Neolithic Ireland Was Likely Not Ruled by Incestuous God-Kings
Incestuous “gifts” may not governed Neolithic Ireland after all. A previous study suggested that NewgrangeA Neolithic monument and a tomb of passage, may have been a place of burial for the kings of God and other dignitaries of a society which practiced incest. However, a new study, published in Antiquity,, Throws up this assertion.
An international research team from the University College Dublin (UCD), the University of Bergen, the Australian National University, the University of York, the University of Exeter, the University of Liverpool, and the Unit of Archaeological Council services reanalyzed the remains and noted very little inccidental.
“People were definitely selected for the burial in the graves – the whole community is not found in these monuments. However, we do not know the reasons for this selection, and why they were considered special,” said Associate Professor Jessica Smyth in the press release.
Family fragmented in the Neolithic Ireland
A 2020 Nature The study identified the skull fragments of a person who was probably the child of incest. Since the remains were discovered inside the room of the tomb of Newgrange, it was thought that this person could have been royal. Other remains of distant parents have been found in other tombs across Ireland, which led to the belief that the elites of the time practiced incest.
The term “god-king” was attributed to this situation, because it seemed similar to that of the ancient pharaohs in Egypt and superiors in the Inca Empire, according to a press release.
However, the main authors of Antiquity The study, Smyth and associate professor Neil Carlin, of the School of Archeology of the UCD, found no other proof of incest through Paleolithic Ireland or Great Britain and a sparse proof of incest through prehistoric Europe.
Learn more:: The former burning place of flagstones may have inspired Stonehenge
Incest in the royal family
Newgrange is older than the pyramids of Giza and Stonehenge, and was allegedly built by an agricultural community in the county of Meath about 5,000 years ago. The fragments of the skull of Nature The study was dated between 3340 BCE and 3020 BCE, and according to the press release, can be from a rare case of incest and not from an incestuous elite.
However, Smyth and Carlin support this idea that Newgrange’s individual was an elite comes from other ancient cultures where incest was isolated from the royal family – as in ancient Egypt – but looks at incest that occurred in non -elite or egalitarian communities.
“A unique example of incest is a trembling base on which rebuilding an elite, not to mention a specific social [hierarchy]”Said the authors in the press release.
Minimum DNA proof
According to the Antiquity The study, the genetic grouping in the graves of passage generally implies remote relationships, such as secondary cousins or great-great-great-grandparents. For this reason, according to the authors of the study, the evidence suggests that burial practices were not always determined by the family line.
“We now have very large examples of monuments elsewhere in Europe which contain people with very narrow biological links – parents, children, grandparents, etc. This type of Adna proof is much closer to the idea of a line or a dynasty. We do not see this proof in the Irish graves of passage,” said SMHY in the press release.
However, a large part of what was once locked in Newgrange was disrupted or destroyed. Before his excavations in 1960, other people since 1699 had entered the grave.
“Burned and not burned fragments of only five people were recovered in the excavations of the 1960s from the tomb. Due to the high levels of disturbance in previous centuries, we do not know if this number was originally much higher,” Carlin said in the press release.
Find out more: Bronze Age bones indicate a violent death and possible cannibalism
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com Use studies evaluated by high quality peers and sources for our articles, and our publishers examine scientific precision and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
A graduate of Uw-Whitewater, Monica Cull wrote for several organizations, including a focus on bees and the natural world, before coming to Discover Magazine. His current work also appears on his travel blog and his Common State magazine. His love of science came to watch PBS shows like a child with his mother and spend too much time at Binging Doctor who.
