Scientists analyzing 2,000-year-old DNA have revealed that a Celtic society in the southern U.K. during the Iron Age was centered around women, a study said.

Around 2,000 years ago, before the Roman Empire conquered Great Britain, women were at the very front and center of Iron Age society. Researchers have sequenced the genomes of around 50 Celtic Britons buried together in southern England and uncovered strong evidence of female-line descent.

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,