Fallen tree reveals medieval skeleton in Ireland
Sligo-Leitrim Archaeological Services announced the results of tests done to the remains on their Facebook page:
When winter storms blew over a 215-year old beech tree outside Collooney, Sligo, a human skeleton was brought up in the root system. The National Monuments Service commissioned SLAS to undertake a rescue excavation and retrieve the badly disturbed remains. The burial was that of a young man (17-20 years old) and preliminary analysis indicates he suffered a violent death during the early medieval period (radiocarbon date: 1030-1200 AD). Several injuries were visible to the ribs and hand, probably inflicted by a knife. He had been given a formal Christian burial, however. As the photos show, the lower leg bones remained in the grave; but the upper part of the body was entangled in the tree roots and raised up into the air. Analysis of the skeletal remains is currently underway.
Prior to Dr. Booth’s discovery, the previous earliest use of the word was in them poem Flen flyys, written around 1475. It had a line that read “fvccant vvivys of heli”, a Latin/English mix meaning “…they fuck the wives of Ely”. Historians have come across earlier uses of the word in medieval England, but have doubted that it was being used as a sexual reference. For example, the name John le Fucker appears in 1278, but this likely could be just a different spelling for the word ‘fulcher’ which means soldier.
In his book, The F Word, Jesse Sheidlower explains “fuck is a word of Germanic origin. It is related to words in several other Germanic languages, such as Dutch, German, and Swedish, that have sexual meanings as well as meaning such as ‘to strike’ or ‘to move back and forth’.”
Last May a storm in northwest Ireland blew over a 215-year old tree. It also unearth an unusual find – the skeletal remains of a young man who lived nearly a thousand years ago.
Medieval News
McKee family outside JORVIK with Viking re-enactor, Arnor (Max O’Keeffe) – Photo courtesy York Archaeological Trust
Photo from Sligo-Leitrim Archaeological Services / Facebook