Ireland鈥檚 megalithic tombs might not have been burial grounds for elite dynasties, as some thought, but rather places of community bonding.
In 2020, researchers found and evidence of incest in a man buried in an elaborate sepulchre, leading them to conclude that the tombs held members of a hereditary ruling class, somewhat akin to Egyptian pharaohs.
Like many archaeologists, at University College Dublin, Ireland, and her colleagues were sceptical. Previous excavations had shown that people鈥檚 remains in such tombs were deposited across centuries and were often moved and combined with parts from other individuals, which suggests that their burials were complex and possibly symbolic, rather than being based on strict lineages.
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鈥淭he deep past is fragmentary, so you have to be really careful how you piece that together,鈥� says Smyth. 鈥淲e knew the picture was much more nuanced and that there was a richer story to tell.鈥�
While the DNA work in the 2020 study was 鈥渨orld class鈥�, it didn鈥檛 give a full picture, says Neil Carlin, also at University College Dublin, who worked on the new analysis. When Carlin, Smyth and their colleagues re-examined the data, they found that the original researchers had sequenced the genomes of four people at most, usually only one or two, from individual tombs that held around 100 people.
Many of the bones simply weren鈥檛 available because they hadn鈥檛 been excavated, had been moved or were in labs for other research projects. A significant number had also been cremated, making them 鈥済enetically invisible鈥�, says Carlin.
The data re-examination reveals that close biological relationships 鈥� like those between parents and children or between siblings 鈥� were surprisingly rare, especially after 3600 BC, says Smyth. Instead, most of the connections were distant, like second or third cousins. Plus, these deaths were often spaced several hundred years apart and about a third of the people weren鈥檛 related at all.
The team argues that the findings don鈥檛 align with dynasty-like ancestral burial practices, , Sweden, where dozens of individuals from the same extended family were buried together over centuries. Instead, the tombs paint a portrait of community unity.
鈥淲hat we saw wasn鈥檛 dynasties, but this blend of different people, sometimes related, sometimes not,鈥� says Carlin. 鈥淎nd they鈥檙e coming together. They鈥檙e burying their dead. They鈥檙e remembering their ancestors. They鈥檙e building these monuments. And they鈥檙e probably having feasts as part of all that.鈥�
The sheer effort alone to construct these massive monuments 鈥� built from materials sourced from afar and aligned with astronomical events like the winter solstice 鈥� suggests that they were group social projects, according to the team. Rather than Neolithic Irish equivalents of Egyptian pyramids, these monumental tombs were probably part of a wider megalithic tradition used to build and maintain social ties across communities.
鈥淚t may have been a time when there were marriages; it may well have been a time for laying other people to rest,鈥� says at Cardiff University, UK. 鈥淭here would almost certainly be feasting and partying. The glue that holds all of that together is monument construction.鈥�
Carlin says that the genetic similarities among the dead may reflect broader-scale ancestry, shaped by alliances and rituals, rather than immediate family lines.
鈥淭his paper is really important because it creates a more holistic understanding,鈥� says Cummings. 鈥淭he original interpretations did cause quite a stir, and I think they were very interesting. But you can鈥檛 not include the archaeological evidence as part of that narrative. The challenge we had as archaeologists was, it didn鈥檛 quite fit with our vision of what Neolithic Ireland was like.鈥�
Cambridge Archaeological Journal
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