A routine day cutting turf on the bog ended in a significant discovery for Louisburgh farmer Owen McNally last week, when he unearthed a perfectly intact 2,500-year-old Iron Age cauldron. Mr McNally was hand cutting turf on his bog at Knockeen, near Cregganbaun on the Killeen to Louisburgh Road on May 21 last, when his traditional sléan struck a solid object at 5.20pm. He decided to peel back some layers of peat to investigate the occurrence further and, to his amazement, found the large bowl-like object two feet under the surface.
It has since been identified by the National Museum of Ireland’s keeper of antiquities, Eamonn Kelly, as an Iron Age cauldron which would have been used for feasting. It was most likely deposited in the bog as an offering to the gods as part of an ancient kinship or sovereignty ritual. The cauldron, which is six inches deep and has a circumference of one foot at the rim, is hand-carved from wood, though the exact type will have to be determined by experts at a later stage.
Link & Image: Mayo News
Tags: Cauldron | Iron Age | Feast
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