A Storm Blew Over a 215-Year-Old Tree and Unearthed a Medieval Mystery

WHEN locals ventured out to inspect a downed tree following a violent storm they didn’t expect to find a skeleton dangling from its roots.

The National Monuments Service had the Silgo-Leitrim archaeological consultancy Archaeological Services retrieve the remains.

The skeleton was discovered in Collooney, a town in Sligo County, and further analysis of the remains identified it as a 17 to 20-year-old man who “suffered a violent death during the early medieval period”, dying sometime between 1030 and 1200 AD based on radiocarbon dating. Who this man was, however, remains a mystery for now. This isn’t the first time humans remains have been found in the area. His bones contained several injuries which had been inflicted by a sharp blade, possibly a sword or knife.

Dr Dowd said: ‘We don’t know whether he died in a battle or whether this was a case of a personal dispute that ended in death’. Hence, when the tree was uprooted, the skeleton was broken in half.

The legs, however, remained buried.

“As excavations go, this was certainly an unusual situation”, said Dr Marion Dowd of Sligo-Leitrim Archaeological Services.

Ancient bones… The lower part of the skeleton was left in the soil. “Effectively as the tree collapsed, it snapped the skeleton in two”, Dowd said.

Though his resting place was shallow and haphazardly dug, researchers wrote in a Facebook post that the young man “had been given a formal Christian burial”.

Despite being trapped in the tree’s root system, the skeleton told a fascinating story. He was laid to rest in a grave, his body was arranged in an east-west position and his hands were carefully folded over his pelvic region.