Ireland

10 Amazing Discoveries in Ireland

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• published: 03 Oct 2016
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From the bizarre bog bodies being found so well preserved that they can even see hair gel to ancient forest being discovered again! Subscribe to Hectic Express http://goo.gl/PTUyyV 5. Ancient Forest You typically think of forests as immortal places but, in 2014 the remains of a forest dating back 7,500 years was found along the Irish coast in Galway. The rediscovered forest was dubbed “The Drowned Forest.” The trees were revealed because of a series of storms that stripped away the rock and sand from the beach. Since the trees were found in their original location and largely intact, geologists think that the forest was buried quickly because of the rapid rise of sea levels that were common at that time. Geologists have found other buried forests in other parts of Ireland and they think that the rediscovered forests should be the subject of special conservation. The forest will likely be covered up again in time because of the violent weather at the location. 4. Old Croghan Man The old Croghan man is the name of another bog body that was found perfectly preserved. Minus the head and lower body of course. That was actually the result of the man's cause of death, though. He was found in 2003 and he was named after the Croghan hill which is near where he was found. The old Croghan man was found just three months after the Clonycavan man as well. It’s been estimated that the Croghan man stood at 6’6” in life, which was very rare for the time that he lived in, which was around 2000 years ago. He is another suspected king because obviously, the Celts went through a lot of them if they sacrificed them when harvest didn’t pan out. This assumption was further supported by his finely manicured nails and the placement of his body. Royal ceremonies used to be held at Croghan Hill. In addition to being decapitated and the loss of his lower half, there are signs of torture, with deep cuts made under his nipples. A curator at the museum of Ireland suggests that the mutilation done to the body was meant to mark him as a rejected ruler. 3. Pub Bones The modern Irish are descended from the ancient Celts. This is a fact that has been generally accepted for quite some time. Recent mapping of the Irish genome and a distinctly different skeleton might call this into question, though. The skeleton was found outside a pub in 2006 and it is dated back 5200 years. The recently mapped genome was tested on this skeleton and it found that this old skeleton is actually missing a lot of the indicators that would classify it as an ancient Celtic body. The DNA has much more in common with the modern Irish man. Because of the age of the body and the lack of Celtic indicators, it might prove that there was an Irish population inhabiting the land long before the Celtics arrived. It certainly proves that Irish heritage stretches quite a bit farther back than was originally thought. 2. Zombie Graveyard Two 8th century skeletons were found in 2011 with some strange burial customs. The two skeletons were buried with large stones in their mouth and because of this archeologists theorize that whoever buried them thought that they might come back as zombies. It’s no secret that European people during the middle ages were a superstitious folk but this practice was not only common for suspected zombies or vampires but, also for victims of the Black Plague. Interestingly enough, although the two skeletons were buried together, they were actually buried some time apart. This is also special because their time of burial actually predates the time that scholars thought that revenant folklore emerged in Europe. Despite dying and being buried at completely different times, the bodies were situated side by side quite deliberately. The bodies were found by a team doing an ongoing survey of the area. They had already found 120 skeletons by the time that these skeletons were found but, there is a suspected 3000 in the surrounding area. 1.Faddan More Psalter The Faddan More Psalter is an ancient book of Psalms that was discovered in 2006 in a bog in the town of Faddan More. The book is dated back to about 800 AD and it was probably written by one of the many monasteries that can be found nearby. The book is bound in leather and it is lined in papyrus which might indicate a link between the Celtic Christianity and the Egyptian Coptic Church. The book was written in Latin and it was discovered open to Psalm 83. The bog had excellent conditions to preserve the book because of the lack of oxygen. The monks of that area actually often hid things in the bogs surrounding them to protect their valuables for when Vikings invaded. The book went through years of preservation work before it could be put on display at the National Museum of Ireland in 2011.