A new DNA-based study challenges the conventional understanding that Iron Age Britain society was dominated by men.

Researchers have uncovered genetic evidence suggesting that ancient Celtic societies in Iron Age Britain were matrilineal and matrilocal, with women holding status and influence.

The Iron Age burials of powerful women revealed land and leadership may have been passed down through a mother’s line, new research says. Bournemouth University When the Romans reached Britain in the first century,

Some scholars have suggested that the Romans exaggerated the liberties of women on the British Isles to imply that this was a more uncivilized society. However, this genetic and skeletal evidence implies that women were likely influential and could have been shaping group identity through matrilineal lines.

DNA analysis indicates that a Celtic tribe in Iron Age Britain was matrilocal, meaning men relocated to live with women’s families.

Ancient DNA analysis has revealed that an Iron Age community in Dorset, England, was centered around bonds of female-line descent.

Scientists analysing 2,000-year-old DNA have revealed that a Celtic society in the southern UK during the Iron Age was centred around women, backing up accounts from Roman historians, a study said Wednesday.

Real authority behind most decision-making rested with female leaders such as Boudica, say academics

An international team of geneticists, led by those from Trinity College Dublin, has joined forces with archaeologists from Bournemouth University to decipher the structure of British Iron Age society,

Land was inherited through the female line in Iron Age Britain, with husbands moving to live with their wife’s community

Iron Age cemeteries with well-preserved burials ... Two of the earliest recorded rulers were queens -- Boudica and Cartimandua -- who commanded armies. "It's been suggested that the Romans ...

Excavating a Late Iron Age Durotriges burial at Winterborne Kingston ... Two of the earliest recorded rulers were queens – Boudica and Cartimandua – who commanded armies,” said Dr Miles ...