Gods in the Bog
Above: The statue recovered from the bog! Credit: AMS
An eight foot tall wood statue from 1,600 years ago has been discovered in an Irish peat bog that researchers believe was a totem to a pagan deity. Along with the statue, animal bones and a dagger were found suggesting the site may have had some ritual purpose to the ancient peoples who crafted it. One specialist said that it may have even functioned as a stand in for a human sacrifice.
When preserving artifacts, you often have to provide on strong construction, a safe environment, and a lot of luck. The pyramids, the pantheon, and medieval castles all have this in common. Some sites though, like the bogs in Ireland or Pompeii for instance, are able to naturally capture and preserve things for thousands of years. Learn more about the statue at Smithsonian Mag here!
An eight foot tall wood statue from 1,600 years ago has been discovered in an Irish peat bog that researchers believe was a totem to a pagan deity. Along with the statue, animal bones and a dagger were found suggesting the site may have had some ritual purpose to the ancient peoples who crafted it. One specialist said that it may have even functioned as a stand in for a human sacrifice.
When preserving artifacts, you often have to provide on strong construction, a safe environment, and a lot of luck. The pyramids, the pantheon, and medieval castles all have this in common. Some sites though, like the bogs in Ireland or Pompeii for instance, are able to naturally capture and preserve things for thousands of years. Learn more about the statue at Smithsonian Mag here!
Cool Things!
The Stellar Object on its Way Out of Our Galaxy
A Binary Star System of Sirius A and Sirius B. Sirius B is a white dwarf, which is left over remn...
The Power of Neolithic Engineering
The entrance to Dolmen of Menga
Post Author - Ellis Nolan
When we think of the origins of science...
The Lost City of Hydrothermal Vents
A black smoker hydrothermal vent. (source: Schmidt Ocean Institute.)
Post Author - J. Carlin Deck...
Specimen Deep Dives
The Tethys Ocean: A Lost Prehistoric Sea
Endless and eternal are two words most often associated with the sea. Yet, like so many structure...
The Great Dying: Permian-Triassic Extinction Event
Our planet has gone through many different cycles of life and death over the last 4.5 billion yea...
Crossing the Thames: the Many London Bridges
The London Bridge has been an iconic structure in film, literature, and nursery rhyme, but the br...
Long Form Articles
Amelia Earhart & The Women Who Soared
When Amelia Earhart touched down in Northern Ireland in 1932, she was instantly propelled to ...
How the Dinosaurs Got their Feathers
66 million years ago, the K/PG extinction event brought the Age of Dinosaurs to a violent end. Ho...
Paleoart: Bringing the Past to Life
What do you see when you imagine a dinosaur? Whatever image springs to mind owes itself to the wo...