6,000-year-old settlement poses tsunami mystery

Irish Examiner ^ | Wednesday, May 09, 2012 | Andrew Hamilton

[SunkenCiv]

Archeologists have uncovered evidence of pre-farming people living in the Burren more than 6,000 years ago -- one of the oldest habitations ever unearthed in Ireland.

Radiocarbon dating of a shellfish midden on Fanore Beach in north Clare have revealed it to be at least 6,000 years old -- hundreds of years older than the nearby Poulnabrone dolmen.

The midden -- a cooking area where nomad hunter-gatherers boiled or roasted shellfish -- contained Stone Age implements, including two axes and a number of smaller stone tools...

The midden was discovered by local woman Elaine O'Malley in 2009 and a major excavation of the site is being led by Michael Lynch, field monument adviser for Co Clare...

The archaeologists are also hoping to establish the make-up of a mysterious substance found during the excavation.

The substance, which is two or three inches deep, disintegrates when it comes in contact with air. A large slab of the material has remained intact on an ancient settlement, indicating that a large amount of it was laid down at once, possibly as the result of a tsunami.

[SunkenCiv]

6,000 year old pre-farming settlement found in the Burren in County Clare by Kerry O'Shea, IrishCentral -- Radiocarbon dating of an artifact found in the Burren in County Clare has redefined the time line of human inhabitance in Ireland. A shellfish cooker found in 2009 has been identified to be around 6,000 years old, predating the nearby Poulnabrone dolmen by hundreds of years. The Irish Examiner reports that a midden, "a cooking area where nomad hunter-gatherers boiled or roasted shellfish," was discovered at Fanore Beach in Clare in 2009 by local woman Elaine O'Malley. Along with the midden were axes and smaller stone tools, artifacts of the Stone Age. Also found at the site was "mysterious black layer of organic material" which researchers believe could have been from a tsunami that struck the Western coast of Ireland during the Stone Age, possibly wiping out the population of the area... The mysterious black layer found at the site remains under investigation. "We have not been able to identify exactly what this black layer is yet but, as it happens, it is this layer which helped to protect the ancient settlement that we are currently excavating," said Lynch. "If we can establish a date for this black material, it will help us to piece together more of the mystery of this site and it could tell us a bit about what happened here that brought the use of the midden to an end..."

Archaeologists working in The Burren region. Photo by NUIG.

[SunkenCiv]

More recent tsunami:

Clare Places: Islands: Mutton Island or Enniskerry
(9th century catastrophe in Ireland)
Clare County Library | prior to November 19, 2005 | staff writer
Posted on 11/18/2005 11:58:58 AM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1524751/posts

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[SunkenCiv]

• Danger on the seas as walls of water sink tankers [snip] [in 2000] eight men were killed when a freak wave struck the Anorient trawler 87 miles west of Loop Head in Co Clare, and two Britons taking part in the world's toughest yacht race last March were seriously injured after a 50ft wave swept over their vessel 70 miles off the Australian coast.[/snip]

[Rebelbase]

"You call that digging? Let me and my crew dig there and we'll find your buried artifacts FAST, guaranteed!"

[BipolarBob]

My ancestors were hunter gatherers. I demand reparations and 100 acres of land of my choosing.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

No soup for you !

[count-your-change]

I visualize a couple of guys emptying bags labeled “mysterious black layer of organic material” and laughing centuries ago.

[blam]

Sounds like...TSHTF.

[kabumpo]

Tsunami = Atlantis

[RegulatorCountry]

It’s starting to sound as if every time human civilization reaches a state of advancement sufficient to throughly understand the geological past, there’s an “oh $#!7” moment and then they’re reduced by one catastrophy or another to scratching sustenance out of the ground and barely getting by, again and again.

[blam]

Sure does.

Two steps forward and 1 1/2 steps back. Over and Over.

[COBOL2Java]

It’s starting to sound as if every time human civilization reaches a state of advancement sufficient to throughly understand the geological past, there’s an “oh $#!7” moment and then they’re reduced by one catastrophy or another to scratching sustenance out of the ground and barely getting by, again and again.

Inspiration behind Sisyphus?

[Pharmboy]

The wife and I were in the Burrens last summer when we spent a week in Ireland. The Burrens is an amazing place...it seems un-Earthly. One of my favorite parts of the visit...the area is where the Cliffs of Moher are...

[meadsjn]

a mysterious substance ... disintegrates when it comes in contact with air.

It's called "Hope & Change".

Excellent article.

[WoofDog123]

I went to cliffs of moher in 2001? and there was just a simple guard rail there, you could go on the other side of it pretty easily, etc. My father went back last year and said it looks like a suicide prevention team camps the place, lots of ‘don’t jump, call us if you are depressed’ signs and more impressive barriers.

pretty sad.

On a more extreme side of this, I went to Gullfoss in iceland in january long ago, and there was just this ‘barrier of 1 foot stakes with a rope through them showing where you should not walk. Followed it up north along the west of the lower falls, up toward the upper falls, and just getting there, slipped on ice. didn’t slide, but if I had, that would have been that, presumably survival odds down that chasm into the lower falls would not have been good, given the temperature and possible rock impacts....

[Pharmboy]

Ouch...glad you didn’t have to stay ‘extra time’ in Iceland from any injury. And the barriers on the Cliffs could still be easily broached...but there were signs up, Probably has to do with lawsuits that have been leveled against the place by families of jumpers. Sad...

[SunkenCiv]

:’), :’D, LOL, and/or noogies as appropriate.

Thanks!

[SunkenCiv]

The US national parks system used to have some built-in “gotchas” due to the original law which stated that there’d be no artificial barriers — people would slip and fall into hot springs and waterfalls and whatnot. About 40 years ago there was an article about the campaign for railings and such.

“How was your vacation?” “Great! Scenery was unbelievable. Madge fell off a mule to her death.” :’)