Grace O’Malley – Ireland’s 16th Century Pirate Queen

           

Modern representation of Grace O’Malley. (Makerva/Deviant Art)

            Clew Bay was home to Rockfleet Castle, the stronghold of Grace O’Malley, or Granuaile as she was known. O’Malley was the leader of a clan of pirates that controlled the Irish coastline through violence and intimidation. She had hundreds of men and over twenty ships under her command, raiding rival clans and merchant ships at will.

Eventually, government officials had had enough and in 1574 a fleet was sent to raid O’Malley’s castle. She and her men turned the fleet away in a violent counterattack which caused the government ships to retreat. However, she was captured and imprisoned in 1577 but was soon out and plundering again.

Gráinne Ní Mháille

Grace O’Malley (Gráinne Ní Mháille) was born in Ireland around 1530 as a daughter of the wealthy nobleman and sea trader, Dubhdara O'Malley, who commanded the biggest fleet of ships in Ireland. For hundreds of years, the O’Malleys had been sailing their ships around the coasts of Ireland, Scotland and northern Spain, trading, fishing, and plundering.

Clew Bay (c) By Mariusz Z - flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0

            During her reign, she acquired several other castles through conquest and marriage, including Doona on Blacksod, Kildavnet on Achill Island, and the O’Malley Castle on Clare Island.

Queen Elizabeth used the feuding between Irish chieftains to her advantage, replacing Chieftains with those who promised to be loyal to her and adopt English law.

Sir Richard Bingham

At the age of fifty-six, Grace O’Malley was finally captured by Sir Richard Bingham (1528 – 1599), a ruthless governor that was appointed to rule over Irish territories. She closely escaped the death sentence, but over the course of time her influence, wealth, and lands faded, until she was on the brink of poverty.

She wrote to Queen Elizabeth explaining her plight. She asked the queen to give her “free liberty during her life to invade with fire and sword all your highness’ enemies without any interruption of any person whatsoever.” In the guise of fighting for the queen, she could continue her life at sea, unhindered by the English and free from Bingham’s control.

‘The meeting of Grace O'Malley and Queen Elizabeth I.’ (Public Domain)

Historic Meeting

Her situation took a turn for the worst when her dearest son, Tibbot na Long (‘Toby of the Ships’), was captured by Bingham and was facing execution. In September 1593, O’Malley secured an historic meeting with Queen Elizabeth I, the woman against whom she had rebelled and in whose hands her life and her son’s life now lay. The meeting took place at Greenwich Castle. Their conversation was conducted in English, as Grace spoke no Latin and Elizabeth spoke no Irish.

Sir Richard Bingham 
from Wikipedia

Grace explained to the queen that her actions were merely to protect her family and her people. The queen listened with admiration and pity as Grace told her story and how she suffered at the hands of the English, and particularly Sir Richard Bingham. In this amazing meeting of two powerful women, Grace managed to convince the queen to free her family and restore much of her lands and influence.

Decline and Death

However, growing political unrest and turmoil in Ireland, culminated in the demise of the old Gaelic way of life and the end of the world of clans and chieftains. By this time, Grace was old and weary. She lived out her last years in the comfort of her fortress at Rockfleet Castle where she died around 1603.

                          Rockfleet Castle. (Mikeoem/CC BY SA 4.0)

Grace O'Malley is not mentioned in the Irish annals, so documentary evidence for her life comes mostly from English sources. As a pirate, she was largely written out of Irish history, so limited information exists of her life. She successfully defended the independence of her territories at a time when much of Ireland fell under the English rule and is still considered today ‘the pirate queen of Ireland.’ Her story lives on in the many folk stories, songs, poems, and musicals which help to preserve the legend of the Pirate Queen.

For more information see:

https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/grace-o-malley-16th-century-pirate-queen-ireland-001773

https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/grace-o-malley-irish-female-pirate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eduNvLx3CM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eduNvLx3CM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCSckpGE5OQ  

Archaeologists uncover sunken prehistoric fort in Clew Bay Island

 

View of Clew Bay by Mariusz Z - flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=89626431

My first glimpse of Clew Bay and its many islands was in the early sixties while descending from Croagh Patrick after climbing the mountain in the dark. A newspaper article reminded me of that occasion. The Irish Independent recently reported the discovery of a sunken prehistoric fort on an island in Clew Bay off the north Mayo coast. The fort may be as significant as Inis Mór’s Dún Aengus.

Late Bronze Age Fort

Archaeologist, Michael Gibbons, told the Irish Independent that surveys suggest that Collanmore island is effectively a fort dating from the late Bronze Age (1100-900 BC). Several large ramparts were uncovered cutting across the strip of land linking the island to the shoreline. The ramparts are faced with large limestone blocks and extended for 200 to 300 metres.

The size and scale of the ramparts suggest that the island was of major strategic importance at the time. Late Bronze Age hillforts are the largest monuments built in Ireland and can measure up to 320 acres in area, with kilometres of defensive ramparts.

Michael Gibbons told the Independent:

“They were built by warlord dominated societies and we have very good evidence they were in active use during periods of warfare between various tribes.”

Grace O’Malley or Granuaile

Statue of Grainne Mhaol Ni Mhaille (Grace O'Malley, 1530-1603), the Irish Pirate, located at Westport House, Co. Mayo, Ireland. (Suzanne Mischyshyn/CC BY SA 2.0)

Clew Bay was the stronghold of the O'Malley clan during the Middle Ages – the most famous member of whom is Grace O'Malley or Granuaile, the Pirate Queen. Granuaile controlled a fleet of ships and possessed several castles, including those on Clare Island and Achill, and at Rockfleet near Newport.

According to legend, Clew Bay has 365 islands - an island for every day of the year. Ringforts are Ireland’s most common field monument, with about 45,000 recorded examples. They are circular areas, measuring c.24-60m in diameter, usually enclosed with one or more earthen banks, often topped with a timber palisade.

Ringforts

While the term ‘ringfort’ dominates, other terms are also used such as rath, lios, caiseal and dun. Rath and lios are normally used to describe monuments with earthen banks while caiseal (cashel) and dun are more generally used in relation to sites with stone-built enclosures. Stone forts or cashels are the equivalent of earthen banked ring forts but are much less common. Dating of ring forts is difficult but most of those that survive are thought to have been built well after the first century with many built or used right into the medieval period (800 – 1500 AD).

The Bronze Age

The Bronze Age in Ireland was a period of high population density and human activity sustained for a much longer interval than any other time before or since. It is estimated that the Irish Bronze Age sustained a population in the region of 2 m until 800 BC.

Prehistoric enclosures echo the overall pattern of evolving population trends, occurring during times of higher population. The basic causes of population change are tied to social, political, and economic systems. They can be expressed through factors such as famine, economic instability, political unrest, and changes to marriage patterns that lowered fertility rates within kinship networks.

Ireland’s Ancient Routeways

By the end of the Bronze Age a modern pattern of routeways crossing the midlands, joining west and east, and east and north, can be observed. Ireland’s modern-day network of towns and roads echoes ancient networks of routeways that connected significant points in a landscape. Towns were eventually established in the places where this internal network intersected with maritime connections with the world beyond Ireland’s shores.

Climate Change

Archaeologists tell us that during the eighth century BC, there is evidence of abrupt climate change. Across northwest Europe, wetter oceanic weather became more prevalent, leading to a dramatic rise in groundwater. The evidence suggests 800–780 BC was a period of environmental decline. Society’s capacity for resilience was weakened by larger-scale social and economic changes in Europe. This resulted in the most dramatic collapse in Ireland’s population until the potato famine of the 1840s.

The population of Ireland recovered to quite high levels during the Early Iron Age with levels of activity around 400 BC like those sustained in Ireland throughout the Bronze Age. Environmental disaster strike hardest at the sections of society most exposed – the sick, very young, and very old. Likewise, political unrest and war can have devastating results for entire age-cohorts of young men in particular.

Summary

Archaeologists are excited to discover that one of the many islands in Clew Bay, County Mayo, is a sunken prehistoric fort which dates from the late Bronze Age. Several large ramparts extending 200 to 300 metres and faced with large limestone blocks were uncovered. The size and scale of the ramparts suggest that the island was of major strategic importance at the time.

For further information see:

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/archaeologists-uncover-sunken-prehistoric-fort-in-clew-bay-island/a18656517.html 

https://letterfromballinloughane.blogspot.com/2014/10/irelands-ringforts-not-just-home-for.html  

McLaughlin, T. R. 2020. An archaeology of Ireland for the Information Age. Emania 25, 7–30. 

https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/grace-o-malley-16th-century-pirate-queen-ireland-001773 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhaHOvIbOWs

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Clew%20Bay%20site%3Ayoutube.com&sca_esv=959a59c8beda7f19&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ACQVn09Q4ByWdy9Xac0eg4ju1eV1Iy9OvA%3A1712241254651&source=hp&ei=b7oOZs6uKsqshbIP3oi64A8&i

300,000 Year-old Stone Artefacts Discovered

ASE Senior Archaeologist Letty Ingrey inspects the largest handaxe

Credit: Archaeology South-East/ UCL

Researchers at University College London have discovered some of the largest early prehistoric stone tools in Britain. The discoveries were made at Frindsbury in Kent where artefacts were recovered from deep Ice Age deposits above the Medway Valley. A total of eight hundred stone artefacts believed to be over 300,000 years old were recovered.

The unearthed artefacts included two very large flint knives described as “giant handaxes.” It is thought that this type of tool was usually held in the hand and may have been used for butchering animals and cutting meat.

The largest handaxe measured 29.5cm in length and is currently the third largest known to be found in Britain. ‘Giant handaxes’ like this are usually found in the Thames and Medway regions and date from over 300,000 years ago.

One of the handaxes at the point of discovery on site.
Credit: Archaeology South-East/ UCL

Letty Ingrey, a senior archaeologist from the University College London Institute of Archaeology, explained that they likely date back to an interglacial period approximately 300,000 to 330,000 years ago.

“While right now, we aren’t sure why such large tools were being made, or which species of early human were making them, this site offers a chance to answer these exciting questions.”

stated Ms Ingrey.

The site is thought to date to a period in the early prehistory of Britain when Neanderthal people and their cultures were beginning to emerge and may even have shared the landscape with other early human species. During this period the Medway Valley would have been a wild landscape of wooded hills and river valleys, where red deer, horses, now-extinct straight-tusked elephants, and lions roamed freely.

Excavations revealed artefacts in deep Ice Age sediments preserved on a hillside above the Medway Valley. 

Credit: Archaeology South-East/ UCL

        This exceptionally large axe may have had a specialised function in early human society, or relate to specific human groups, or even human species. Handaxes are stone artefacts that have been chipped, or knapped, on both sides to produce a symmetrical shape with a long cutting edge. 

The largest giant handaxe photographed from four different angles.

Credit: Archaeology South-East/ UCL

Throughout Africa and Europe, handaxes have been discovered at various archaeological sites dating back from 1.7 million to 300,000 years ago. By 200,000 years ago, many innovations had been made in stone tool technology. For example, large handaxes became less common and were replaced with a range of smaller tools in more diverse toolkits. Tools made of flakes were favoured over large cores.

Today, modern humans or Homo sapiens, inhabit the whole earth. Looking back over the last half a million years, the picture was much more diverse, with three distinct lineages appearing: Homo erectus in Asia; and Homo heidelbergensis giving rise to Homo neanderthalensis in Europe and Homo sapiens in Africa.

The Neanderthals thrived in Europe for around 300,000 years before modern humans arrived. Neanderthals occupied Europe for at least 100,000 years during a period when glacial cycles dominated the climate. Excavations in Ibex, Vanguard, and Gorham’s Caves in Gibraltar have revealed evidence of Neanderthal occupation dating to possibly as late as 28,000 years ago.

The ancestors of modern humans interbred with Neanderthals and another extinct line of humans known as the Denisovans. Modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans shared a common ancestor who lived roughly 600,000 years ago.

For further information see:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2023/jul/giant-stone-artefacts-found-rare-ice-age-site-kent

https://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue61/6/full-text.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-66112136

St Brigid (450-525 AD) – Feast Day: 1st February 2022

 

St Brigid's Rush Cross

On 1^st February, we celebrate the feast day of St Brigid of Ireland. Originally, this was a pagan festival called Imbolc which marked the beginning of spring.

Who was St Brigid?

St Brigid is one of the Patron Saints of Ireland, together with St Patrick and St Colmcille. She was born in Faughart, north of Dundalk, Co Louth in Ireland, approximately 450 AD and was the founder of the first monastery in County Kildare. Her father was a pagan chieftain of Leinster named Dubthach and her mother was a Christian slave named Brocca.

Dubthach’s wife insisted that he get rid of the slave girl. He sold Brigid’s mother to a poet but not the child in her womb for whom he was responsible. Later, the poet sold Brigid’s mother to a druid. As Brigid was filled with the Holy Spirit, she could not digest the druid’s ‘unclean’ food and

‘thereupon he chose a white cow and set it aside for the girl, and a certain Christian woman, a very God-fearing virgin, used to milk the cow and the girl used to drink the cow’s milk and not vomit it up as her stomach had been healed. Moreover, this Christian woman fostered the girl’.

When she was young, St Brigid wanted to join a convent. However, her father insisted that she marry a rich man to whom he had promised her hand. According to legend, Brigid prayed that her beauty be taken so no one would want to marry her and her prayer was granted. It was not until after she made her final vows that her beauty was restored. 

Brigid enlisted God’s help again to convince her father to give her land on which to build a convent. Her father agreed to give her as much land as her cloak could cover. It is said that the cloak grew to cover 2,000 acres of land! One of five ancient roads in Ireland that lead to Tara passed through Kildare.

St Brigid's Cathedral
Kildare, Ireland

According to tradition, around 480 AD Brigid founded a monastery at Kildare (Cill Dara: “church of the oak”), on the site of a pagan shrine to the Celtic goddess Brigit. Her monastery developed a reputation for hospitality, compassion and generosity. It was known as the ‘City of the Poor’. St Brigid worked with the sick, poor, and outcast.

As monastic communities grew, they attracted a resident local community. The monasteries provided for the spiritual needs of local families and taught the children. The monastery and the village grew together. The monks undertook tasks such as the creating and copying of literature and highly specialised metalware.

St Brigid’s Rush Cross

On one occasion, St Brigid was sitting by the sick bed of a dying pagan chieftain comforting him with stories of her faith in God. She told him the story of Christ on the cross while at the same time picking up rushes from the ground to make a cross. Before he died, the chieftain asked to be baptised. People made similar crosses to hang over the door of their homes to scare off evil, fire and hunger. Word spread of St Brigid’s kindness and faith and the making of the cross from rushes that we know today became associated with her name.

Saint Brigid as depicted
in Saint Non's Chapel, St Davids, Wales

It was said that St Brigid could miraculously milk her cows three times a day to provide a meal for visitors. According to the Celtic tradition, the guest was seen as Christ and hospitality was extended in that spirit.

Brigid later founded a school of art that included metalwork and illumination. It was at this school that the Book of Kildare, which Gerald of Wales praised as "the work of angelic, and not human skill," was beautifully illuminated. Sadly, this book was lost three centuries ago.

We can also see the merging of pagan and Christian art as Christianity gradually replaced paganism. For example, two of the grave slabs at Carrowntemple, Co. Sligo, bear art of the Early Christian period that is derived from the Celtic art of the preceding Pagan Iron Age. One of these is remarkably close to a design in the Book of Durrow and is datable to c. 650 AD.

The Celts worshipped hundreds of gods and goddesses. In some respects, the nature of the Celtic religion helped in the development of Christianity. Their belief in the indestructibility of the souls of the dead helped in understanding the resurrection of Christ. The Celts also had their own sacrifices and ritual meals which, in a sense, mirrored aspects of Christian message.

Brigid’s enduring legacy

St Brigid still lives on 1,500 years later in the minds and hearts of the people of Ireland. Her monastery grew and grew and people from all over Ireland came here, many of whom joined the monastery. St Patrick and St Brigid paved the way for Christianity in Ireland and later to Europe.

Hundreds of holy wells are dedicated to St Brigid in Ireland. Early Irish texts suggest that holy wells may have remained associated with non-Christian rituals and were even protected by the old religion. For example, it is believed that wells were used instead of baptisteries in Ireland, which may explain the large number of holy wells throughout the country.

More places names in Ireland are named after St Brigid than St Patrick himself. St Brigid is associated with fertility on the land. Straw doll-like effigies of St Brigid known as Breedeag were used to bless homes.

St Brigid’s relevance today.

St Brigid appreciated the importance of the land, nature and the seasons. At a time when our planet is threatened by global warming and climate change, Brigid reminds us of the need to confront these challenges now. Today, we can learn from her example of compassion, kindness, generosity, and hospitality, as the World deals with the consequences of poverty, war, population displacement and the current Covid-19 pandemic.

On February 1^st, 525, St Brigid died of natural causes. Her body was initially kept to the right of the high altar of Kildare Cathedral. In 1185, John de Courcy had her remains relocated in Down Cathedral. Today, Saint Brigid's skull can be found in the Church of St. John the Baptist in Lumiar, Portugal. The tomb in which it is kept bears the inscription,

"Here in these three tombs lie the three Irish knights who brought the head of St. Brigid, Virgin, a native of Ireland, whose relic is preserved in this chapel. In memory of which, the officials of the Altar of the same Saint caused this to be done in January AD 1283."

In 1905 Sister Mary Agnes of the Dundalk Convent of Mercy took a purported fragment of the skull to St Bridget's Church in Kilcurry. In 1928, Fathers Timothy Traynor and James McCarroll requested another fragment for St Brigid's Church in Killester, a request granted by the Bishop of Lisbon, António Mendes Belo.

For further information please see: 

References:

(1) Sacred Heart Messenger, February 2019 – article by John Scally

Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UwJD00w9UM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndQKbE0M7l8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqpJkSfIrAc

Iron Age Pagan Idol Discovered in Irish Bog

 

The Gortnacrannagh Idol unearthed in Roscommon bog, Ireland, 2021. Photo: courtesy Archaeological Management Solutions/European Association of Archaeologists

Introduction

Archaeologist working on the route of the N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge Road Bypass in Co. Roscommon have discovered a 1,600-year-old wooden pagan idol. The discovery was made in the townland of Gortnacrannagh, about six kilometres from the prehistoric royal site of Rathcroghan.

Rathcroghan was an ancient site of power and the prehistoric royal capital of Connachta, one of the five ancient Irish kingdoms. The area is home to more than 240 archaeological monuments, including Neolithic and Bronze Age burial mounds, ringforts, and earthworks, and was known as a place of ritual gatherings. It is also said to have been the site of the capital and palace of Queen Medb. According to the Ulster Cycle, a group of legends set in the first century BC, Medb was a powerful warrior who at one time ruled much of Ireland.

Gortnacrannagh Idol

During the excavation of the wooden idol, archaeologists found an animal bone and what is thought to be a ‘ritual dagger’. The blade did not show evidence of use suggesting that, perhaps, it was made specifically for animal sacrifice. The Gortnacrannagh Idol remained intact due to the waterlogged conditions of the bog.

The “Gortnacrannagh Idol” measures over two and a half meters (8.2 ft.) high. Less than 15 similar idols have been found in Ireland and this one represents the largest discovered to date. The 1,600-year-old wooden pagan idol was carved from a split oak tree trunk during the Iron Age, which in Ireland occurred between 500 BC - 400 AD. The idol has been radiocarbon dated to between 252 and 413 A.D

A human-shaped head was carved at one end of the artifact and the body was marked with several horizontal notches. Dr Eve Campbell, Director of the AMS excavation site, told the Irish Examiner that ancient Celtic cultures regarded wetlands “as mystical places where they could connect with their gods and the Otherworld.”

Other Irish Wooden Idols

The Winter 2003 issue of Archaeology Ireland reported the discovery of a prehistoric alder-wood ‘figure’ in Kilbeg townland, Ballykeane Bog, County Offaly. The discovery was dated to the Bronze Age. ‘Red Man’ of Kilbeg was one of seven probable alder-wood idols deposited in the raised bogs of east Offaly in the early/late Bronze Age https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9QPoxrXxoA. The wooden idol was carved from curved alder roundwood (231 cm long, 16cm maximum diameter). It had been worked to a point at one end. Eleven notches 3cm apart had been cut across its width. It was radiocarbon dated to 1739-1530 BC.

Prior to 2001, only three prehistoric idols were known from Ireland all of which were recovered from wetlands. The oldest figure was recovered from the early medieval ‘royal’ crannog at Lagore, County Meath. It was 47cm in height and dated to the Early Bronze Age (2135-1944 BC). The second Bronze Age figure was dated to 1096-906 BC was discovered by turf cutters at Ralaghan, County Cavan. It was carved from yew and was 114cm in height. The third idol was discovered in Corlea, Co Longford. It was 5m tall and made form ash roundwood. One end was carved to a point while the other end has a carved neck and bulbous head. This item was incorporated within the sub-structure of an Iron Age (148 BC) trackway at Corlea.

“The lower ends of several figures were also worked to a point suggesting that they may once have stood upright,' stated wood specialist Cathy Moore. 'Their meaning is open to interpretation, but they may have marked special places in the landscape, have represented particular individuals or deities or perhaps have functioned as wooden bog bodies, sacrificed in lieu of humans.”

AMS archaeologist Dr. Eve Campbell, who directed the excavation of the site, said that the idol was likely to be a pagan god. 

"The Gortnacrannagh Idol was carved just over 100 years before St. Patrick came to Ireland — it is likely to be the image of a pagan deity. … Our ancestors saw wetlands as mystical places where they could connect with their gods and the Otherworld. The discovery of animal bone alongside a ritual dagger suggests that animal sacrifice was carried out at the site and the idol is likely to have been part of these ceremonies."

The idol is being conserved at University College Dublin and will eventually go on display at the National Museum of Ireland.

An early reconstruction of the Shigir Idol from 1894. Photo: courtesy Sverdlovsk Regional Museum 

The Shigir Idol

The most famous prehistoric wooden sculpture is the 12,500-year-old Shigir Idol, uncovered in a Russian peat bog which is the oldest known example of ritual art in the world. The incredible wooden sculpture was pulled from a peat bog in the western fringes of Siberia, Russia, 125 years ago. The Shigir idol is 2.8 meters (9.2 feet) long, though it was originally 5.3 meters (17.4 feet) before lengths of the artifact were accidentally destroyed during the Soviet era.

Head of the Shigir Idol, the world's oldest known wood sculpture. Photo: courtesy Sverdlovsk Regional Museum 

Doogarymore Wooden Wheel

In 1968/9 two warped fragments of pre-historic block wheels from the same period were found in the Roscommon bog. The National Museum of Ireland declared that these two artifacts were the earliest evidence of the wheel being used for transport on the island.

Doogarymore Wooden Wheel.
Photo: courtesy Flickr

The idol is now in University College Dublin, undergoing a three-year programme of preservation. The idol will be given to the National Museum of Ireland once the project is completed. Meanwhile, the AMS will make a replica of the Gortnacrannagh idol and donate it to the Rathcroghan Centre, where it will go on display.

Conclusion

The discovery of an Iron Age wooden idol near the ancient royal site of Rathcroghan has shone a light on pagan Ireland around a hundred years before the arrival of St Patrick. The Gortnacrannagh Idol remained intact due to the waterlogged conditions of the bog. It is thought that it may have formed part of an animal sacrifice. Less than 15 similar idols have been found in Ireland and this one represents the largest discovered to date.

For further information see:

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/pagan-idol-0015694

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/11000-years-old-new-dating-shigir-idol-reveals-it-oldest-wooden-sculpture-020504

https://roscommonherald.ie/2021/08/13/rare-artefact-from-iron-age-unearthed-near-rathcroghan/

Scientists hail stunning 'Dragon Man' discovery

 

Dragon Man Skull
Photo: BBC News Website

            Recently, the BBC News Website reported that Chinese researchers have unveiled an ancient skull that could belong to a completely new species of human. Scientists claim that it is our closest evolutionary relative among known species of ancient human, such as Neanderthals and Homo erectus. The specimen represents a human group that lived in East Asia at least 146,000 years ago.

Although the skull was found at Harbin, north-east China, in 1933, it only came to the attention of scientists recently. Prof Chris Stringer from London's Natural History Museum, a leading UK expert in human evolution, and a member of the research team, said:

"In terms of fossils in the last million years, this is one of the most important yet discovered… What you have here is a separate branch of humanity that is not on its way to becoming Homo sapiens (our species) but represents a long-separate lineage which evolved in the region for several hundred thousand years and eventually went extinct."

This remarkable discovery has the potential to rewrite the story of human evolution. Analysis suggests that it is more closely related to Homo sapiens than it is to Neanderthals.  Researchers have assigned the specimen to a new species: Homo longi, from the Chinese word "long", meaning dragon. The skull is huge compared with the average skulls belonging to other human species. Its brain was comparable in size to those from our species.

Artist's impression of what Dragon Man may have looked like
Photo: BBC News Website

            The Harbin human cranium is one of the best-preserved of all archaic human fossils, and important for understanding the diversification of the Homo genus and the origin of Homo sapiens. It represents a new human lineage evolving in East Asia and is       a member of the sister group of H. sapiens.

Around 100,000 years ago there were several different groups of humans including modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Neanderthals

The Neanderthals thrived in Europe for around 300,000 years before modern humans arrived. Excavations in Ibex, Vanguard, and Gorham’s Caves in Gibraltar have revealed evidence of Neanderthal occupation dating to possibly as late as 28,000 years ago. This makes Gibraltar the most recent Neanderthal occupation site yet discovered.

Reconstruction of what Neanderthals may have looked like

            Current research shows that Neanderthals were, and continue to be, an integral part of modern humanity. Our prehistoric cousins did not completely disappear from the earth, as their presence can still be identified within modern DNA. A jawbone from a man who lived 40,000 years ago reveals that six to nine percent of his genome is Neanderthal, the highest amount ever found in a modern human specimen. This remarkable find indicates that a Neanderthal was in his family as close as four generations back in his family tree - potentially his Great-Great Grandfather!

Denisovans

The Denisovans were a mysterious human species living in Asia before modern humans like us expanded across the world tens of thousands of years ago. Until recently, the only fossils came from a few fragments of bone and teeth from a single site in Siberia - Denisova Cave.

Artist's impression of a Denisovan

"In many ways, Denisovans resembled Neanderthals but in some traits, they resembled us and in others they were unique," said Prof Liran Carmel, a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Scientists have found evidence that the Denisovans lived at high altitudes in Tibet, passing on a gene that helps modern people cope at similar elevations Present-day Sherpas, Tibetans and neighbouring populations have a gene variant, which was probably acquired when Homo sapiens mixed with the Denisovans thousands of years ago.

Professor Jean Jacques Hublin, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said:

"We can only speculate that living in this kind of environment, any mutation that was favourable to breathing an atmosphere impoverished in oxygen would be retained by natural selection."

Nesher Ramla Homo Type

Researchers working in Israel have identified a previously unknown type of ancient human that lived alongside our species more than 100,000 years ago. They believe the remains uncovered near the city of Ramla represent one of the "last survivors" of a very ancient human group. The finds consist of a partial skull and jaw from an individual who lived between 140,000 and 120,000 years ago. The scientists have named the newly discovered lineage the "Nesher Ramla Homo type".

Skull fragment and jawbone found near Ramla in Israel
Photo: BBC News Website

            The team thinks that early members of the Nesher Ramla Homo group were already present in the Near East some 400,000 years ago.

Conclusion

Humans and chimpanzees are very closely related and separated about 7.4 million years ago. There is only a 1% difference between the chimpanzee genome and our own suggesting that we have a common ancestor.

A re-evaluation of early human remains and artefacts from Morocco has suggested that the advent of Homo sapiens may have to be put back by 100,000 years. Archaeologists and palaeontologists believe that the oldest of the fossils comes from 300,000 to 350,000 years ago.

Recent discoveries show that humans left Africa many times prior to 60,000 years ago, and that they interbred with other hominins in many locations across Eurasia. Around 50,000 years ago, an improvement in the global climate, leading to the appearance of habitable lands where once there was desert, may have provided the opportunity for modern humans to spread into Europe.

The Harbin skull represents a new human lineage evolving in East Asia and is a member of a sister group of H. sapiens that lived at least 146,000 years ago.

For more information see:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57432104

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57586315

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-49760240

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48107498

Irish Farmer Stumbles on ‘Untouched’ Ancient Tomb

 

Newly Discovered Tomb, Dingle
Photo: National Monuments Service, Ireland

Recently, a farmer conducting routine land improvement work uncovered an “untouched” ancient tomb on the Dingle Peninsula on Ireland’s southwest coast. The County Kerry farmer stumbled on the structure after turning over a rock and spotting a stone-lined passageway underneath it. Human bone fragments and a stone which may have been smoothed by human hands were also uncovered at the site.

Growing up in Ireland in the fifties and sixties, it was not unusual to read local newspaper reports of archaeological discoveries by farmers draining the land or undertaking other work. In those days much of the work was done by hand before JCBs became common place. People like my father received a Government grant to drain a field which often entailed digging up large pieces of bog oak. Many years later he would receive another grant to plant the same field, effectively, putting the wood back again.

The structure appears to consist of one large chamber with a second chamber off it. Archaeologists from the National Monument Services and the National Museum visited the site after being alerted by the farmer. Experts say the grave is in its original state and contains human remains, making it a unique archaeological find. The site’s exact location has not been disclosed to ensure it remains undisturbed.

“It is very well built, and a lot of effort has gone into putting the large cap stone over it,” archaeologist Mícheál Ó Coileáin told the Times. “It’s not a stone that was just found in the ground. It seems to have some significance.”

Archaeologists from the National Monuments Service and the National Museum visited the site after being alerted by a farmer.
Photo: Courtesy RTE

Archaeologists say the tomb is "untouched" and that some of its unusual features, including a mysterious oval-shaped stone inside, indicate that it could be an early example of an ancient burial.

Bronze Age

The tomb appears to be a "cist" or chamber tomb, consisting of an underground stone-lined structure built to contain one or several burials and capped with a large stone. Typically, such burials date to the Bronze Age, commencing around 2500 B.C. Only the central part of the structure has been unearthed so far, so the exact layout of the structure remains uncertain. However, what has been seen so far appears different from other ancient tombs in the same area.

"Given its location, orientation and the existence of the large slab your initial thought is this is a Bronze Age tomb," Mícheál Ó Coileáin told RTE. "But the design of this particular tomb is not like any of the other Bronze Age burial sites we have here.”

Another possibility is that the structure may be a souterrain (underground chamber) associated with the early Christian period. The presence of several ring forts in the area supports this theory. Souterrains were used for storage or for shelter but further research will be required to establish who built this megalithic structure and when.

The newly discovered tomb seen from the south-west.
Photo: National Monuments Service, Ireland

Ancient Irish tombs

The Dingle Peninsula is home to several wedge tombs dating back to the early Bronze Age. There have been several impressive finds in mid-Kerry and the Tralee area in recent years, indicating much older habitation than previously thought.

Ireland has thousands of ancient monuments and tombs. The most famous is the passage tomb at Newgrange, beside the River Boyne, which is aligned so that the rising midwinter sun shines down its internal passage and illuminates a chamber deep within. Recent research found that one of the Bronze Age people buried inside the Newgrange tomb was the son of parents who were probably brother and sister - a practice not uncommon in ancient royalty.

Newgrange is one of many tombs in the area known as the Brú na Bóinne Neolithic cemetery, which is listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO. Megalithic tombs are to be found throughout Ireland with concentrations in Co Sligo including Carrowmore and Carrowkeel cemeteries. Some megalithic tombs date from more than 5,000 years ago, making them older than both Stonehenge in England and the oldest pyramids in Egypt.

Conclusion

The Dingle stone structure is believed to be an ancient tomb, possibly dating from the Bronze Age, although this remains to be confirmed. The fact that it appears to be in its original state and contains human remains and a hand-worked stone, makes it a unique archaeological find. Further work will be required to establish the function of the structure, who built it and when.

For further information see:

https://www.livescience.com/ancient-chamber-tomb-untouched-in-ireland.html

https://www.rte.ie/news/2021/0416/1210287-tombs-kerry-dingle-peninsula/

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/ancient-tomb-discovered-by-farmer-on-dingle-peninsula-1.4539731