Newgrange, County Meath

This afternoon.

Via Mail Online:

Little had been known, however, about the prehistoric society that assembled this monument and other — prompting archaeologists and geneticists to analyse the genomes of 44 neolithic individuals from sites across Ireland.

Among these was the inbred individual that had been found buried in the most ornate recess of the Newgrange tomb — and likely belonged to a dynastic elite.

‘I’d never seen anything like it. We all inherit two copies of the genome, one from our mother and one from our father,’ said paper author and geneticist Lara Cassidy of Trinity College Dublin.

‘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.’

Ah here.

Ireland’s ancient kings married their sisters and fathered inbred children to maintain dynastic bloodlines, analysis of 5,000-year-old genomes found in Newgrange passage tomb reveals (MailOnline)

Genetics study shines light on early periods of Ireland’s human history (RTÉ)

Pic: Getty

Thanks Charger Salmon