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A farmer’s hunch led to a lost monastery and a Neolithic surprise

108 points| pepys | 3 years ago |atlasobscura.com | reply

27 comments

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[+] reillyse|3 years ago|reply
As someone who grew up on a farm in Ireland there is an embarrassment of archaeological sites. The general philosophy is they are safer in the ground and we’ll excavate them when we get round to it. That said there is a real danger of sites being destroyed before they are properly investigated and I think more should be done to chronicle them properly otherwise you are relying on people to work against their self interest when developing sites (an archaeological dig can seriously impact the owner or developer of a site)
[+] Beltalowda|3 years ago|reply
I think one of the issues is that there's just so much of it. In many part of Europe you can find archaeology pretty much anywhere outside of cities and other areas that have been developed in modern times. The article mentions "250,000 monuments in the Republic". I went hiking around Co. Cork a few years back and you can find neolithic monuments all over the place if you pay a bit of attention.
[+] feintruled|3 years ago|reply
Reminds me of an anecdote from my wife's uncle, who has a such a site on his land (also somewhere in Ireland, I'll not get too specific!), a burial site covered with a large stone. He told some researchers in the university about it and they had a field trip to study it. The professor was very excited about it as the orientation of the stone confirmed some theory of his, to which my wife's uncle whispered to one of the students that out of curiosity he had actually lifted and replaced the stone with a JCB not necessarily in the same place at all. The student's advice was 'don't tell him, it would only disappoint him.'
[+] weq|3 years ago|reply
the travesty is actually that these religious cults are being remembered instead of the natives who they committed genocide against.
[+] winReInstall|3 years ago|reply
Its interesting how you get to know the land below you as a farmer. We had prehistoric chalk below our soil at my brothers farm, from ancient corall reefs. Over that were some sanddunes, and on top of that the actual soil layer.

Add to that some forgotten "landfills" of the 70s and you got a interesting underground plowing experience.

[+] cyocum|3 years ago|reply
For those interested in the archaeology of early Medieval Ireland, I would highly recommend this survey: Early medieval Ireland, AD 400-1100: the evidence from archaeological excavations (https://www.worldcat.org/title/early-medieval-ireland-ad-400...). The second edition has an updated bibliographic essay as well as some other updates in the text.
[+] grosswait|3 years ago|reply
How did so much become buried in such a short (geologically speaking) amount of time?
[+] asdff|3 years ago|reply
Organic matter collects and degrades into basically soil. I have bush that constantly sheds leaves. If I don't keep up with sweeping, they pile up. One pile I didn't get to for a very long time, and at the bottom of that pile was basically leaf dirt. Other things can get almost absorbed into the soil. Walk around an old neighborhood in your city, you will notice the edges of the sidewalks are being actively absorbed into the dirt along the sides unless the property owner is keeping up with edging.
[+] Victerius|3 years ago|reply
I want to know too. Are the landmasses becoming thicker over time, at least the relatively uninhabited portions of it?
[+] balentio|3 years ago|reply
I think there are a lot of "hidden" things under people's feet like this, but it is especially neat when it is somewhere "far away".
[+] bombcar|3 years ago|reply
It's also interesting that the family basically "knew" what it was, but the warnings were thought to be legends.