Apart from their household chores, Neolithic women would have dedicated several hours a day to gathering fodder, tilling the soil and harvesting crops AlamyThe women who powered Cambridge to a record time of 18 minutes and 33 seconds in this year’s Boat Race were no weaklings. They had trained for up to three hours a day, rowing as far as 120 miles a week. Some had represented their home nations at the sport’s world championships. If they had to arm-wrestle one of their female Neolithic ancestors, though, they would probably lose. Life in the first millennia of agriculture was quite literally a daily grind.

Source: The Times November 30, 2017 00:00 UTC