Women in the Bronze Age travelled while men stayed home to watch the kids

Forget everything you’ve been told about cultural stereotypes; women haven’t, in fact, spent centuries staying at home to bring up the children while their partners were making new discoveries.

That’s right; we’ve always been the independent women Beyonce sang about in 2001.

In fact, researchers in Munich have found that women in the Bronze Age, from 2500 and 1650 BC, travelled hundreds of miles to start new families and spread ideas, leaving the men at home. 

Scientists made the discovery after examining the remains of 84 people buried during that time period.

The findings showed that European men tended to remain in their birthplace, while women would travel 300km to 500km away from home.

Research leader, Philipp Stockhammer of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich said: "We all know these stories about warrior men out fighting and bringing home food while the women and children stayed at home but it appears things were quite different.

“Our study suggests that almost none of the men had travelled, while two thirds of the women had.”