One Step Further: Reflections on Gendered Mobility Studies Through an Examination of Recent Data from European Prehistory

Past gendered mobility studies represent a developing field which is currently expanding in terms of the application of new methodologies and emerging theories. In focusing on the recent data resulting from this expansion from research on later European prehistory, this chapter addresses some of the major research stereotypes and approaches to gendered mobility in relation to individuals in the ancient past and provides potential new unacknowledged cultural perspectives. It critically assesses the particular contributions of osteometric analyses, aDNA and isotopic studies to assessments of past configuration(s) of sex, gender and mobility. Finally, it seeks to expand thinking about gender and mobility by presenting some hitherto underemphasized alternative reasons for which different genders may have engaged in particular mobility patterns in the past.