Link: DNA suggests genealogical links between Caithness and Orkney tombs
A new paper looking at the DNA of human remains in Caithness and Orkney chambered cairns has been published in the journal Antiquity.
Building tombs and entombing the dead as technologies of descent and affinity in Neolithic northern Scotland, by Vicki Cummings, Chris Fowler, Iñigo Olalde, Sarah Cuthbert and David Reich, examines the genetic relatedness of individuals placed in five Neolithic tombs in Caithness and Orkney.
The results reveal a web of biological ties that, the authors argue, suggests sustained contact between these communities beyond the onset of the Neolithic and shared understandings of kinship, including descent and a sense of affinity, but emerging local differences in how kinship was materialised through monumental architecture.
