Drought In Ireland Revealed Hidden Circular Settlement

By Mandy Froelich / Truth Theory

It’s been a long while since Ireland was kissed with rain, but the absence of the moisture has led to some curious findings. For instance, old and prehistoric features have recently been discovered on lawns and crops.

As the BBC reports, it’s hard to see the imprints from the ground. However, aerial footage captured by drones reveals where wood or stone sat in the ground and caused the foliage underneath it to wither away. The unusually hot weather is responsible for making the imprints visible.

The discovery was made by Anthony Murphy, 44. While in Newgrange, Ireland, with photographer Ken Williams, he used a  drone to capture aerial footage of the area. Later, he noticed the settlement’s “amazing detail” and reportedly “giggled with excitement.”

The henge is located in a field close to other late Neolithic monuments. It is “entirely new” to the archaeological world and includes “extraordinary and unexpected features,” according to Stephen Davis, an assistant professor of archeology at University College Dublin. Said Davis, “The area in front of Newgrange is, I believe, now the densest concentration of these monuments anywhere in the world.”

Murphy says that crops in the area grow more healthily due to ditches which were created by the henge to retain more moisture than surrounding soil. So far, there are no plans to dig on the site, which is a working farm. Once the crop is harvested, the image will disappear with it.

“Myself and Ken Williams of Shadows and Stone imaged some very substantial and previously unrecorded features in the fields near Newgrange this evening,” Murphy wrote on the Mythical Archaeology Facebook page. “They look like giant henges or enclosures, very similar in scale to Site P, and forming a row-of-three with P. Have a look at these very exciting photographs. If these turn out to be substantial discoveries, then I would be nothing short of utterly elated, chuffed and excited.” 

https://www.facebook.com/mythicalireland/posts/1339631262837242

As IFLScience reports, the unusual spike in heat has revealed other sites, as well. These include British settlements and Roman farms and forts which are estimated to be over 1,500 years old. The last time heat rose to present-day temperatures was in 1976.

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Source: BBC, IFLScience

Image Credit: Mythical Ireland