Ancient Mystery: Teenage Hunter’s Unexpected Role in Big Game Pursuits 9,000 Years Ago Revealed
So here’s a thought that might scramble your brain a bit: what if the 9,000-year-old teenage hunter chick found in Peru wasn’t just some rare exception but actually part of a whole tribe of female big game hunters? Yeah, that’s right — archaeologists digging around the Wilamaya Patjxa site bumped into a burial that rewrites everything we thought we knew about ancient gender roles. Turns out, those old-school hunter-gatherer stereotypes—where dudes grab the spears and ladies babysit—might be about as accurate as a weather forecast in the middle of a hurricane. With her arsenal of hunting tools buried alongside her, this teen’s story flips the script and asks us: were men really the sole hunters, or were women quietly out there chasing down taruca and vicuñas too? Honestly, it makes you wonder if the ancient world was way more progressive than the one we brag about today. Buckle up, because what you’re about to read might just make you rethink every caveman cartoon you’ve ever laughed at.
The study suggests that gender roles in ancient cultures were much more fluid than previously thought.
Matthew Verdolivo/UC Davis IET Academic Technology ServicesExcavations of a burial site in Peru found the 9,000-year-old bones of a teenage hunter.
The newly unearthed remains of a teenage girl who hunted big game 9,000 years ago have scientists questioning their assumptions about gender roles in ancient hunter-gatherer societies.
According to Popular Science, excavations at the Wilamaya Patjxa site in the Peruvian Andes uncovered a batch of six skeletons, two of which were buried with hunting tools. A study of the two remains suggests that one of them was a teenage girl, leading scientists to believe that women contributed as big game hunters in this ancient society.
