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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/fro...813781160.html
Discovery in midlands bog 'of staggering importance'
26/07/2006
The discovery of an ancient manuscript in a bog in the midlands has been described by the National Museum of Ireland as of "staggering importance", writes Ruadhán Mac Cormaic.
Fragments of what appear to be an ancient psalter, or Book of Psalms, were uncovered by a bulldozer in a bog in the south midlands last Thursday.
It is estimated that it could be between 1,000 and 1,200-years-old and staff at the museum said yesterday its discovery was an Irish equivalent to that of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The director of the National Museum of Ireland, Dr Pat Wallace, said the find was of "staggering importance" and that its survival until now was "a miracle".
"In my wildest hopes, I could only have dreamed of a discovery as fragile and rare as this. It testifies to the incredible richness of the early Christian civilisation of this island and to the greatness of ancient Ireland," he said.
The artefact comprises extensive fragments of what appear to be an Irish early Christian psalter, written on vellum. The pages appear to be those of a slim, large format book with a wraparound vellum or leather cover from which the book block has slipped.
Specialists do not know how the manuscript ended up in the bog, but speculated that it may have been lost in transit, or dumped after a raid.
The farmer on whose land it was found notified museum staff immediately, and it was brought to the museum's conservation laboratory at Collins Barracks in Dublin by a team of specialists on Friday.
According to Raghnall Ó Floinn, head of collections at the museum, there are about 45 letters per line and a maximum of 40 lines per page.
While part of Psalm 83 is legible, the extent to which other psalms or additional texts are preserved will be determined only by painstaking work by a team of experts. It is possible that the manuscript will be put on public display in the museum's early Christian gallery within a couple of years.
Dr Bernard Meehan, head of manuscripts at Trinity College Dublin, said the find was "sensational".
"I only heard about this yesterday, and since then I've been trying to come to terms with it. I cannot think of a parallel anywhere . . . What we have here is a really spectacular, completely unexpected find."
Arts Minister John O'Donoghue congratulated the finder and the museum on a "most fortunate" discovery.
© The Irish Times
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe....ap/index.html
Medieval book of psalms unearthed
DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- Irish archaeologists Tuesday heralded the discovery of an ancient book of psalms by a construction worker while driving the shovel of his backhoe into a bog.
The approximately 20-page book has been dated to the years 800-1000. Trinity College manuscripts expert Bernard Meehan said it was the first discovery of an Irish early medieval do ent in two centuries.
"This is really a miracle find," said Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum of Ireland, which has the book stored in refrigeration. Researchers will conduct years of painstaking analysis before putting the book on public display.
"There's two sets of odds that make this discovery really way out," Wallace said. "First of all, it's unlikely that something this fragile could survive buried in a bog at all, and then for it to be unearthed and spotted before it was destroyed is incalculably more amazing."
He said an engineer was digging up bogland last week to create commercial potting soil somewhere in Ireland's midlands when "just beyond the bucket of his bulldozer, he spotted something." Wallace would not specify where the book was found because a team of archaeologists is still exploring the site.
"The owner of the bog has had dealings with us in past and is very much in favor of archaeological discovery and reporting it," Wallace said.
Crucially, he said, the bog owner covered up the book with damp soil. Had it been left exposed overnight, he said, "it could have dried out and just vanished, blown away."
The book was found open to a page describing, in Latin script, Psalm 83, in which God hears complaints of other nations' attempts to wipe out the name of Israel.
Wallace said several experts spent Tuesday analyzing only that page -- the number of letters on each line, lines on each page, size of page -- and the book's binding and cover, which he described as "leather velum, very thick wallet in appearance."
It could take months of study, he said, just to identify the safest way to pry open the pages without damaging or destroying them. He ruled out the use of X-rays to investigate without moving the pages.
Ireland already has several other holy books from the early medieval period, including the ornately illustrated Book of Kells, which has been on display at Trinity College in Dublin since the 19th century.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Last edited by GrandeDavid; 07-25-2006 at 08:47 PM.
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I thought you were gonna say they found the fresh bones of the loch ness monster or somethin'
The pubs will do well tonight.
^Good post. I also was equally amazed at what page it was opened to. Wow.
"a miracle".
Holy , it never fails.
Everything was going along just fine until the supers ious Irish jerks had to pin "miracle" on it.
ALL kinds of things get preserved in bogs and tarpits, dating much older than 800 AD, with fully scientific explanations.
Nothing miraculous.
If it were was a book of bawdy lyrics, limerics, jokes, or druid or other pagan scribblings, or a book about leprechauns ing sheep, they wouldn't call it a ing miracle.
Last edited by boutons_; 07-25-2006 at 09:49 PM.
Does it contain Psalm 69?
I believe.
Awesome.
WTF? Dude, it was a freaking book found in mud and its apparently been there for up to 1206 years. The fact that its in considerably great condition is not a miracle? Huh?
Its one thing to find a piece of Bronze, pottery, even cloth, but a fairly intact book is pretty incredible.
If true about the page it was opened to...a page describing Psalm 83 in Latin, that makes the timing of this find something worth noting!
Forgive Boutons, GrandeDavid. He doesn't even believe in the SPAM.
I'll be happy to cast the first stone at him...for a small fee.
I'm surprised boutons didn't criticize the farmer for not finding it sooner.
pretty good that they spotted it before tearing it to shreds
The farmer planted it. It's Piltdown man all over again.
Miracle Bog Water will be on infomercials within days! Gotta move that merchandise!
This is a ing miracle, absolutely no doubt, but millions of years of primordial soup producing primitive organic molecules is absolutely, mathmatically, statistically impossible.
You Bible thumpers are always good for eternal hilarity.
Last edited by boutons_; 07-26-2006 at 08:45 AM.
Does eternal hilarity mean we always get the last laugh?
If they did, it would truly be a miracle, since Loch Ness is in Scotland.
gotta love that Ps 83:18.
The book was found open to a page describing, in Latin script, Psalm 83, in which God hears complaints of other nations' attempts to wipe out the name of Israel
You had your chance to offer refute... and did not. So instead you offer scorn. Typical boutons_...The farmer planted it. It's Piltdown man all over again.
Miracle Bog Water will be on infomercials within days! Gotta move that merchandise!
This is a ing miracle, absolutely no doubt, but millions of years of primordial soup producing primitive organic molecules is absolutely, mathmatically, statistically impossible.
You Bible thumpers are always good for eternal hilarity.
I don't believe it to be a coincidence. It was meant to be found when it was.
If your faith is so damn strong, why do you Bible thumpers need these special effects, aka miracles, as central to your beliefs?
Can't you believe without miracles as crutches to your faith?
If there were no so-called miracles, would you still believe? If yes, then why are miracles so central to your religious experience?
Miracles are just special effects props to your cult's recruiting program, concocted in early Christianity, even in OT times, when reading/writing/rational thought/science/education were non existant and magical thinking dominated most people's mental processes, and religion was a method of political/social/tribal control over peoples whose adults had the mental age of today's 7-year-old children, which is about where adults who follow Hagee/Robertson/Caldwell-type demagagues are. Miracles to wow and recruit the simpletons.
What the ever, I stlll enjoy these wonderful archelogical discoveries, which have NO impact on my spiritual life.
Don't u think Pope Benedict looks like a vampire?
boutons, remember in "Forrest Gump" when Captain Dan lost his legs and he was a really bitter person with no inner peace and he hated everything and made fun of everyone who believed in God and considered them all to be weak and stupid? And then do you remember the hurricane that rocked the gulf coast and how he rode out the storm at the top of the ship and then, as Forrest said, "Cap'n Dan, he made his peace with Gawod"? Remember that?
You remind me of Captain Dan before the storm (but after his legs were chopped off).
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