First-degree incest: ancient genomes uncover Irish passage tomb dynastic
elite

Date:
June 17, 2020
Source:
Trinity College Dublin
Summary:
Archaeologists and geneticists have shed new light on the earliest
periods of Ireland's human history. Among their incredible findings
is the discovery that the genome of an adult male buried in the
heart of the Newgrange passage tomb points to first-degree incest,
implying he was among a ruling social elite akin to the similarly
inbred Inca god-kings and Egyptian pharaohs.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Archaeologists and geneticists, led by those from Trinity College Dublin,
have shed new light on the earliest periods of Ireland's human history.


========================================================================== Among their incredible findings is the discovery that the genome of an
adult male buried in the heart of the Newgrange passage tomb points to first-degree incest, implying he was among a ruling social elite akin
to the similarly inbred Inca god-kings and Egyptian pharaohs.

Older than the pyramids, Newgrange passage tomb in Ireland is world
famous for its annual solar alignment where the winter solstice sunrise illuminates its sacred inner chamber in a golden blast of light. However, little is known about who was interred in the heart of this imposing
200,000 tonne monument or of the Neolithic society which built it over
5,000 years ago.

The survey of ancient Irish genomes, published today in leading
international journal, Nature, suggests a man who had been buried in this chamber belonged to a dynastic elite. The research, led by the research
team from Trinity, was carried out in collaboration with colleagues
from University College London, National University of Ireland Galway, University College Cork, University of Cambridge, Queen's University
Belfast, and Institute of Technology Sligo.

"I'd never seen anything like it," said Dr Lara Cassidy, Trinity,
first author of the paper. "We all inherit two copies of the genome, one
from our mother and one from our father; well, this individual's copies
were extremely similar, a tell-tale sign of close inbreeding. In fact,
our analyses allowed us to confirm that his parents were first-degree relatives." Matings of this type (e.g. brother-sister unions) are a near universal taboo for entwined cultural and biological reasons. The only confirmed social acceptances of first-degree incest are found among
the elites -- typically within a deified royal family. By breaking
the rules, the elite separates itself from the general population,
intensifying hierarchy and legitimizing power. Public ritual and
extravagant monumental architecture often co-occur with dynastic incest,
to achieve the same ends.



========================================================================== "Here the auspicious location of the male skeletal remains is matched
by the unprecedented nature of his ancient genome," said Professor
of Population Genetics at Trinity, Dan Bradley. "The prestige of the
burial makes this very likely a socially sanctioned union and speaks of
a hierarchy so extreme that the only partners worthy of the elite were
family members." The team also unearthed a web of distant familial
relations between this man and other individuals from sites of the
passage tomb tradition across the country, including the mega-cemeteries
of Carrowmore and Carrowkeel in Co.

Sligo.

"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," added Dr Cassidy.

Remarkably, a local myth resonates with these results and the Newgrange
solar phenomenon. First recorded in the 11th century AD, four millennia
after construction, the story tells of a builder-king who restarted the
daily solar cycle by sleeping with his sister. The Middle Irish place
name for the neighbouring Dowth passage tomb, Fertae Chuile, is based
on this lore and can be translated as 'Hill of Sin'.

"Given the world-famous solstice alignments of Bru' na Bo'inne,
the magical solar manipulations in this myth already had scholars
questioning how long an oral tradition could survive," said Dr Ros O' Maoldu'in, an archaeologist on the study. "To now discover a potential prehistoric precedent for the incestuous aspect is extraordinary."
The genome survey stretched over two millennia and unearthed other
unexpected results. Within the oldest known burial structure on the
island, Poulnabrone portal tomb, the earliest yet diagnosed case of
Down Syndrome was discovered in a male infant who was buried there five
and a half thousand years ago. Isotope analyses of this infant showed
a dietary signature of breastfeeding. In combination, this provides an indication that visible difference was not a barrier to prestige burial
in the deep past.

Additionally, the analyses showed that the monument builders were early
farmers who migrated to Ireland and replaced the hunter-gatherers who
preceded them.

However, this replacement was not absolute; a single western Irish
individual was found to have an Irish hunter-gatherer in his recent family tree, pointing toward a swamping of the earlier population rather than
an extermination.

Genomes from the rare remains of Irish hunter-gatherers themselves showed
they were most closely related to the hunter-gatherer populations from
Britain (e.g.

Cheddar Man) and mainland Europe. However, unlike British samples,
these earliest Irelanders had the genetic imprint of a prolonged island isolation.

This fits with what we know about prehistoric sea levels after the Ice
Age: Britain maintained a land bridge to the continent long after the
retreat of the glaciers, while Ireland was separated by sea and its
small early populations must have arrived in primitive boats.

This work was funded by a Science Foundation Ireland/Health Research
Board/ Wellcome Trust Biomedical Research Partnership Investigator
Award to Dan Bradley and an earlier Irish Research Council Government
of Ireland Scholarship to Lara Cassidy.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Trinity_College_Dublin. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Lara M. Cassidy, Ros O' Maoldu'in, Thomas Kador, Ann Lynch, Carleton
Jones, Peter C. Woodman, Eileen Murphy, Greer Ramsey, Marion Dowd,
Alice Noonan, Ciara'n Campbell, Eppie R. Jones, Valeria Mattiangeli,
Daniel G.

Bradley. A dynastic elite in monumental Neolithic society. Nature,
2020; 582 (7812): 384 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2378-6 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200617121507.htm

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