Doubts cast over suggestions incestuous ‘god-kings’ ruled during Neolithic Ireland

(Press-News.org) New research cast doubts over suggestions an incestuous social elite ruled over the ancient people of Ireland, 5500 years ago.

A paper led by researchers from University College Dublin, in collaboration with University of Bergen, Australian National University, University of York, University of Exeter, University of Liverpool, and Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit (a commercial archaeological company), has questioned the belief that burial within the ‘mega’ passage tomb of Newgrange was the preserve of kings and other dignitaries, who represented a dynasty that practised incest.

Such claims were widely reported in the media following the discovery that a skull fragment found inside the tomb chamber of this Stone Age monument came from a man who was the product of either a brother-sister or parent-child pairing.

This finding, together with the identification of distant relatives from other passage tombs across the island, led to the suggestion of incestuous elites ruling in Neolithic Ireland.

This was based on comparison with royal dynasties or "god-kings" that practised incest, such as the pharaohs of ancient Egypt and leaders of the Inca Empire.

However, publishing their findings in Antiquity, Associate Professor Jessica Smyth and Associate Professor Neil Carlin, UCD School of Archaeology, point out that no other incestuous unions have been identified in Neolithic Ireland and Britain, and that there is a lack of evidence for inbreeding across prehistoric Europe. 

They also say the evidence found at the site does not support the existence of a ‘king’ of Newgrange or any hereditary power or dynasty with a shared ancestry.

“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 Professor Smyth. 

“Unlike today, bodies don’t tend to be buried ‘whole’ or ‘intact’ in this time period. Before they end up in megalithic monuments, bodies are broken down, sometimes cremated and even circulated around their communities”.

“For these reasons, the media claims that there was an incestuous ruling elite in Stone Age Ireland did not match our understanding of society at this time, it did not fit the evidence very well,” added Professor Carlin.

Older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Giza, Newgrange is believed to have been built by a farming community that prospered in the Boyne Valley, County Meath, some 5,000 years ago.  

Dated to 3340 - 3020 BC, the skull fragment, referred to as NG10, revealed the rare case of incest, which led to claims in 2020 that the individual was a high-status ruler, with press coverage dubbing them a “god-king.”

However, Professors Smyth and Carlin argue that these conclusions relied heavily on unsuitable comparisons with hierarchical societies where incest was limited to ruling families, such as in ancient Egypt,  while ignoring examples of incest in non-elite or egalitarian communities.

“A one-off example of incest is a shaky foundation on which to reconstruct an elite, let alone a specific social [hierarchy],” said the authors.

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, they argue, suggests burial practices were not strictly determined by lineage. Rather than these being the burials of elite rulers or a ruling dynasty, tombs were places where people made their kin through a range of practices, including living, working and burying their dead together.

“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 aDNA evidence is much closer to the idea of a lineage or dynasty. We do not see this evidence in Irish passage tombs,” said Professor Smyth.

Given the renown of Newgrange, the authors said there had been surprisingly little focus on the people or the traces they left inside the passage tomb. Newgrange was rediscovered in AD 1699 and its interior had been heavily disturbed prior to its modern excavation in the 1960s. 

“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,” said Professor Carlin.

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.

This has hindered the ability to identify who, if anyone, was preferentially chosen for deposition within.

“[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,” said the authors.

“Doing so perpetuates the myth that only important individual males were socially active, and downplays the contribution made by collective action in the prehistoric past.”

END