Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
The discovery of an ancient Book of Psalms in a bog in the south Irish midlands was hailed on Tuesday by the National Museum as the country's equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Psalter was uncovered by a bulldozer last Thursday, according to a statement from the museum which describes it as "the greatest find ever from a European bog."
"It is impossible to say how the manuscript ended up in the bog. It may have been lost in transit or dumped after a raid, possibly more than 1,000 to 1,200 years ago."
The pages appear to be those of a slim, large format book with a wraparound vellum or leather cover from which the book block has slipped.
"It is not so much the fragments themselves, but what they represent, that is of such staggering importance," said Museum director Pat Wallace.
"In my wildest hopes, I could only have dreamed of a discovery as fragile and rare as this.
"It testifies to the incredible richness of the Early Christian civilisation of this island and to the greatness of ancient Ireland."
Raghnall O Floinn, head of collections at the Museum, estimates that there are about 45 letters per line and a maximum of 40 lines per page.
"While part of Psalm 83 is legible, the extent to which other Psalms or additional texts are preserved will only be determined by painstaking work by a team of invited experts probably operating over a long time in the Museum laboratory," the statement said.
Bernard Meehan, head of manuscripts at Dublin's Trinity College university has been invited to advise on the context and background of the manuscript, its production, and its time.
"He reckons that this is the first discovery of an Irish Early Medieval manuscript in two centuries.
"Initial impressions place the composition date of the manuscript at about 800 AD. How soon after this date it was lost we may never know," the statement said.
Arts Minister John O' Donoghue said "this most fortunate of discoveries testifies to the high achievements of our Early Christian civilisation and to the responsibility of the present generation in the preservation of our unparalleled legacy from the past".
Extensive Irish turf bogs, most of them in the country's midlands, have yielded up a wide range of preserved items involved with aspects of Irish history.
The Museum is currently running a major exhibition "Kingship and Sacrifice" centred on two bodies found preserved in bogs.
The bog bodies were found on ancient boundaries and have highlighted a theory their execution and burial was associated with sovereignty and kingship rituals during the Iron Age.
Research has also indicated that there is other related material connected with inauguration rituals of kings and that these rituals can be traced back into the Bronze Age.
A team of 35 specialists, including researchers from Ireland, Britain and Denmark, did extensive tests on the bodies. Even their fingerprints were preserved.
The indications are that the two men were sacrificed and placed on the boundaries of ancient royal estates or on the boundaries of tribal lands.
One body, known as Oldcroghan man, has been dated to the early Iron Age -- between 362-175BC.
The remains of the 6 foot 3 inch man consist of a severed torso, which was also decapitated in antiquity.
He died from a series of wounds, first a stab wound to his chest, and was then fastened down by means of sticks tied through cuts made in his upper arms.
The second body, known as Clonycavan Man, was about 5 foot 2 inches tall. He was killed by a series of blows to his head and chest, from a heavy, edged weapon.
He had a very distinctive hairstyle with the hair on the back of his head clipped short, to about an inch long, and the rest of his hair, which was about a foot long, was gathered into a bundle on the top of his head in a style referred to as a Swabian knot.
This correlates with hairstyles of other Iron Age bog bodies found in Europe.
ab/lc/stu
Ireland-history-archaeology
AFP 251721 GMT 07 06
COPYRIGHT 2004 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.
