A new study led by researchers from University College Dublin challenges previous claims that an incestuous social elite ruled over ancient Ireland 5,500 years ago.
The researchers question the belief that burial within the "mega" passage tomb of Newgrange was reserved for kings and other dignitaries. Claims of an incestuous elite were widely reported following the discovery that a skull fragment found inside the tomb came from a man who was the product of either a brother-sister or parent-child pairing.
However, Associate Professors Jessica Smyth and Neil Carlin from University College Dublin point out that no other incestuous unions have been identified in Neolithic Ireland and Britain. "People were definitely being selected for burial in passage tombs—the whole community does not end up in these monuments. However, we don't know the reasons behind this selection, and why they were thought to be special," said Associate Professor Smyth.
The researchers note that there is no corroborating evidence in nearby settlements, dietary practices, or trade that an elite existed economically or socially in ancient Ireland. They argue that previous conclusions relied heavily on unsuitable comparisons with hierarchical societies where incest was limited to ruling families, such as in ancient Egypt. "There are no large settlement systems or trade mechanisms, and we also don't see production of craft on the scale that we see in other ancient societies such as in ancient Egypt, where incest was thought to be practiced by the ruling elite," said Professor Penny Bickle from the University of York's Department of Archaeology.
"We can only begin to understand these monuments and tombs if we examine the social lives or the communities that built and used them, and when we start to do this, this idea of a 'social elite' or a form of royalty starts to appear less likely," Professor Bickle explained. Researchers now believe that society at the time was more equal, as they appeared to share and exchange resources and lived in similar dwellings. "The evidence all points to a much more collective ethos. There are not wide disparities in diet, houses are relatively flimsy, and all similar to each other," said Professor Bickle.
Associate Professors Smyth and Carlin state that there is a lack of evidence for inbreeding across prehistoric Europe. "It doesn't make sense to continue to focus so exclusively on forms of stable, individual rule in Neolithic Ireland and elsewhere, when the evidence is insufficient to support such claims," they stated. They argue that focusing on individual rulers "perpetuates the myth that only important individual males were socially active, and downplays the contribution made by collective action in the prehistoric past."
Professor Carlin said: "Burnt and unburnt fragments from just five people were recovered from the 1960s excavations of the tomb. Due to the high levels of disturbance in the centuries before that, we don't know if this number was originally much higher." Given the high levels of disturbance prior to its modern excavation in the 1960s, the interior of Newgrange had been heavily disturbed.
"As many of the dead found in these passage tombs were broken down and mixed with cremated remains, and possibly moved around to different places in the landscape, it is not clear if the people who placed the NG10 fragment in Newgrange knew who they were in life or who the parents of this individual were," Associate Professor Smyth noted. This casts further doubt on how "special" the individual might have been.
The genetic clustering in passage tombs, such as at Newgrange, typically reflects very distant biological relationships—like second cousins or great-great-great-grandparents—rather than close familial ties. This suggests that the Newgrange tombs were places that reflect family, work, and other social relationships, rather than the mark of an elite family group.
Professor Smyth added: "We now have some really great examples of monuments elsewhere in Europe that contain people with very close biological ties—parents, children, grandparents, etc. This sort of ancient DNA evidence is much closer to the idea of a lineage or dynasty. We do not see this evidence in Irish passage tombs."
Researchers examined the evidence from burials of individuals at the Newgrange prehistoric monument in Ireland. Newgrange is a large circular mound containing a chamber where cremated and unburnt human remains were placed. It is believed to have been built by a farming community that prospered in the Boyne Valley, County Meath, about 5,000 years ago. Newgrange is older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Giza.
Given the renown of Newgrange, Professors Smyth and Carlin said there had been surprisingly little focus on the people or the traces they left inside the passage tomb. They emphasize that understanding these monuments requires examining the societies that built and used them. "There are still many questions to solve here, but building this picture means looking at the monument together with the society that was built up around it," stated Professor Bickle.
Researchers question whether the Newgrange chamber was even the original burial place of the skull fragment referred to as NG10, dated to 3340–3020 BCE. "As it stands, the incestuous origins of NG10 is a one-off compared to all of the DNA data we have for Neolithic Ireland," said Professor Bickle. This finding, along with the identification of distant relatives from other passage tombs across Ireland, led to the suggestion of incestuous elites ruling in Neolithic Ireland, but the new research challenges this notion.
They also argue that previous conclusions ignored examples of incest in non-elite or egalitarian communities. Professors Smyth and Carlin stated: "It doesn't make sense to continue to focus so exclusively on forms of stable, individual rule in Neolithic Ireland and elsewhere, when the evidence is insufficient to support such claims."
The study suggests that burial practices were not strictly determined by lineage. This has hindered the ability to identify who, if anyone, was preferentially chosen for deposition within the tombs. Historically, Irish megalithic monuments, and passage tombs in particular, have been examined in isolation from the other structures and social activities of the communities that built and used them.
By reevaluating the evidence and considering the wider social context, the researchers propose that ancient Irish society was more egalitarian than previously thought. "There are not wide disparities in diet, houses are relatively flimsy, and all similar to each other," noted Professor Bickle. This collective ethos suggests that the idea of a ruling elite may not accurately reflect the social dynamics of Neolithic Ireland.
Assisted by a news-analysis system.