchy? 109
Burials, grave goods and wealth in north-west Europe 118
A trade in women? 136
Rock art in the Alps and Scandinavia 139
5 The Celtic Iron Age 142
Domestic organisation in Iron Age Britain 143
Decoration on Hallstatt pottery and bronze vessels 147
Literary sources 151
Prophets and priestesses 15 7
Descent and marriage patterns 15 7
Women in war 162
Tribal chiefs and commanders in battle 164
6 Conclusions 171
Glossary 175
Notes 177
Bibliography 182
Index 188
