Family-based community organization in Neolithic Northern China from 8, 800 to 7, 500 years ago

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Recent palaeogenomic studies have significantly advanced our understanding of early human social structure and burial practices. Ancient DNA analyses have identified several matrilineal agricultural communities including the Çatalhöyük site from Neolithic Anatolia1 dated to ∼9,000–7,900 calibrated years before present (BP) and the Fujia site from East Asia (∼4,700–4,450 BP),2 as well as patrilineal communities in Neolithic China (Baligang, ∼5,100–4,900 BP)3 and in Late Neolithic to Bronze Age Europe. However, whether early human societies followed a consistent trajectory from matrilineal to patrilineal systems remains unclear. Some anthropological research has proposed the prevalence of bilineal or bilateral kinship practices among both prehistoric and present-day hunter-gatherers,4 although direct ancient DNA evidence has been lacking. Recent palaeogenomic work on Bronze Age populations in Yunnan (∼2,000 BP) revealed an absence of clear matrilineal or patrilineal patterns, instead emphasizing the role of multigenerational families at sites such as Jinlianshan and Gaozhai.5 Burial and marriage practices in prehistory were similarly diverse and complex. For instance, a 6,200-year-old mass burial of mostly unrelated individuals was interpreted as evidence of large-scale indiscriminate killing,6 while a ∼5,000-year-old co-burial reflected a crisis that affected family members, whose remains were arranged according to kinship ties.7 In addition, ancient genomic data have uncovered a range of mating strategies, including endogamy in East Asia,2 as well as exogamy in Neolithic Scandinavia.

These findings emphasize the complexity of prehistoric social organization, burial customs, and reproductive behaviors. However, the earliest phases of these developments in East Asia, especially before 5,000 BP, are still not well understood. To address this gap, we reconstructed family pedigrees from two Neolithic sites in China, Sitai and Xinglong (Figures 1A and 1B), whose populations carried genetic ancestry associated with present-day East Asians and distinct from contemporaneous groups from coastal China, the Amur River region, and central and western Eurasia.8 The Sitai site, located in the arid steppe of Northern China, represents the Neolithic Sitai culture and offers valuable insights into early social organization in East Asia. Excavations from the ∼7,600-year-old layer uncovered 21 houses with farming tools, ceramics, and domesticated millets, reflecting a foraging-based subsistence with some reliance on millet cultivation. A joint burial containing more than 10 individuals (2020F2), including 13 identifiable skulls, was also unearthed at this site (Figure 1C). The individuals at this joint burial were interred within the dwelling itself.