Teeth reveal how mobility shaped Neolithic communities

Thousands of years ago, humans in the Neolithic villages of Syria lived, worked, and raised families. Their teeth now reveal to us how their ancient community life unfolded.

Scientists from Durham and Liverpool Universities have turned these small fragments into a powerful record of early human movement and community life.

Their findings, published in Nature Scientific Reports, show how people began to settle, connect, and move in the world’s first farming societies.

Tracing ancient community movement

The team studied 71 human teeth from five archaeological sites in modern Syria, testing teeth that came from people who lived between 11,600 and 7,500 years ago.

By measuring strontium and oxygen isotopes in tooth enamel, scientists could see where each person had essentially been born and grown up.

The results showed who had stayed close to home and who were newcomers from another location.

For the first time, researchers could map invisible patterns of mobility that shaped ancient community life.

Family ties strengthened

Once farming villages formed, movement slowed down. People began to stay where they were born. These ancient communities grew stable and connected to the land.

The research suggests that belonging became stronger as villages expanded. Living in one place also changed how people viewed family and identity.

The Neolithic world started to look more like the settled societies that followed.

Women began crossing borders

Toward the end of the Neolithic period, a new pattern appeared.

Women moved more often between villages than men. The findings pointed to patrilocal traditions, where women left their home villages after marriage.

Men stayed close to their families. This movement likely helped prevent inbreeding and strengthened social links between groups.

“The evidence of women moving between villages also points to complex social dynamics in the world’s first permanent settlements,” noted Dr. Eva Fernandez-Dominguez of Durham University.

The research provides a rare glimpse into how gender shaped social life thousands of years ago.

Women’s role in ancient communities

“The Late Neolithic period in this region is archaeologically known for the development of new cross-regional networks, innovation, and the movement of material culture, animals, and ideas,” explained study first author Dr. Jo-Hannah Plug from the University of Liverpool.

“Our research, for the first time, shows direct evidence for the movement of people during this period too.”

According to Dr. Plug, the observation that women in particular were mobile illustrates their likely central role in the processes of innovation and the establishment of cross-regional networks of the Neolithic period.

“The results suggest that the reproductive networks of this period extended beyond the direct neighboring communities, and that marriage partners were sought potentially quite far away,” Dr. Plug explained.

Women linked distant villages

Women did more than move. Their travels linked distant villages.

With them came ideas, traditions, and skills that helped farming spread. Movement created contact, and contact brought innovation.

The research showed that social change often started with small, personal choices – who someone married or where someone lived. These choices shaped networks that lasted for generations.

All burials were treated equally

Archaeologists also looked at how these early communities treated their dead. Both locals and newcomers received similar burials.

At the site of Tell Halula, people were buried beneath house floors in multiple layers. Those buried together included individuals from different regions.

Every person, no matter their birthplace, received equal treatment in death. Such practices revealed an open and inclusive society.

Across other sites, burials told the same story. Locals and migrants rested side by side in the same cemeteries. Their graves contained similar artifacts. Bodies were also positioned in similar seated postures.

Every burial suggested that identity went beyond origin. The early farming world valued participation over ancestry.

“This research allows us to see, for the very first time in this region, how mobility and social connections shaped the earliest farming societies,” noted Dr. Fernandez-Dominguez.

“We found that villagers largely stayed local, yet they welcomed newcomers who appeared to be fully integrated into social and funerary life.”

Locals and newcomers treated equally

Tooth enamel forms during childhood and keeps its chemical makeup for life. This composition can reveal where a person spent their early years. The scientists used isotope analysis to decode those signals.

The data recorded from the teeth, combined with burial records and skeletal evidence, turned individual stories into ancient community history. It showed how villages interacted and how social rules emerged during the rise of agriculture.

What stood out most was how inclusive these ancient communities were. Outsiders were not treated as strangers; they were part of village life, buried with care and respect.

Early farmers seemed to value belonging over bloodline. That attitude might have helped their societies survive and grow across generations.

Ancient communities shaped early progress

The Northern Levant served as a bridge for human progress. Agriculture, technology, and trade all passed through this region.

This study has filled a gap in what we know about people of this region. Ancient communities did not just grow crops; they grew networks of cooperation.

Funded by The Leverhulme Trust, the study reminds us that the story of humanity began with connection.

Even before cities or writing, people built trust across borders. Teeth that once chewed the first grains now reveal how inclusion and movement built the roots of ancient community life.

The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

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