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A recently published study has shed new light on the ways in which kinship was tied to monuments from Ireland in the Neolithic period, suggesting that biological relationships and social status were not strong factors in deciding who was buried in passage tombs.
Large burial complexes, like the passage tomb at Newgrange, have long been associated with the final resting places of elite individuals. This was supported by recent aDNA results, which suggested that such tombs were reserved for use by wealthy or otherwise powerful dynasties (see CA 366). However, the latest research carried out by a team from University College Dublin (UCD), the University of York, and international experts has revealed that may not be the case.
Combining genetic and archaeological evidence, the study looked at the construction of the monuments themselves, as well as the remains of those buried within. When analysing the assemblages of bones from such sites – such as the Poulnabrone portal tomb (CA 298) or the court tomb at Parknabinnia – the team discovered that most individuals buried together were not in fact biologically related, suggesting a more equal and mobile society than previously thought.
‘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,’ Dr Neil Carlin (UCD), lead author of the study, and co-author Professor Penny Bickle (University of York) explained, suggesting that Neolithic communities were meeting and exchanging across Ireland based on shared cosmological beliefs and practices rather than creating family-based hierarchies.
When considering the scale of megalithic complexes such as that at Brú na Bóinne – comprising an impressive 40 monuments, including those of Newgrange and Knowth – the study suggests that these kinships would have been reinforced by the shared communal labour of their construction.
This work has opened up potential research to develop a fuller understanding of social changes occurring in Neolithic Ireland, which have thus far been poorly understood – an exciting prospect for the team: ‘By interrogating the archaeological evidence in light of genetic findings, we are getting ever closer to understanding how people’s relationships changed through time,’ they commented.
The full findings can be found in Cambridge Archaeological Journal at https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774325000058 (open access).
Text: Rebecca Preedy
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