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Archiver > IrelandGenWeb > 2003-02 > 1044918289


From: "Jean Rice" <>
Subject: [IGW] Archaeological Discoveries
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 15:07:50 -0800


In a 1996 issue of "Irish Roots" magazine (pub. Cork) was an interesting article by Paddy O'Leary. He said that archaeologists' hopes for the conservation of the past is often summarized in the phrase "a future for our past" Each time a monument is taken into state care, or a new discovery increases popular interest in archaeology, we move nearer to achieving that aim. Ireland has a high degree of respect for, and pride in it archaeological heritage. New finds continually come to light. In many cases these "new finds" are already known by local people but have not been reported to the wider public.

The bog is the storehouse of the Irish past. Without the bog we would not have our dendrochronology (tree ring dating). The bogs conserved fallen oaks and gave us an unbroken time sequence of dating, back to 5,200 B. C. The bogss conserve all organic matter, human, animal and plant. A man cutting turf near Ballyhaunis, Co. Cork, uncovered a 2,000-year-old slab of butter. The bog had preserved the 2-ft. thick butter, which was wrapped in a basket of grass and twigs. He said the butter was too hard to spread with a knife and that he had given his dog a lick without any ill effects. A spokesman from the National Museum described the find the first of its kind in the area, and most interesting and of great importance.

In recent year a number of important sites have been uncovered in the course of urban renewal and demolition. In 1992, there were excavations in Cork City at the junction of North Main St. and Kyrls Quay. Sixty metres of medieval city wall were excavated; The city wall showed a maximum height of 3.2 metres. The earliest occupation levels were of the mid-13th and early 14th centuries and had timber-framed houses. Some sections had been rebuilt in later times.

Recent excavations in the Temple Bar area, Dublin, revealed the remains of the 13th-century Augustinian Friary of the Holy Trinity. Only fragments of the friary remain; also two east-west masonry walls 50 cm high. It has been decided that the more important remains are to be dismantled and reassembled within the basement of the new building. The area concerned is to be declared a national monument.

There were no known passage tombs in Co. Cork until the discovery of one on top of the highest hill on Cape Clear Island in 1984. Late in 1993, University College, Cork, was informed of the existence of a possible passage tomb on a small island in the estuary of the Ilen river close to Baltimore (Co. Cork,) in an area known as The Lag. Archaeologists from Cork, and later, from the Ordnance Survey Office in Dublin confirmed that it was, indeed, a passage tomb. The tomb has a chamber/gallery three metres long and one metre wide, it is open to the east-north-east at 81 degrees. Unlike most passage tombs it was not on a hilltop. In fact, the little island on which it was built was very low-lying and partly covered by seaweed. All but two of the stones were covered at high water. There was no trace of the cairn of stones that would have covered the tomb, although the kerbstones do survive on the north side of the chamber and gallery. As of 1996, there were two known passa!
ge tombs in the West Cork area and the strong possibility that many of the stone cairns in the area might also be passage tombs.

West Connaught is not noted for its rock art, but an area nine metres by seven metres was discovered on a rock outcrop to the SW of Westport, Mayo. There were over 85 separate motifs to be seen. Much of the outcrop was covered by thin blanket bog. The striae left by the glacial ice movement are plainly visible running through the rock art. The motifs used include circles, deep cut marks (sometimes surrounded by circles), and pairs of circles linked by semi-ellipsoid features. The Cork-Kerry has the largest concentration of rock art in Ireland. Donegal, Monaghan and Louth are other well-known areas of rock art. Common motifs in the Cork-Kerry area are cup marks surrounded by concentric circles, cup marks in cluster and occasional spirals. They are called bronze age because they are often found on the cap-stones of wedge tombs.



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