Mound of the nine hostages

suey71

Hello. I read somewhere that during the 1950's an excavation took place on this mound and they found the body of an Egyption prince, I was just wondering was this true. thanks

Bog Butter

The skeletal remains of a 12 year old boy was found. He was found with an ornate necklace, which was made with faience beads. He must have been a very important/special person to those who buried him. The mound is the same type as Newgrange (passage tomb) and dates to the Neolithic but I think the boy was buried some time later (if someone could clarify) but still well within the prehistoric period.

J. F. Stone and L. C. Thomas came up with the Egyptian link in the 50's. But remember this is the interpretation of 2 people and it is not necessarily fact. I don't know who these guys were; perhaps someone could enlighten us further. Remember though a lot of archaeological evidence is interpreted by non-archaeologists who use the archaeological record to suit their own theories. So people need to be carefull about what they read and to make sure it comes from a credible source.

boneless

There has been a monograph published on the Mound by Prof. Muiris O'sullivan in 2006 or 2007. It assembled all the data from the excavations on the mound. From what I can remember the youth in question was from the Bronze Age circa 1500 BC. Am open to correction on this as I have not got the book to hand.

happyoutscan

Not sure the specifics about the individual remains but do know that the excavations in the 50's unearthed some crouched burials which had been placed in the chambers at a later date to the cremated burials initially interred (but prehistoric also). Alot of damage was done to 'Dumha na nGiall ' by the British Israelites who partially excavated the site in the early 20th century looking for the ark of the covenant, I kid you not! Maybe the 'egyptian prince' idea came from them or their presence at the site? Hope this helps.