Discovery in UNESCO passage tomb points to Neolithic Irish dynasty

Evidence of an elite adult male conceived through a socially sanctioned incestuous relationship during the Neolithic period has been discovered in Ireland's largest passage tomb, finds a new study involving UCL and Trinity College Dublin. The remains were identified in New Grange, a 5,000 year-old passage tomb that sits within the UNESCO monumental site of Brú na Bóinne. Co-author on the study, Dr Thomas Kador (UCL Arts & Sciences), said: "Across the archaeological, historical and ethnographic spectrum incestuous unions tend to be shunned as a social taboo with the exception of a relatively small number of cases that we know about, such as the Inca Empire and Ancient Egypt. We know that where they are the prerogative of the royal elite, they are primarily concerned with concentrating power within one family/kin group." "We believe this implies a level of social organisation and hierarchy that may have emerged against a backdrop of rapid maritime colonisation, and which may also explain the large scale and sophisticated monuments that were constructed during the Neolithic period."  Genetic sequencing revealed that the individual's relatives were buried in other Irish passage tombs over 100 km away. This points to a powerful social elite at the top of Irish Neolithic society; which archaeologists believe is associated with the construction of large scale prehistoric monuments. Dr Lara Cassidy (Trinity College Dublin), first author on the study, said: "It seems what we have here is a powerful extended kin-group, who had access to elite burial sites in many regions of the island for at least half a millennium." The researchers sequenced 44 whole genomes from Irish Neolithic people, alongside relevant ancient genomes.