At the back of the church in Kilmainhamwood, this was a happy and easy find as well as being a bit disappointing. The stone has been roughly shaped into a cylinder, damaging the bowl in the process. I’d say this happened when it was dug up, having possibly been earthfast when the bowl was originally cut. The bowl is deep, full of leaf detritus, with some clear water at the surface. I rinsed my hands in the clear water, avoiding stirring up the goopy mess lower down in the bowl.
ryaner
We’d been down at Staholmog earlier, where the stones have been removed, seemingly in the way of the crop growing in the massive field. Looking over the roadside hedge into the northern of two fields we thought that this stone had fallen to the same fate. I drove further to the next field at the south and looked up and down – the stone is marked on the map as being close to the road. I glanced over at the dividing hedge and there it was, probably as visible as it gets throughout the year. A fine, pointed menhir, 2.6 metres tall, surviving thanks to being incorporated into the hedge.
Mullagha is a survivor, incorporated into a field hedge.
Image credit: ryaner
Loughanleagh is a ridge of large hills almost halfway between Bailieborough and Kingscourt in south County Cavan. According to the noticeboard “the mountain ridge forms a watershed between the drumlin lake district of Cavan to the west and the richer, flatter farmlands of County Meath to the east.” Along the nearly north-south aligned ridge are three cairns, set on the highest, most prominent peaks of the massif. They are all in different townlands and given a sub-site of their own here. There is also an ancient, now dried up sacred lake, the Lake of the Cures, Lough an Leighis in Irish, from which the whole area gets its name.
These two stones are on the OS map and are listed, with a description, on the SMR at archaeology.ie. It says there that they “may have been removed after 2005” and this is indeed the case.
The Tomb of Bith
From the archaic strata of Irish myth concerning the original settlement of Ireland, as recorded in ‘Lebor Gabála’, the first man and woman to land were Adra – The Ancient (alias Ladra) – and his sister Cesair, with their father, Bith, together with a number of subordinate women.
Bith traveled north through Ireland from the Munster landing place and then died at Slieve Beagh, on the Ulster mountain named after him. There the “seventeen magnificent maidens” who accompanied him on the journey to the northern province buried him under the mountain-top cairn they constructed, the Carn More or Great Cairn.
The Irish word ‘bith’ means “cosmos, world, eternity, everlasting, being and existence.” Thus his name, his body, and his cairn carry the load of the entire universe. He brings a truly cosmogonic myth to the southern fringe of Ulster.
From “Ireland, A Sacred Journey” by Michael Dames (Element Books 2000), first published as “Mythic Ireland” by Thames and Hudson, 1992.
Neanderthal 'skeleton' is first found in a decade
By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website
Researchers have described the first “articulated” remains of a Neanderthal to be discovered in a decade.
An articulated skeleton is one where the bones are still arranged in their original positions.
The new specimen was uncovered at Shanidar Cave in Iraq and consists of the upper torso and crushed skull of a middle-aged to older adult.
Excavations at Shanidar in the 1950s and 60s unearthed partial remains of 10 Neanderthal men, women and children.
During these earlier excavations, archaeologists found that some of the burials were clustered together, with clumps of pollen surrounding one of the skeletons.
The researcher who led those original investigations, Ralph Solecki from Columbia University in New York, claimed it was evidence that Neanderthals had buried their dead with flowers.
This “flower burial” captured the imagination of the public and kicked off a decades-long controversy. The floral interpretation suggested our evolutionary relatives were capable of cultural sophistication, challenging the view – prevalent at the time – that Neanderthals were unintelligent and animalistic.
Martin Bushell spotted the 5,600-year-old skull fragment digging in the muddy banks of the Thames
A human skull from the Neolithic era has been put on display at the Museum of London.
But the incredibly rare specimen wasn’t found in some elaborate archaeological dig. The skull was unearthed by a sharp-eyed mudlarker strolling the banks of the River Thames.
“When I first saw it, I thought it was a pot that might have been upside down — like a ceramic pot,” Martin Bushell told As It Happens host Carol Off. “It looked more like a crab shell.”
Mudlarkers are amateur archeologists who scour the banks of the Thames at low tide for treasure and historic artifacts. The tradition dates back to the Victorian era.
The strange arrangement of stones across the river from the monastic settlement.
Image credit: ryaner
Two fields in from the very busy Halls Road, south-east of Camlough, are the remains of what once could have been a very fine portal tomb. It’s probably not one of the most enticing sites, but the fact that there is a relatively fine cashel built right beside it makes it that little bit more intriguing.
What remains are the western portal, a full-size doorstone and the stump of the eastern portal, abutted to the wall of the cashel. There are what looks like an amount of cairn material around the base of the stones. Which begs the question: did the cashel buliders destroy the tomb and use the material to build the cashel? And if so, why did they leave what remains standing? Or was the tomb already destroyed before the cashel builders arrived, and they used the site because they believed it a place of power? Or maybe the full tomb was there when the cashel was built and was then destroyed in more modern times. Or finally, maybe the remains are not those of a portal tomb at all. Who knows?
The views from the site, inside the ring of Gullion, are pleasant – Camlough mountain to the south-east, Sturgan mountain to the north. The ground slopes up to the west, downward to the east towards Camlough itself. Not the easiest of access here due to the traffic on the road, but still worthwhile.
The tomb rests on a small hillock in a pine forest, shown here in a slightly distorted pano.
Image credit: ryaner
The builders of the cashel saw fit to keep the remains of the tomb. One of those sites that provokes many questions.
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Little remains of the one large portal tomb, but what does still retains some power and dignity.
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Broken portal, full height doorstone and remaining full portal.
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The remains of the tomb, taken from the wall of the cashel, with Sugarloaf Hill and Sturgan mountain on the rim of the Ring of Gullion in the background.
Image credit: ryaner
Archaeologists are planning an ambitious survey of part of the seabed off Jersey where Neanderthals once lived.
The site is part-exposed during spring low tide, giving the team a four-hour window to dig while the sea is out.
Stone tools and mammoth remains have been recovered from the Violet Bank over the years.
There is a tomb here, but not enough of it left to identify its type.
Image credit: ryaner
Looking just north of west from on top of the mound. The stones on the outside here are thought possible entrance stones.
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There’s a lot going on at Ballynoe – this pair caught my eye.
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Over the backstone of the eastern gallery, 4 chambers here too.
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North over the eastern gallery with Strangford Lough in the distance.
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Four chambers in the western gallery, the jambstones to the second one visible here in the foreground.
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After excavation the monument was imprisoned in its own enclosure, way too claustrophobic for full appreciation.
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Over the souterrain entrance towards Castlewellan Forest Park.
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Another pano, looking west towards Slieve Patrick and Slievenagriddle.
Image credit: ryaner