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Monday, September 14, 2009

How did 2,000-year-old feet find their way to a Dublin attic?


From the Irish Times:


EXPERTS FROM the National Museum are still trying to explain how two human feet dating from 2,000 years ago were found in an attic in a house in the Terenure area of Dublin last December.

The human remains, a foot from a young child and the foot of an adult male with part of the lower leg attached, turned up during renovation work on the house in south Dublin.

The builders informed the gardaĆ­ who in turn called in the Dublin City Coroner Dr Brian Farrell, who ordered the remains be sent to Dublin City Mortuary for postmortem examination.

According to a report in the autumn edition of Archaeology Ireland to be published this week under the heading “Not One Foot in The Grave but two Feet in the Attic”, the mystery is unresolved.

During his examination, Dr Farrell and other scientists concluded the two mummified right feet had come from an adult and from a child. There were no signs of antemortem injuries or cut marks.

The foot of the male adult had part of the lower leg attached although the stretching and tearing of the muscle fibres suggest it had been pulled off a body, said the report.

“It closely resembled a bog body in appearance, as it had the dark brown, almost black colour seen in recent bog bodies such as Oldcroghan Man and Cloneycavan Man,” the report continued.

Get the rest of this article here


1 comment:

  1. Whoa, the adult leg appeared to be pulled off? I feel queasy.

    ReplyDelete

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