A frightening case of intimate sexual intercourse among members of the ruling clan was discovered by researchers when they analyzed the remains from ancient Irish burials
In the tomb Newgrange, whose age is estimated at 5 thousand years and in which the rulers were buried, the remains of a person were found whose parents were either siblings, or parent and child.
Even in those ancient times in human settlements there was already a widespread taboo on intimate sexual intercourse, but the experts from Trinity College who conducted this study believe that the Irish rulers had their own views on this.
Most likely they gave birth to children from sisters or their own children because they wanted to keep their "godlike" clan "pure" or to prevent the influence of "foreign" blood in the ranks of the elite class.
Experts call the remains found in Newgray "a product of first degree incest," that is, the parents of this man were the closest relatives to each other.
Newgrange is considered to be older than the Egyptian pyramids - it is an impressive Neolithic building, with a total weight of about 200 thousand tons. Its dating of 5 thousand years is only approximate and sometimes it is indicated that most likely Newgrange is even older.
It looks like a round embankment, inside of which there is a passage lined with stones and holes oriented towards the days of the solar equinox. For example, during the winter equinox, the entire inner chamber is filled with sunlight.
Historians and archaeologists know little about what the society of the people who built Newgrange was like, but it was here that the remains of a person born of incest were found. In total, researchers studied the remains of 44 people of the Neolithic era from various ancient burials in Ireland, and nothing like this was found in other places.
In Newgrange, this man was buried in a rich grave with decorations, that is, he had a very high status, was a ruler or the son of a ruler. According to geneticist and lead author of the study, Lara Cassidy, she has never before experienced a similar result of closely related incest in Ireland.
According to her, such relationships are considered taboo everywhere, but sometimes this happens among social elites, mainly in the royal family. Such ties do not allow outsiders into a narrow family circle and protect royal power.
Genetic analysis has also established family ties between the man in Newgrange's grave and the remains of people from other "elite" Neolithic burials at Carrowmore and Carrowkeill in County Sligo. That is, the family of this person in that era was indeed large, influential and noble.
The study did not indicate whether this person had any developmental anomalies due to inbreeding (closely related relationships). But it can be assumed that if this was done regularly, then he had a full bag of such anomalies.
