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Image Credit: Johan Norderäng (CC BY)
DNA Study Rewrites Family Ties in a Swedish Stone Age Cemetery
A new ancient DNA study of burials from Ajvide, a Neolithic hunter-gatherer cemetery on the Swedish island of Gotland, is changing how researchers understand who was laid to rest together—and why.
Ajvide has produced 85 graves linked to the Pitted Ware culture, a coastal hunter-gatherer society that lived around 5,500 years ago and relied heavily on seal hunting and fishing. Although farming was spreading across much of Europe at the time, some communities in Scandinavia continued their hunter-gatherer lifeways for centuries. The Ajvide settlement and cemetery, first excavated in 1983, also yielded large quantities of pottery and animal bones, offering a rich picture of daily life and ritual.
Eight graves contained more than one person, and these joint burials were long assumed to represent immediate family members. However, by applying ancient DNA methods to several multi-person graves, researchers found a different pattern: many individuals buried together were not parents and children or siblings, but more distant relatives—often second- or third-degree connections such as cousins or similar kin.
The genetic results also clarified the relationships in several specific burials. In one grave, an adult woman was buried with two children who were full siblings, but the woman was not their mother, suggesting a more complex family arrangement. Other paired burials involved children and young women who were likely cousins or related through extended family lines.
One burial stood out for its unusual treatment. A teenage girl was interred on her back, with a pile of bones placed on and beside her. DNA analysis showed these bones belonged to her father. The study suggests his death occurred earlier and that his remains were moved from another location and deliberately placed with his daughter—pointing to burial practices that could include re-opening graves and re-arranging remains as part of remembrance.
Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the research is described as the first to investigate kinship patterns among Scandinavian Neolithic hunter-gatherers using this approach. The team plans to extend the analysis to all individuals from the cemetery to better understand social structure, life history, and funerary traditions in one of Europe’s later hunter-gatherer communities.
Published on: 17-02-2026
Edited by: Abdulmnam Samakie
Source: Live Science