Pagan bog idol may have overseen animal sacrifices
Excavation at Gortnacrannagh, Co Roscommon, has uncovered a unique wooden idol carved around AD350. Although other, prehistoric figures have been found in Irish bogs, this is the only known example to have been made shortly before St Patrick’s Christian n mission. In two parts and missing its s base, the oak figure would originally y have been some 3m tall.
The idol was found in 2020 during g investigations by Archaeological Management Solutions ( AMS) in advance of the N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge road project. Excavation, only recently finished, revealed over 100 sites along the 30km route. At Gortnacrannagh a wetland environment had developed d at the edge of a glacial ridge beside a river, which had both attracted human man activity and preserved quantities of organic remains. These range in date e from Late Neolithic (with Grooved d Ware pottery) to early medieval, with th a focus particularly on Late Bronze Age ge to Iron Age (1200bc– AD400).
Eve Campbell, senior archaeologist ist at
AMS and the site director, told British sh Archaeology that the idol first appeared red “looking like a big log”, and had perhaps haps been deliberately buried lying face down. No direct evidence has yet been een identified to show it once stood upright, right, but comparable, smaller Bronze Age e figures made with alder wood are known to have been standing. The back is roughly worked, and the front bears nine unevenly spaced horizontal notches, rising to a small human-like head above shoulders at the top end.
The figure has been radiocarbondated directly to AD250– 415. Campbell sa said the archaeologists were thinking of St Patrick when they dubbed it an idol, id as he chastised the pagan Irish for worshipping w “idols and unclean things”.
Many artefacts were recovered nearby ne from a succession of brushwood, , roundwood ro and stone platforms, and from fr a brushwood trackway. An iron dagger da blade and a separate bone handle e were w found near the figure. Other items s fr from the site include a Late Bronze A Age disc-headed copper-alloy pin, tw two further iron blades and an iron sp spearhead, an ard and wooden vessel fr fragments, bone pins and other worked bone bo objects, and an early medieval ring-headed ri pin.
The Topographic Files of the N National Museum indicate that human skulls sk have been found in Owenur River r close cl to the site, and ten human cranial fragments fr were recovered in the dig. Excavated E animal bones include a complete co deer and the skull of a large stag st with antlers, and at least four articulated ar dogs, with the skulls of five more m and further canine mandibles. Significant Si quantities of cattle, sheep or goat go and pig bones were also recovered. Campbell C wonders if animal sacrifice occurred oc at the site. Everything was recorded re in 3dwith high precision, she ad adds: “I will be able to test such theories ag against the data.”