The old DNA From a man buried in a monumental tomb of the Stone Age in Ireland revealed that he was born from incest 5,000 years ago. But this fact does not mean that he was a “king of God” as previously claimed, according to a new study.
“Nothing in the archaeological file of Neolithic Ireland indicates that the” kings ” – or all kinds of royal hierarchy – existed at the time”, principal author of the study Jessica SmythAssociate professor of archeology at the University College Dublin, told Live Science in an email. “It is a social category of a much later period that was applied inappropriately.”
In a study published Tuesday, June 24 in the journal AntiquitySmyth and his colleagues presented a new interpretation of the fragmentary skeleton of a man buried in Newgrange, questioning the hypothesis that his consanguineous parentage meant that he was part of an elite dynasty.
Built around 3100 BC in Northeast Ireland and rediscovered in 1699, Newgrange is a large tomb with an interior passage which leads to a funeral chamber. The skeletons discovered in the Newgrange mound have been dislocated, which means that there have been no undisturbed burial graves of whole individuals, but rather fragments of people whose remains were probably transferred to the mound some time after death.
An analysis of the old NEWGRANGE Skeletons DNA was done in 2020, and the researchers were surprised to find the bone of the skull of an adult man (NG10) whose parents were parents in the first degree – a brother and a sister probably. Because this type of incest is almost a universal human taboo, that the research team sought through cultures an explanation through cultures, contenting itself with the idea that the Brother-Sister marriage was sometimes considered acceptable among the royal families led by “God-king“” As in ancient Egypt And The Inca in meso-American.
But calling NG10 a “god-king” because of his parentage and his placement in the Newfrange tomb is problematic, wrote Smyth and his colleagues in the new study.
In relation: The first Celtic elites inherited power through maternal lines, reveals ancient DNA
“To which we draw attention is the fact that incest is – so far – a unique event in Neolithic Ireland and Great Britain,” said Smyth, “and that the pretender that he represents a dynastic elite is an excessive exterior.” In fact, there is very little evidence of social inequality in Neolithic Ireland (4000 to 2500 BC), according to the study.
The bones of NG10 were found in a small recreation in the funeral chamber, but, Smyth and his colleagues support, this does not necessarily mean that he was buried there or that it was a special location in the grave.
“Given the disturbance inside Newgrange in the past 300 years, we have no real way to know where this skull fragment came from and if NG10’s parentage was known to others or remained hidden,” said Smyth.
In a previous study Published in April, the same research team on the new newspaper argued that Newgrange and other megalithic monuments like this – although certainly impressive – were more likely to have been the place of rest for an entire community rather than a simple local dynasty.
The criteria for selecting the burial in Newgrange are not clear, said Smyth, as newborns and the elderly, men and women, and people with disabilities are among those buried in the mound.
“It is prudent to say that the final place of rest of most people in the Neolithic was not in a megalithic monument,” said Smyth, “but we are still determining why.”
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