The Ancient Tomb is thougBy Slongy – Own work, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia
On the Dingle Peninsula, a section of land on the southwest coast of Ireland, a farmer who was doing routine work to improve the land recently discovered an ancient tomb that was “untouched.”
The resident of County Kerry stumbled upon the structure after turning over a rock and spotting a stone-lined passageway beneath it, as Seán Mac an tSthigh reports for Irish broadcaster RTÉ.
The chamber was surveyed by archaeologists from the National Monuments Service (NMS) and the National Museum of Ireland.
They found that it probably existed between 2000 and 500 B.C., but it could be older.ht to be from the Bronze Age or even earlier, according to archaeologists.
By User Kglavin on en.wikipedia – pdphoto.org, Public Domain, Wikimedia
According to RTÉ, an archaeologist by the name of Mcheál Coileáin, “Given its location, orientation, and the existence of the large slab, your initial thought is that this is a Bronze Age tomb.”
However, unlike the other Bronze Age burial sites we have here, this tomb’s design is unique.
Specialists say the grave is in its unique state and contains human remaining parts, making it an extraordinary archeological find, as per Irish Focal’s Catherine Devane.
To ensure that the site is unaffected, NMS chose to conceal its precise location.
Ronan McGreevy writes for the Irish Times that the tomb consists of a large space and a smaller chamber that is adjacent to it.
By Coil00, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia
Inside the underground passageway, researchers also discovered what appeared to be human bone fragments and an odd, oblong stone.
Coileáin tells the Times, “It is very well built, and a lot of effort has gone into putting the large cap stone over it.
It is not a stone that was discovered by accident.It appears to be significant.
The Dingle Peninsula is well-known for the numerous archaeological finds it has produced.
The landmass has been inhabited for approximately 6,000 years, and approximately 2,000 ancient monuments are still visible in the vicinity.
According to Seán Nualláin of Expedition magazine, key discoveries made on the peninsula include wedge tombs whose chambers “form a long, relatively narrow gallery which decreases in height and width from front to rear.”
By Sémhur – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia
Most of the time, these graves face west and southwest;According to RTÉ, some of them have unusual features like porticos at their western ends.
Breandán Cobháin, an archaeologist and authority on place names, tells RTÉ that much of the newly discovered tomb “remains hidden underground, [so] it is difficult to fully assess the layout.”
The Times reports that scholars speculate that the grave could be either an underground mausoleum from Ireland’s early Christian period or a chambered tomb from the Bronze Age.
Coileáin tells the Times that “this one seems to be different.”While most wedge tombs can be seen from above, this one is completely hidden.
