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Stone Age Burials in Latvia Point to Specialized Work Roles
A new biological anthropology study suggests that some hunter-gatherers buried at the Zvejnieki cemetery in northern Latvia may have carried out specialized forms of work. The research uses biomechanical analysis of long bones to examine activity patterns among Mesolithic-Neolithic hunter-fisher-gatherer communities.
Zvejnieki is one of the major Stone Age cemeteries in northeastern Europe. It was used from the Middle Mesolithic to the Late Neolithic, roughly between the seventh and fourth millennia BCE. The community maintained a hunter-fisher-gatherer economy for a long period, relying on local freshwater fish, terrestrial mammals, and other resources.
The study focuses on differences between individuals buried with animal-tooth pendants and those buried without pendants. Earlier isotope studies had shown dietary differences between these groups, suggesting that individuals with pendants consumed more terrestrial animal resources, while those without pendants consumed more freshwater resources.
To test whether these differences were also reflected in the body, researchers examined the cross-sectional geometry of femora and humeri. This method studies the shape and strength of long bones to infer habitual movement, mobility, and repeated manual activities during life.
The femur results suggest that people at Zvejnieki had relatively reduced mobility compared with many earlier hunter-gatherer groups in Europe. Their femora were less robust and more circular, a pattern consistent with movement across flatter terrain and access to abundant local resources around Lake Burtnieks.
However, the clearest differences appeared in the upper limbs. Among males, those buried with pendants showed right-arm bone patterns consistent with repeated use of one-handed projectile technologies, possibly linked to hunting. Males without pendants showed patterns more consistent with flexion and extension of both arms, which the study connects with activities such as net fishing.
Among females, the sample was smaller, but the results suggest that those buried with pendants may have carried out activities consistent with hide-working. Females without pendants showed patterns that may relate to less intensive processing tasks or fishing-related activities.
The researchers argue that these differences point to occupational specialization within a hunter-fisher-gatherer society, without necessarily indicating a controlling elite or formal inequality. Instead, grave goods such as pendants may have marked social identity, memory, and repeated roles within the community.
Overall, the study shows that Mesolithic-Neolithic hunter-gatherer societies could have had more complex internal organization than often assumed. At Zvejnieki, diet, burial treatment, and skeletal evidence together suggest that social identity and daily work were closely connected.
Published on: 13-06-2026
Edited by: Abdulmnam Samakie
Source: Science Advances
