The skeleton found on an archaeological dig on the Southern Ring Road in Co Limerick cannot be removed until the Wildlife Service has found a way to extricate it from a badger set. Mr Frank Coyne, a director of Aegis Archaeology, a Limerick company, said that after gardai were informed the skeleton was forensically examined and was of archaeological interest only. He said he believed the skeleton dated from the Iron Age, based on sites nearby.
"We got more than 20 flint tools and artefacts, including a barbed arrowhead, in the same field. That would indicate that activity in that area at least dates from 2,500BC."
The skeleton, found in the Ballysimon area, appears to be covered with flat slabs, as if formally buried in a pre-Christian tradition. But badgers, a protected species, have built a set underneath and around the skeleton. "We know it has been there for the last couple of months. We are waiting to get the go-ahead from the Wildlife Service," Mr Coyne said.
After excavation, the company will apply for a licence from the National Museum to take a sample from the skeleton and send it to a company in Miami which specialises in radiocarbon-dating.
Two sets of skeletal remains, recently found at a building site in Nenagh, are also due to be sent to the US.
They were buried in a north-south direction, suggesting that they were of pre-Christian origin.
The Southern Ring Road project involves the construction of a 14km dual carriageway around the east of Limerick which will connect the Dublin and Cork roads between Annacotty and Adare.
Mr Coyne said five sites of particular archaeological interest had been discovered on a preliminary top-soil plough when work began last summer.
One of the sites, a fulacht fiadh or burnt mount, contains the remains of a cooking place, normally associated with the prehistoric period.
A ring pin and a strap tag dating from the medieval period were among artefacts found and have been sent for conservation. "It is a curious find given that burnt mounts are generally not supposed to date from that period," Mr Coyne said.
Also uncovered at different sites were a medieval structure with a corn-drying kiln and a D-shaped enclosure containing glass beads, part of a glass armlet and funerary pottery shards with cremated bone.
"We got the top of a human skull which was associated with the glass beads and iron artefacts," Mr Coyne said.
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Readers who want to contact Eibhir Mulqueen can leave messages for him by phoning 01-6707711, ext 6544 emulqueen@irish-times.ie