Bronze Age women drove mass immigration wave for Orkney, research reveals

Orkney experienced mass immigration during the dawn of the Bronze Age that was led mostly by women, new scientific research suggests.

Genetic studies of ancient DNA from human remains found on the islands off the north coast of Scotland show an influx of predominantly women as Europe moved into the Bronze Age about 4,500 years ago.

Researchers say the new evidence, compiled by Edinburgh and Huddersfield universities, contradicts previous assumptions that Orkney was a relatively insular community after the Neolithic period.

But while most resettlements across Europe were typically led by men as livestock farming expanded, the opposite was the case in Orkney.

An international team led by researchers at the University of Huddersfield has used ancient DNA to rewrite the history of the Orkney islands. Picture: Graeme Wilson/SWNS

Bronze Age newcomers were mainly women, with survival in Orkney of male lineages from the original Neolithic population for at least another thousand years – a unique phenomenon that scientists have not seen anywhere else.