Further examination of the lower limbs of a body found in a Co Offaly bog will determine whether the victim was part of ritual murders which were carried out about 2,000 years ago.
While only a portion of the body was discovered by the Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit which was carrying out development work for Bord na Mona, other items found at the site indicate that this may indeed have been a ritual killing.
Hundreds of bodies of men and women who were stripped naked and strangled have turned up in bogs across northern Europe, dating from before the time of Christ until about 500 AD.
Other items found beside the body at Leamonaghan bog, which include a number of wooden stakes, fragments of metal and a short length of rope-like material, have given greater credence to the theory of ritual killing.
However, according to Dr Raghnall O Floinn of the National Museum, an expert from the Netherlands who visited the site just before the find was taken away determined that the peat in which it was recovered may have been a swamp-hole.
"This might indicate that the person just fell into a bog hole but the fact that no clothing or remnants of clothing were found there would tend to indicate that the person died naked. The bog bodies which have been found and are thought to have been ritually slain were naked. This was either part of the ritual or as punishment," he said.
"There are two schools of thought. On one hand there are those who believe that there was some sort of ritual killing for religious reasons. The other school of thought is that the victims broke the rules of society and were executed, which in itself is a ritual." Dr O Floinn said the remains, along with other bones found in the area, were taken to the National Museum where further examination would reveal more. "We are very interested because it is the first time in 40 years that a bog body from this date has been discovered. Our most famous bog body, the Gallagh, Co Galway find, dates to the 1820s," he said.
He added that Dr Marie Delaney of Trinity College Dublin, who was there when the body was removed from the bog, was one of the experts working on the mystery. "We should know more when our work is complete," he said.