News
Sands of time yield up archaeological treasure
Two battle axes that are up to 6,000 years old have been found washed up along the shore at two Galway City beaches.
The city’s heritage officer, Jim Higgins made the discovery of the prehistoric stone axes at Ballyloughane Beach in Renmore and at Salthill, just west of Blackrock.
Mr Higgins, an archaeologist, made the discovery following a preliminary ‘scoping’ exercise of the city’s coastline that was damaged by Winter storms.
He has applied for funding from the National Heritage Council to carry out a more in-depth survey to try to find more artefacts disturbed during the storms in December, January and February.
“I am absolutely certain that there are more artefacts out there that have been displaced by the storms,” said Mr Higgins.
One of the axes is 20 centimetres in length and about seven centimetres wide. It dates between 4000BC to 2000BC, he said.
The finds have been reported to the National Museum as is required by law for all discoveries of artefacts.
As well as the two axes, Mr Higgins found several other important artefacts that range in dates from prehistoric to post medieval times. Among the other artefacts discovered at Renmore was pottery dating to the 17th century.
Mr Higgins said Galway Museum was now a dedicated museum space to host artefacts of this nature and he hoped that the axes would be displayed there.
“I was just delighted to discover them – I’m an archaeologist and so I knew straight away the significance of them. I am absolutely certain there are more artefacts out there.”
For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.