DNA From Ancient Tomb In Ireland Reveals An Incestuous Ruling Elite

An ancient tomb has revealed that Neolithic Ireland was once home to an all-powerful group of social elites. Like many other examples of ruling dynasties throughout history, it was also riddled with incest. Archaeologists and geneticists from Trinity College Dublin recently studied the remains of a human buried in the heart of Newgrange, a 5,200-year-old monument in the rolling green lands of County Meath, Ireland. Reported in the journal Nature, genome analysis revealed that the body belonged to a man whose parents were very closely related, most...