Bronze Age cooking trough found in Ireland

Archaeologists in Ireland have unearthed a Bronze Age wooden cooking trough, known as a fulacht fiadh, that was exposed by storms last winter.

“It is very significant, as it is unusual to find a fulacht fiadh at such a level of preservation, but the sea obviously conserved it when levels began to rise,” he said. “While thousands of fulacht fiadh have been recorded and excavated during road-building schemes, most of them are stone-lined and have a mound of burnt stone nearby. We found no firecracked stones near this structure, but the wattle surround could be unique.”

Preservation in situ of the archaeological material was “not a realistic option”, as the timbers were not fastened to any underlying structure and would not have survived another period of storms, he said.

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Story: Lorna Siggens, Irish Times | Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy