Discovery of 8,000-year-old settlement is ‘mind-blowing’

Discovery of 8,000-year-old settlement is ‘mind-blowing’

Archaeologists searching for the remains of a 400-year-old castle have unexpectedly found evidence of an 8,000-year-old settlement.

The team from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) was hoping to find the ruins of Derrygonnelly Castle in County Fermanagh, but they also discovered artefacts dating back to the Mesolithic period.

Prof Eileen Murphy of the Centre of Community Archaeology at QUB said the find was “mind-blowing”.

“With archaeology you never know what you’re going to find. We’ve actually been able to push the date of this site back from the 400 years we were looking for to about 8,000 or 9,000 years ago, to the time of Ireland’s first settlers in the early Mesolithic.”

Read full article Derrygonnelly : ‘Mind-blowing’ discovery of 8,000-year-old settlement – BBC News