Leitrim human remains date to at least 5,300 years ago

Human remains discovered almost a century ago in a megalithic tomb in Co Leitrim have been dated to 5,300-5,600 years ago.

This date places them earlier than remains associated with Newgrange and Stonehenge, two of Ireland and Britain's best-known prehistoric monuments.

The bones, found at Sheebeg near Keshcarrigan during an unlicensed excavation in Christmas week 1930, have been stored in the National Museum of Ireland since 1931.

Recent osteoarchaeological analysis and radiocarbon dating has confirmed the remains are those of an adult male and a probable adult female from the early middle neolithic period.

The Sheebeg cairn in south Leitrim has long been associated in local folklore with Fionn Mac Cumhaill and with Turlough O’Carolan’s composition Sí Bheag, Sí Mhór.

The 1930 discovery attracted global newspaper coverage at the time, with more than 219 news reports appearing between January 1931 and January 1932.

Local schoolteacher John O’Hara alongside amateur archaeologist and landowner Peter O’Connell uncovered the remains during an unlicensed excavation of the tomb.

In January 1931, Mr O’Hara brought some of the skeletal material to the National Museum of Ireland, where it remained in storage for more than 90 years.

The renewed examination of the bones came after neuroscientist Professor Peter Halligan, a grandson of Mr O’Connell, sought permission from the museum to have the remains formally assessed.

Osteoarchaeologist Dr Niamh Daly said radiocarbon dating carried out at Queens University Belfast had identified "an individual roaming this landscape 5,600 to 5,300 years ago".

Osteoarchaeological analysis, she conducted confirmed the bones were human remains.

"We are looking at a date that is contemporary to the evidence we have from Carrowkeel and Carrowmore in Sligo but significantly earlier than the Boyne passage tombs, which is really interesting," Dr Daly said.

Dr Daly said the two mandibles examined belonged to an adult male and a probable adult female.

A number of loose teeth were also found with the remains, including two which did not appear to belong to either individual, suggesting the presence of a third person.

Both Dr Daly and Professor Halligan, have co-authored a paper called 'new light on old bones, revisiting the 1930 Sheebeg excavation’.

It is published in Archaeology Ireland.

Professor Halligan said his interest in the Sheebeg bones was driven by the family connection and by unanswered questions about what had been found.

"When I retired, I discovered that the bones were still there at the museum," he said.

"But we didn’t know if they were animal or human," he added.

On investigation, he said, "I was told that they were human".

"That got me thinking that it would be interesting to find out who these people were," he said.

The professor said his grandfather and Mr O’Hara, who had a degree in archaeology, excavated the cairn after reading about the site and its associations.

Within days, they uncovered remains which Mr O’Hara brought to Dublin.

The excavation took place in December 1930, eight months after the National Monuments Act 1930 came into effect, the previous April.

Professor Halligan said the legislation was not widely understood locally at the time and that no prosecution followed.

"It wasn’t a licensed excavation," he said, adding "the National Monuments Act came into effect in April 1930".

He said: "This was in December 1930.

"The OPW and gardaí at the time fully understood that most people didn’t know about it."

The story quickly became a matter of public interest, drawing visitors to the site and global press coverage.

It appeared in newspapers across the world, including China, the US and Australia.

Professor Halligan said some reports were clearly exaggerated or inaccurate, but the attention was significant for the early 1930s.

"It’s quite phenomenal, to have that [publicity] in the 1930s, but much of it was fictionalised," he said.

"They thought Sheebeg was a granite mountain apparently," he added.

The professor said the "extent to which it was reported in America before Ireland, is quite interesting and still unexplained".

"It became, for a short period, quite an incredible source of interest for this small part of Leitrim," he said.

Sheebeg stands on a raised promontory facing Sheemore, a landscape deeply associated with folklore and music.

The area is linked to stories of Fionn Mac Cumhaill, while Turlough O’Carolan’s first composition, Sí Bheag, Sí Mhór, is associated with the two hills.

Professor Halligan said that while he had already concluded the remains could not be those of the mythological 3rd century Fionn Mac Cumhaill, he wanted to understand what his grandfather had encountered in 1930.

"It was an itch I wanted to resolve," he said, adding:"What was he looking at when he found it? It was a bit of closure."

He said he hoped future generations would be able to appreciate the significance of the cairns but also the questions they continue to raise about the people who lived in the area more than 5,000 years ago.

"There are lots more questions," he said.

"It’s only the start and by no means the end," he added.

Seven middle neolithic passage tombs have been identified in the immediate vicinity of Sheebeg, near Keshcarrigan.

Archaeologist Sam Moore said the new dating is significant because it provides an early radiocarbon date for a passage tomb in south Leitrim

He said: "It suggests that this place is significant in that it's older than places like the Boyne Valley, Knockroe in Kilkenny and the Mound of the Hostages in Tara.

"This is the middle of the Neolithic period. These are the first farmers in Ireland.

"The Neolithic begins with the import of people with domesticated plants and animals.

"Where did the people come from? We don't really know.

"We know that the genetics are suggesting that they originate in Anatolia - modern day Turkey."

He said further survey work at Sheebeg may help archaeologists better understand the wider passage tomb landscape in the area, work he hopes to carry out.