While many assume that early human societies had a stark division of labor — men were hunters, women were gatherers — new findings contradict this hypothesis. Researchers identified a 9,000-year-old burial site in the Andean highlands containing many tools that would have been used to hunt big game, likely Andean deer and vicuña (an animal similar to an alpaca). By analyzing peptides in the individual’s tooth enamel, researchers determined that the remains belonged to a young woman.

But was this female hunter an anomaly or was she one of many? Researchers turned to previously published studies to look for clues. They found 27 cases during a similar time period in the Americas in which individuals whose sex had been reliably determined were buried with hunting tools. Of these 27 hunters, 11 were female. Based on this, researchers estimated that women made up between 30 and 50 percent of the hunters during this time.