Archeologists used to think women in prehistory wielded no power. Genetic data is upending that idea.

Archeologists used to think women in prehistory wielded no power. Genetic data is upending that idea.

Over the past decade, there's been a revolution in archaeology as we integrate the science of ancient genomics into the study of humanity ‪—‬ and it is upending our traditional views of the role of women in the past. When archaeologists first excavated a 4,000-year-old grave near Stonehenge in 1801, they identified the well-furnished remains inside as that of a man. This misidentification persisted for over two centuries, until ancient-DNA analy…