8-foot-tall pagan idol unearthed in Irish bog

By Tom Metcalfe 1 day ago

Pagans carved it before Ireland converted to Christianity.



The 1,600-year-old wooden idol was found in a bog in County Roscommon in the west of Ireland. It seems to have been deliberately broken in two. (Image credit: John Channing/Archaeological Management Solutions)

A 1,600-year-old pagan idol, made from a wooden pole carved from an oak tree, has been unearthed in a bog in western Ireland.

Archaeologists say the idol dates to the very late stage of pagan Ireland, only about 100 years before the conversion of the Irish to Christianity during the mission of St. Patrick in the fifth century.

The idol appears to have been broken in two — a common practice with sacrificial objects, perhaps signifying that it was "dead" and could no longer be used — and deliberately deposited in the bog, maybe as a substitute for a human sacrifice or "bog body," according to the archaeologists.

The excavations show that the site in the rural area of Gortnacrannagh, in County Roscommon, was considered a pagan holy place for thousands of years, Eve Campbell, an archaeologist at Archaeological Management Solutions who led excavations at the site, told Live Science.

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