An international study published in PNAS Nexus delivers a striking conclusion: European men have been consuming more animal protein than women for at least 10,000 years. Far from a mere biological fact, this alimentary dimorphism is rooted in deeply entrenched social inequalities.

Damaged Neolithic grave, Czechoslovakia
A NeolithicNeolithicThe "New Stone Age": a period marked by farming, herding, settlement and pottery, from around 10,000 BC.→ burialBurialThe intentional deposition of a body, sometimes with offerings; a marker of symbolic behaviour.→ uncovered in Central Europe. Isotopic analyses of bones allow researchers to reconstruct the dietary habits of buried individuals.

The research team -- led by Inrap, CNRS, and Simon Fraser University -- analyzed bone collagen from 12,281 adults across 40 European countries. Using stable nitrogen isotopes (a marker of animal protein) and carbon isotopes (a marker of plant consumption), they traced dietary habits across ten millennia with remarkable precision.[1]

The Neolithic: The Most Egalitarian Era

Surprisingly, the Neolithic period (-10,000 to -3,000 years) shows the smallest dietary gaps between men and women. The earliest sedentary communities in Europe, still close to hunter-gatherer subsistence modes, shared access to meat and dairy products relatively equally.

Neolithic skeleton in archaeological museum
A Neolithic skeleton preserved at the Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum of Lodz (Poland). Nitrogen isotope analysis on these bone remains helps estimate the proportion of animal protein in the diet.

The Bronze AgeBronze AgeA protohistoric period following the Neolithic, defined by bronze metallurgy (a copper-tin alloy) and the rise of the first cities and states; in Egypt it corresponds to the age of the first pyramids.→: A Decisive Turning Point

The major rupture occurs during the Bronze Age (-3,000 to -1,000 years), with the introduction of millet into Europe. This cereal transformed socio-economic organization: social hierarchies grew more complex, inequalities deepened. The bones reveal a growing divergence -- men gaining preferential access to meat, game, and animal products, while women were increasingly relegated to plant-based foods.

Aurochs, wild ancestor of domestic cattle
The aurochs (Bos primigenius), wild ancestor of domestic cattle, was a major prey for prehistoric hunters. Unequal access to this type of animal resource between men and women is revealed through isotopic analyses.

Inequalities Written in the Bones

What the study reveals goes beyond mere description: the dietary disparities detected cannot be explained by different biological needs, but rather by social and cultural norms. Meat, a symbolically charged resource in many societies, was preferentially allocated to men -- whether in feasts, funerary rites, or everyday life.

This pattern, observed across ten millennia and dozens of different societies, illustrates how gender inequalities can become literally fossilized in bodies. For Inrap researchers, this work opens new perspectives on understanding gender relations in prehistoric and protohistoric societies.

Linear Band Pottery culture ceramics
Vessels from the Linear Pottery culture (Linearbandkeramik), the first agricultural culture of Central Europe (~5,500 BC). Analysis of organic residues in these containers helps identify foods prepared and consumed by the earliest sedentary communities.

The alimentary distinction between genders thus constitutes one of the oldest inequalities documented by European archaeology -- predating by several millennia the political and economic hierarchies we typically associate with historical societies.