A Falling Window Led to A Major Archaeological Discovery

how a falling window led to a major archeological discovery in Ireland a County Meath farmer had a hunch that there was something special about his land his family has worked for over 200 years he was right archaeologists confirmed it is the remains of a 13th century Cistercian monks settlement likely unique to Ireland a recently discovered archaeological site in Ireland is hugely significant unlikely unique to Ireland 25 years ago John McCullen was working at the land at his farm in Bmore County Meath when a window fell from one of the ruins that dot is his property he climbed up to the ruin to put it back and noticed a few unusual things one of the building materials was red sandstone which isn't available locally and there were pigeon boxes which been used by people in the 16th and 17th centuries as a recent Irish Times profile details he'd long heard stories about a Georgian landlord a layer mill and a monastery dating back centuries earlier but what was the real history of his family's land with the help of archaeologists Matthew and Geraldine stout he secured a 50 thousand euro grant from the FBD farm trust to be distributed over the course of three years provided the first month of excavation proved that the site was of significant interest McCullen can now rest assured that his land is of archaeological and historical importance the Cistercians are a Catholic order of monks and nuns who branched off from the Benedictines originating in France Geraldine who had also excavated Becht Evalia in Meath another Cistercian site said we knew this monastery was summer in the area but you were talking about hundreds of acres of land it was the medieval window that was the key to it the geophysical survey indicated earlier buildings that were not marked on nineteenth-century maps a monumental Walz suggests they're building larger than a house our job as archaeologists is to reconstruct how people lived through what they left behind the French pottery told us that there was a link to France and that we were in the right place the discovery of a corn drying kiln and preserved wheat oats and peas indicates the practice of crop rotation which the Cistercians brought to Ireland they were also famous for the gardens and we unearthed plum stones as well as blackberries and elderberries architectural discoveries thus far have included French buttresses diagonal supports which are very unusual Ireland these and other historical findings led them to conclude that the beam or monastery was an especially important site established as a farm for the Cistercian mother house in France associated with the French Cistercian foundation of de bello Beco go back what is quite exceptional is that a whole community came all the way from France and set up in Ireland to farm geraldine told the Irish Times other Cistercians came here and founded Nabi with model farms around it but this communities Abbey was back in France to where they exported their produce via drug headers very busy port I can't think of any other place in Ireland that the Cistercians farmed here and maintained such a close relationship with their abbey in the homeland McCullen who also works as a local historian and author is overjoyed by the findings I'm delighted I knew in my heart and soul that there was something special about that ruined and now we found it number one at Jeff Alea Bay Gulf Coast 1984 to 2014 satellite images show the growth of two Delta's between three decades they are being formed by sediment coming from the Atchafalaya River according to NASA the lobe shaped arc of coastal loses land the size of a football every hour number 2 landslides in Glacier Bay National Park and reserve Alaska an Alaskan mountainside fell apart dropping rocks from 4,000 feet high the image might not seem like much but the debris that fell was equal to 60 million midsize SUVs it also slid for six miles number three the Aral see what used to be the fourth largest lake in the world has now all but disappeared it started when canals constructed increased salinity and toxicity that dried out most of it as of 2013 it has lost eighty-five percent of its water number four the Paraguay Parana River 1985 and 2015 the river is the power source of the yacyretá dam an 800 meter long dam that can flow 4050 cubic metres of water a second before construction the river was divided by the yacyretá and the apibe a islands decades later the water from the formed reservoir have them completely submerged number five a very parched Cali there was a lot of talk about California's drought problems for many years this is satellite image is a solid example of what happened to the Golden State from the 2000s to mid 2010 the deep red parts of the map represent areas that have for trillions gallons of water disappearing annually number six the Three Gorges Dam China's massive hydroelectric dam is so large it can be seen from space during its construction these two photos were taken at different stages the mm phone osho's it at riverbed completion by 2006 the dam had taken up the entire river and the waters had already created a reservoir number seven Massey Massey Mexico City it's a wonder to see the urban sprawl grow from a different angle that's definitely the case with Mexico City in 1979 there was still a considerable amount of forested and mountainous areas the city in 2009 was home to 19 million inhabitants number 8 Yellow River Delta the area has a rather sad name China's sorrow due to the massive floods that have affected the people since the 10th century the satellite images show a good idea of how the river changes flow exposing more of the northern point in 2009 tiny lake tahoe if you want to see snow melting taken to the extreme take a look at Lake Tahoe during the California drought the lack of rainfall and snowpack from the Sierra Madre made it look like a shell of its former self number 10 March akita drying up droughts and irrigation is killing this Argentine Lake the northern part of one of the largest saline lakes in the world now consists of smaller lakes number 11 the effects of monsoons photos on the ground floor of floodings are always tragic but it is sobering to see it from a scope that shows the totality of the devastation the 2013 photo of a monsoon in Myanmar on the Left shows the Irrawaddy River at a normal size the 2015 image shows how it looked after a heavy monsoon notice how the islands in the 2015 image are all but gone number 12 Alaskan glaciers moving north the Chugach mountains is home to the Columbia glacier a large Tidewater glacier that is in the state of fast retreat since 1986 it has retreated more than 20 kilometers north exposing bedrock and losing half of its thickness number 13 the warming Peninsula shows its true identity years of the Greenland ice sheet melting due to climate change has made a big surprise in the country's geography what used to be a peninsula was found to be an island warming island might be the sign of more hidden Islands medieval and Viking era artifacts discovered in north Iceland archaeological remains of three buildings have been discovered a hostel in north Iceland archeologists were not previously aware of the building's existence ruv reports the site located in the mid Vener area contains both medieval and Viking Age artifacts Hoff's tour is the most researched archaeological site in Iceland according to professor of archaeology or even Stinson of the University of Iceland that's for good reason Ori says the research material in the area is endless although experts knowledge of the site is still quite incomplete researchers are only now carrying out detailed mapping of the area for the first time a banquet hall and cemetery has been previously found at the new site a new farmstead with a large longhouse was uncovered in 2016 leading to the decision to map the area in more detail that mapping help leads the newest discovery of the three buildings Orie says further on-site research is needed to determine the function of the buildings there are various hypotheses as to how work and life were organized at the rediscovered settlement though evidence points to the site hosting both political and social activities interestingly the area contained both a lodge that hosted pagan ceremonies and a Christian Church which subside by side for several decades this gives an indication that the conversion may have taken longer and been more complex than we had imagined Ori observed

Channel: Blast World Mysteries

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Keywords: discoveries, archaeological discoveries, archaeological, recent archaeological discoveries, most amazing recent archaeological discoveries, mysterious discoveries, recent, ancient discoveries, recent discoveries, scientific discoveries, amazing discoveries, ancient archaeological discoveries, mysterious archaeological discoveries, recent archaeological discoveries that could rewrite history, strange discoveries, bizarre discoveries

Id: GALe4ThqNlI

Length: 10min 33sec (633 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 19 2019