DNA reveals tangled kinship in 5,500-year-old Gotland gravesite

A DNA analysis of 5,500-year-old burials at Ajvide on Gotland, Sweden, uncovers complex kinship networks among Neolithic hunter-gatherers: many graves held distant relatives rather than immediate family, including a teen girl whose father’s bones were placed atop her grave, with bones moved from elsewhere; the study suggests kinship beyond the immediate family shaped burial practices.