4,000-year-old necklace found in dumpster (Ireland)

4,000-year-old necklace found in dumpster (Ireland)

A 4,000 year old necklace is in The National Museum of Ireland after it was found in a dumpster.
Worn by early kings the necklace, called a lunala, and discs were worn by the early kings of Ireland. It is thought to day from between 2,300 and 1,800 BC.
In March 1945 it was found in Coggalbeg, County Roscommon by farmer Hubert Lannon. He found it in a bog while he was cutting turf and kept it in his home.
Two years later he passed the necklace on to a local chemist Patrick Sheehan, in Strokestown, who kept the priceless piece of history in his shops' safe. There it remained until February 2009 when two thieves grabbed the safe during a burglary.
In March this year two men pleaded guilty for the burglary and were given three year suspended sentences. Working with the police curators from the National Museum’s Irish Antiquities Division found out that the jewelry along with other documents and papers from the Sheehan’s safe had been left in a dumpster in Dublin.
By the time the police had received this information they literally had hours to locate the dumpster before the trash would be collected. The detectives who waded through a dumpster of trash to find the delicate jewelry, which weighs just 78 grams, were rewarded on the retrieval of the treasures.
The three pieces, the necklace and two discs, are thought to be one of the most important archaeological discoveries for many years. As the Museum director Pat Wallace said himself “There is a whole lot of conjoined freaks of good luck to make it possible.

Fuente: Irish Central: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/4000-Year-Old-necklace-found-in-dumpster-97144989.html

Mesolithic axe head unearthed at Culmore (Ireland)

Mesolithic axe head unearthed at Culmore (Ireland)

A stone age axe head, believed to be 7,000 years old, has been uncovered in Derry.
The artefact was found on freshly ploughed land on the banks of the River Foyle near Thornhill College. The suspected axe head was spotted by a man walking his dog in the area and he took the item home.
Local archaeologist Ian Leitch believes the item dates from the Mesolithic period or middle stone age and was around 7,000 years old.
And he believes the finds significant in terms of the wider archaeology of the area. "The axe head from Culmore suggests that there may be a mesolithic site on or near to the find spot. It may have been dropped or lost by its owner while out hunting on land near the river."
He added: "The stone axe head is made from mudstone, measures around six centimetres in size and is in quite good condition."
Mr Leitch paid tribute to the finder for alerting him to the find. He added: "It is important that such an artefact is reported and properly recorded."
Last summer archaeologists unearthed eight neolithic (new stone age) sites in Derry, some more than 5,000 years old.
The exciting discoveries were made during work on the new Maydown dual carriageway and included a pair of well-preserved 5,000 years-old Neolithic houses and 4,000 years-old Bronze Age burial places known as 'ring-ditches'.
The earliest known mesolithic site in Ireland was excavated at Mount Sandel (around 9,000 years old) on the banks of the River Bann in Coleraine in the 1970s.

Fuente: Derry Journal: http://www.derryjournal.com/journal/Mesolithic-axe-head-unearthed-at.6332313.jp