by Philipp Stockhammer
In my paper, I will re-evaluate the evidence for non-local women from afar identified via bioarchaeological studies in the Bell Beaker and Early Bronze Age farmsteads in the Lech valley in Southern Germany. So far, it is clear that the distance of the origin of the non-local women determined their role within the farmstead and only women from surrounding Southern Bavaria had the chance to become biological mothers. However, women from afar (400-600km distance) seem to have been excluded from reproduction over the course of 700 years, although they constitute up to one third of all adult women buried in the Lech valley. We have already argued that these women had an important role as mediators of knowledge. Additionally, I will propose the idea that these women also might have acted as wet nurses in the valley's farmsteads.