Irish museum solves mystery of bronze age axe heads
September 9, 2024 9:15 PM Subscribe
Irish museum solves mystery of bronze age axe heads delivered in porridge box.
When the national museum of Ireland received two 4,000-year-old axe heads, thoughtfully wrapped in foam inside a porridge box, from an anonymous source, it put out an appeal. The objects were significant and exciting, it said, but experts needed to know more about where exactly they had been found.
Now they have their answer: a farmer from County Westmeath has come forward as the mysterious sender, saying he made the discovery while using a metal detector on his land.
Thomas Dunne said he had found the items by chance on his silage field at Banagher at the end of June. "I was cutting silage [grass fodder for beef cattle] one day and a bit of metal fell off a mower," he told the Irish Times.
He said: "We started looking for it then because we thought it might go into the silage harvester and break it up. So, I got a man with a metal detector to look for it and that’s how it was found. It was in the side of a field underneath a row of beech trees; there would have been ancient forts on the land around here."
When the national museum of Ireland received two 4,000-year-old axe heads, thoughtfully wrapped in foam inside a porridge box, from an anonymous source, it put out an appeal. The objects were significant and exciting, it said, but experts needed to know more about where exactly they had been found.
Now they have their answer: a farmer from County Westmeath has come forward as the mysterious sender, saying he made the discovery while using a metal detector on his land.
Thomas Dunne said he had found the items by chance on his silage field at Banagher at the end of June. "I was cutting silage [grass fodder for beef cattle] one day and a bit of metal fell off a mower," he told the Irish Times.
He said: "We started looking for it then because we thought it might go into the silage harvester and break it up. So, I got a man with a metal detector to look for it and that’s how it was found. It was in the side of a field underneath a row of beech trees; there would have been ancient forts on the land around here."
I have to applaud the farmer for trying to do the right thing instead of chucking them away or finding a black market outlet.
One assumes the metal detection law is based on historical grave-robbing/melting down of gold/general fuckery? You don't have rules like that for no reason.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 12:37 AM on September 10 [4 favorites]
One assumes the metal detection law is based on historical grave-robbing/melting down of gold/general fuckery? You don't have rules like that for no reason.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 12:37 AM on September 10 [4 favorites]
I like stories like this where everyone is reasonable and things work out. The farmer hired someone who found them accidentally. He knew they needed to be preserved, so he sent them to the museum, but didn't want to face the prospective fine in finding archeological stuff via a metal detector. When he came forward, they understood what happened and kept to the spirit of the law, which i_am_joe's_spleen points out is to avoid grave robbery etc. and now are doing surveys of the land. Wins for everyone involved, something that brightens my day.
posted by Hactar at 2:33 AM on September 10 [13 favorites]
posted by Hactar at 2:33 AM on September 10 [13 favorites]
Perhaps I'm projecting too much, and someone Irish really needs to weigh in here, but I also live in a small slightly informally-run country, and this brings a lot of problems, but it can also allow everyone to behave with due sense and discretion to get the right outcome. Occasionally this makes up for the times when we converge on a bonkers wrong one. I feel I recognise this cultural pattern.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:00 AM on September 10 [4 favorites]
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:00 AM on September 10 [4 favorites]
@i_am_Joe's_spleen
Well, we're informal to an extent and probably in many cases less rigidly bureaucratic than a lot of places.
As comedian Dara O'Briain points out there are basically three states of legality in Ireland.
1. That's grand.
2. Ah now - don't push it.
3. Right, now you're taking the piss (police involved at this level)
So this axe head case probably comes in at level 1.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 3:18 AM on September 10 [29 favorites]
Well, we're informal to an extent and probably in many cases less rigidly bureaucratic than a lot of places.
As comedian Dara O'Briain points out there are basically three states of legality in Ireland.
1. That's grand.
2. Ah now - don't push it.
3. Right, now you're taking the piss (police involved at this level)
So this axe head case probably comes in at level 1.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 3:18 AM on September 10 [29 favorites]
It is against the law in Ireland to search for archaeological objects using a metal detector unless written permission has been given.
The prior written consent of the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, that is.
posted by zamboni at 5:52 AM on September 10
The prior written consent of the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, that is.
posted by zamboni at 5:52 AM on September 10
Mod note: This was fun little mystery to highlight, so we've added the post to the sidebar and Best Of blog!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 7:01 AM on September 10 [1 favorite]
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 7:01 AM on September 10 [1 favorite]
When the museum received the anonymous axe heads, it issued an appeal calling for more information, saying it was “crucial to know the exact location where they were found” for “reasons that could range from ritualistic to supernatural”
I like how this makes it sound like the museum itself needed the information for ritual or supernatural reasons. "At last, we can complete the ancient rites!"
posted by jedicus at 7:57 AM on September 10 [20 favorites]
I like how this makes it sound like the museum itself needed the information for ritual or supernatural reasons. "At last, we can complete the ancient rites!"
posted by jedicus at 7:57 AM on September 10 [20 favorites]
"Oh crap, someone disturbed the four thousand year old seal. We've got to repair it before....."
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:06 AM on September 10 [2 favorites]
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:06 AM on September 10 [2 favorites]
That's Ace! I was going to post a ploddy recent RTE report on the inventory of 2,000 old artifacts sent into the National Museum between Jul 2023 and Jul 2024; which includes the Flahavan's Oat Axe Heads as a mystery. I am so glad that was cleared up, Thanks cpbc. It also mentions the max fine for unauthorized metal-detectory as €63,486 which is exactly £50,000 in old (pre 01 01 2002) money.
I went with my 20-something daughter to the National Museum (Archaeology) last week for the first time since she was a tot and it was . . . wonderful. With help from an attendant we found the Broighter Boat, whc is just dinky-doo gorgeous. The museum is Free In which makes is better than wonderful: warm and dry on a drizzly lunch-break. Lunch in Dublin is fabulously expensive so it's nice to have an alternative. I'll go an collect my commis from Bord Fáilte, now.
posted by BobTheScientist at 8:08 AM on September 10 [3 favorites]
I went with my 20-something daughter to the National Museum (Archaeology) last week for the first time since she was a tot and it was . . . wonderful. With help from an attendant we found the Broighter Boat, whc is just dinky-doo gorgeous. The museum is Free In which makes is better than wonderful: warm and dry on a drizzly lunch-break. Lunch in Dublin is fabulously expensive so it's nice to have an alternative. I'll go an collect my commis from Bord Fáilte, now.
posted by BobTheScientist at 8:08 AM on September 10 [3 favorites]
The museum is Free In
You have to pay to leave?
posted by zamboni at 9:09 AM on September 10 [2 favorites]
You have to pay to leave?
posted by zamboni at 9:09 AM on September 10 [2 favorites]
Isn't this how you get a new King or maybe this is the magic weapon needed to be in the hands of some unassuming orphan to defeat true evil?
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:56 AM on September 10
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:56 AM on September 10
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical archaeological ceremony.
posted by zamboni at 10:02 AM on September 10 [2 favorites]
posted by zamboni at 10:02 AM on September 10 [2 favorites]
>> The museum is Free In
> You have to pay to leave?
If you stay long enough, you become an exhibit.
posted by nickzoic at 5:14 PM on September 10 [1 favorite]
> You have to pay to leave?
If you stay long enough, you become an exhibit.
posted by nickzoic at 5:14 PM on September 10 [1 favorite]
@GallonofAlan
Fully translatable.
1. Yeah no worries
2. Yeah nah
3. Yeah that's just not good enough
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:20 PM on September 10 [1 favorite]
Fully translatable.
1. Yeah no worries
2. Yeah nah
3. Yeah that's just not good enough
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:20 PM on September 10 [1 favorite]
When the museum received the anonymous axe heads, it issued an appeal calling for more information, saying it was “crucial to know the exact location where they were found” for “reasons that could range from ritualistic to supernatural”
I like how this makes it sound like the museum itself needed the information for ritual or supernatural reasons. "At last, we can complete the ancient rites!"
Best case scenario, you've fucked up our rites, Worst case scenario - wrath of the gods!
posted by Emmy Rae at 7:51 PM on September 10
I like how this makes it sound like the museum itself needed the information for ritual or supernatural reasons. "At last, we can complete the ancient rites!"
Best case scenario, you've fucked up our rites, Worst case scenario - wrath of the gods!
posted by Emmy Rae at 7:51 PM on September 10
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posted by mrzarquon at 11:20 PM on September 9 [2 favorites]