Earlier this year, when a fierce storm ripped across Ireland’s wild Atlantic coastline, it tore a 2-century old beech tree in the middle of a County Sligo field straight out of the ground. What was then found was something that one couldn’t have imagined – a half of a human skeleton pulled straight from its grave.
After learning of the discovery, Ireland’s National Monuments Service called in archaeologist Marion Dowd to undertake a rescue excavation – “As excavations go, this was certainly an unusual situation. The upper part of the skeleton was raised into the air while the lower leg remained intact in the ground trapped by the roots effectively; as the tree collapsed, it snapped the skeleton in two.” The bones still in the burial plot were in a very well preserved condition.
After Dowd’s excavation, osteo-archaeologist Linda Lynch conducted a three-month analysis in which radiocarbon dating revealed that the grave belonged to a young man between the ages of 17 and 20, with a height of 5 feet, 10 inches, indicating he came from a family with relatively high social status who could afford a nourishing diet, who died between 1030 and 1200 A.D, However, he didn’t have an easy childhood as mild spinal joint disease suggests he was involved in physical labor from an early age.
Dowd determined that the medieval teenager had received a formal Christian burial because his body was placed on his back in a traditional east-west orientation with his arms by his side. While historical records indicate there was once a church and graveyard in the general area but there were no other bones or signs of additional burials were discovered in the immediate vicinity of the fallen tree. Dowd estimates the grave was at least a foot under the ground and says the person who planted the beech tree around 1800 would have been unaware of the presence of a grave just below his feet.
It appears that the young man’s demise was a violent one. Dowd found two cuts to his ribs that were inflicted by a single-edged weapon, probably a knife. She also discovered a visible stab wound to the left hand, which suggests he may have attempted to defend himself from his attacker. “This burial gives us an insight into the life and tragic death of a young man in medieval Sligo,” Dowd says. “He was almost certainly from a local Gaelic family, but whether he died in battle or was killed during a personal dispute, we will never know for sure.”
Dowd ruled out any further plans for analysis of the bones, so this medieval murder mystery may continue. The remains will eventually be sent to the National Museum of Ireland in the capital city of Dublin.
By: Archa Dave
