Medieval skeleton bursts out of the ground after centuries-old tree is ripped up by storm

Irish Times ^ | 9-13-15 | Sam Webb

[Straight Vermonter]

Archaeologists were stunned when the thousand-year-old skeleton of a young man was found among the roots of a tree ripped from the ground.

Storms blew over a 215-year old beech tree outside Collooney, Sligo, Ireland, unearthing a human skeleton.

The National Monuments Service commissioned Sligo-Leitrim archaeological consultancy Archaeological Services (SLAS) to excavate and retrieve the badly disturbed remains.

The burial was that of a young man (17-20 years old) and it id believed he suffered a violent death during the early medieval period.

Radiocarbon dating puts the man's death at 1030-1200 AD.

Several injuries were visible to the ribs and hand, probably inflicted by a knife.

He had been given a formal Christian burial, however.

As the photos show, the lower leg bones remained in the grave; but the upper part of the body was entangled in the tree roots and raised up into the air.

A more in-depth analysis of the remains is underway.

Last week archaeologists in Sligo found the bones of a Stone Age child and an adult in a tiny cave high on Knocknarea mountain near the town.

Radiocarbon dating has shown that they are some 5,500 years old, which makes them among the earliest human bones found in the county.

The adult was aged 30 to 39 and the child of 4 to 6 years. It was not possible to establish gender.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks SteveH and a fool in paradise. 5,500 years old, adult and child, I wonder if there are not more remains of similar dating adjacent or nearby?

[ZinGirl]

ha! and I'm sure his head is around somewhere...

[rdl6989]

I would have lost it right there.

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Me Uncle Thomas used to say “Jaaaayzus, Mary and Joooesph!” All the time (he was from County Mayo).

Now me Grammie, I was told, would smack her boys if they spoke w/a brogue—they were to speak proper to “get along in the world.”

Quite a departure from today’s hyphenated Americans.

And I have to add (because I can!) surein some in Sligo will have a good Wake for the lad...

[jmacusa]

County Mayo is it? And Sligo too? Ah, T’is grand they are. My people were from Country Waterford, Offaly and Belfast. Me Grannie Sarah(Sade as the Irish say) spoke with a broque and Sweet Mother of Mary was she a terror, tis true. “Come here to me’’ she'd say and POW! she'd give a wallop. “Ow Granny, why did you do that?’’ “You shut that gob ye bugger I know what you were tinkin’! “Now give me three Hail Marys and three Our Fathers or I'll give ye this!’’(that being the back of her hand) But she could be sweet sometimes. Me late mothers people were the “Lace Curtain Irish’’ they were. Nice, genteel and educated. Nice to be talkin’ to ye darlin’, God bless now and keep in touch with the Old Jmac.

[curmudgeonII]

There was an episode of “Bones” that had the same thing happen...and she knew gender immediately.

Probably because the mouth was open.