Latest news with #JessicaSmyth
Irish Independent
4 days ago
- Science
- Irish Independent
Doubt cast over suggestions incestuous ‘god-kings' ruled Newgrange during Neolithic Ireland
A paper, written by researchers at University College Dublin (UCD), has questioned the belief that burial within the 'mega' passage tomb of Newgrange was the preserve of kings and other dignitaries who represented a dynasty that practised incest. Such claims followed a study in 2020 that suggested evidence of incestuous unions at the site. A study of the DNA of an adult male buried there revealed he had been born of an incestuous union. His parents were either siblings or parent and child. The finding led the research team at the time, headed by Trinity College Dublin, to speculate that the elite associated with the monument practised incest as a way of maintaining a dynastic bloodline. This implied he was among a ruling social elite akin to the similarly inbred Inca god-kings and Egyptian pharaohs. But now, in findings published in the journal Antiquity, researchers say that the ancient genome of the adult male revealed a 'rare case of incest, which led to claims in 2020 that the individual was a high-status ruler, with press coverage dubbing them a 'god-king''. Associate professors Jessica Smyth and Neil Carlin at UCD School of Archaeology point out that no other incestuous unions have been identified in Neolithic Ireland and Britain, and say there is a lack of evidence for inbreeding across prehistoric Europe. They also say the evidence found at the site does not support the existence of a 'king' of Newgrange or any hereditary power or dynasty with a shared ancestry. 'People were definitely being selected for burial in passage tombs – the whole community does not end up in these monuments. However, we don't know the reasons behind this selection,' Professor Smyth said. 'Unlike today, bodies don't tend to be buried 'whole' or 'intact' in this time period. Before they end up in megalithic monuments, bodies are broken down, sometimes cremated and even circulated around their communities ADVERTISEMENT Learn more .' Professors Smyth and Carlin argue that these conclusions relied heavily on unsuitable comparisons with hierarchical societies where incest was limited to ruling families, such as in ancient Egypt, while ignoring examples of incest in non-elite or egalitarian communities. 'A one-off example of incest is a shaky foundation on which to reconstruct an elite, let alone a specific social [hierarchy],' the authors said. Newgrange is believed to have been built by a farming community that prospered in the Boyne Valley, Co Meath, about 5,000 years ago. It is far more likely, they argue, that rather than being reserved for elite rulers or a ruling dynasty, the tombs at Newgrange were places where people made their kin through a range of practices, including living, working and burying their dead together.
BBC News
4 days ago
- Science
- BBC News
Newgrange: Ancient Irish tomb not just for social elite
Burial at an ancient Irish passage tomb in County Meath may not have been confined to the social elite, according to a new research paper. It has long been believed that burial at the Newgrange tomb was the preserve of kings and other dignitaries, who represented a dynasty that practised the new paper, published by researchers from University College Dublin (UCD), says this may not be the case. Associate Professor of archaeology Neil Carlin said suggestions of "an incestuous ruling elite in Stone Age Ireland did not match our understanding of society at this time, it did not fit the evidence very well." The tomb is a Neolithic monument constructed by stone age farmers more than 5000 years ago in the Boyne Valley. It is also part of a network of several prehistoric monuments in an area which is recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. No 'King' of Newgrange "We now have some really great examples of monuments elsewhere in Europe that contain people with very close biological ties - parents, children, grandparents etc," said Associate Professor Jessica Smyth, also from UCD."This sort of aDNA (ancient DNA) evidence is much closer to the idea of a lineage or dynasty. We do not see this evidence in Irish passage tombs."The findings also claim that no other incestuous unions have been identified in Neolithic Ireland and Britain, and that there is a lack of evidence for inbreeding across prehistoric also say the evidence found at the site does not support the existence of a 'King' of Newgrange or any hereditary power or dynasty with a shared ancestry."People were definitely being selected for burial in passage tombs - the whole community does not end up in these monuments. "However, we don't know the reasons behind this selection, and why they were thought to be special," said Ms Smyth."Unlike today, bodies don't tend to be buried 'whole' or 'intact' in this time period. Before they end up in megalithic monuments, bodies are broken down, sometimes cremated and even circulated around their communities." Speaking to BBC News NI, Mr Carlin said some of the materials used to build the tomb came from "distant areas". "We have chemical signatures indicating that some of the burials in some of these passage tombs are coming from beyond the locality," he said."At Newgrange itself, we see the stones coming from as far away as 40 kilometres in and around Dundalk Bay."So, there are all these indications that this is not about biology or lineages, this is about people being chosen as representatives of their community."Newgrange was rediscovered in AD 1699 and its interior had been heavily disturbed prior to its modern excavation in the 1960s, according to the authors"Burnt and unburnt fragments from just five people were recovered from the 1960s excavations of the tomb," said Mr Carlin."Due to the high levels of disturbance in the centuries before that, we don't know if this number was originally much higher." What is Newgrange? Newgrange is part of a complex of monuments built along a bend of the River Boyne known collectively in the Irish language as Brú na Bóinne and the sites are managed by Ireland's Office of Public Works in partnership with the National Monuments Services of the Department of Housing, Local Government and tomb is a large kidney shaped mound covering an area of over one acre, retained at the base by 97 large kerbstones, some of which are decorated with megalithic 19m (62ft) long inner passage leads to a cruciform chamber with a corbelled site, which has been reconstructed, was originally constructed about 5,200 years ago (3,200 BC) which makes it older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of is also renowned for a winter solstice phenomenon where sunlight penetrates a passage and illuminates an inner chamber, indicating an ancient understanding of light travels 19m, from the roof box at the entrance through the passage and into the chamber.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
St. Louis Educators Learn What's Missing in How They Teach Science of Reading
The year COVID-19 shuttered classroom doors, St. Louis's Premier Charter School was acclimating not only to a new normal, but to a new way of teaching literacy. The K-8 school and its 900 students shifted their curriculum in fall 2020 to include the science of reading — a switch many U.S. districts have made because of its positive results on literacy scores. But last year, with results remaining stagnant and low, Premier's administrators started to wonder what they were missing. 'We are not seeing the gains and the progress that our school should be making,' said Jessica Smyth, one of Premier's elementary principals. 'We just know that our kids are capable of so much more than what the outcomes are currently showing.' So, in December, Smyth and educators from three other St. Louis schools traveled to Washington, D.C., to learn from Garrison Elementary. The school had implemented the science of reading before it gained popularity across the nation and has seen improved literacy scores as a result. Related The trip was part of a two-year program called the Emerson Early Literacy Challenge that launched last fall to help educators from the four St. Louis-area schools brainstorm ways to improve reading in the early grades. Atlas Public School and Premier Charter School in St. Louis, Commons Lane Primary School in the Ferguson-Florissant School District and Barbara C. Jordan Elementary in the School District of University City share a $1 million grant for the work. Efforts to improve St. Louis reading scores have been ramping up since last year, when the local NAACP chapter launched a literacy campaign and later filed a federal complaint against the city and county school districts because of disparities in reading proficiency for students of color. Leaders of the Emerson challenge say the biggest problem in improving St. Louis's reading proficiency rates — which were at 20% for third graders in the city and 46% for third graders across the county in 2024 — is how the science of reading is implemented. There are key elements besides using curriculum based on the science of reading that are needed to create substantial academic progress, said Ian Buchanan, a steering committee member for the Emerson challenge. For example, Garrison has more teachers in the classroom, efficient employee schedules and intensive tutoring sessions that allow its staff to increase their focus on literacy. Related 'We can have all of the curriculum resources. We can have rock star teachers,' he said. 'We can have all of that, but there are some foundational pieces that need to be in place.' Smyth said that even before Premier was chosen for the Emerson program, administrators had eliminated outdated instruction strategies like guided reading, which encourages students to use context clues to guess what a word could be instead of sounding it out. The strategy is a major part of balanced literacy, an approach that has been deemed ineffective for struggling readers by cognitive scientists. Its lack of emphasis on phonics can cause students to fall behind as they encounter harder text in later grades. While using a curriculum based on the science of reading was a step in the right direction, Premier's administrators still weren't happy with the school's third grade reading scores: About 28% ranked as proficient on state reading tests last year, down from 33% in 2018. 'While we see some really strong instruction that aligns with the science of reading in some classrooms, it's not necessarily consistent among all classrooms,' Smyth said. Premier is still training teachers in how to teach lessons based on the science of reading, Smyth said. Garrison Elementary School began changing its reading instruction in 2018-19. Just a year before, only 13% of the school's 250 students were meeting or exceeding expectations for reading on the District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessments of Progress in Education. In 2023-24, that number rose to 43%. Teacher training and explicit phonics instruction are crucial to gaining results like that, but schools also have to focus on staffing, class schedules and literacy screening tests, said Katharine Noonan, an English language arts instructional coach who helped implement the science of reading at Garrison. The school already used DIBELS, a screening tool that evaluated students' literacy skills and identified learning disabilities like dyslexia. Noonan said teachers were coached to use the screener more effectively by catching gaps in reading proficiency early and ensuring struggling students received the most intervention. '(It's) putting your best teachers in front of the kids that need the most help, and really prioritizing teacher-driven instruction,' Noonan said. Garrison administrators had to rethink staffing and traditional class schedules, Noonan said. Rather than giving students the same amount of time with their teachers and pulling children who needed extra help out of the classroom to work with a reading specialist, staffing and schedules were restructured for those who were the furthest behind. 'That means, if I have 20 kids in my kindergarten class and I have three children who are behind — our screening data has showed us that they have gaps — then they see the (specialist) possibly every day, maybe even two adults a day, as a way to provide those interventions inside of the classroom,' Noonan said. 'It does require a lot of creativity around staffing and schedules, because you have to sort of think, who are my available adults?' Related Smyth said she and the other visiting St. Louis educators watched Garrison's reading specialists conduct small-group lessons inside classrooms. The school 'had some really great models in place, like classrooms that had two teachers in their rooms during all intervention blocks, which is wonderful. But then we got to ask questions like, 'Who were those people? How do you have the staffing? How do you have the funding for the staffing to get these models to work?' ' Smyth said. Noonan said Garrison uses federal Title I funding to provide enough staffing for interventions, but schools can also use instructional aides and parent volunteers. Buchanan said Garrison Elementary was chosen because it has similar student demographics to the St. Louis schools in the Emerson challenge. Even if it has more resources, Buchanan said, he thinks that what Garrison has accomplished can be replicated in St. Louis. Leaders of each selected school received $20,000 at the beginning of the academic year to brainstorm strategies and craft plans to improve early literacy. They can get up to $250,000 during the 2025-26 school year to implement those plans. 'It was an excellent visit, because we were able to see in real time what teaching and learning looks like and to understand why they have been making gains,' Buchanan said. 'We have a better feel for what it takes, where we are and what we need to do.'
