From the Archives: A Piece of History in the School Yard – An Early Bronze Age Scraper

Paleolithic Tools
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Andrew Becraft via Compfight

Laoise who was in first class brought in a stone from the yard.

Her teacher at the time, Mr. Dodd has a degree in Archaeology

and he thought this stone looked interesting.

 

He sent it to a lecturer he knew,

Dr. Muiris O’Sullivan of the Department of Archaeology in UCD.

He kindly examined it and was able to tell us that the stone dated

from the late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age

and most probably used as a tool for scraping meat from animal hides.

 

This means this tool could date from 2,000 BC

and so be 4,000 years old.

Since Laoise’s discovery quite a number of other children

have brought in unusual stones from the yard

and we always check with Mr. Dodd first

before we ask them to put them back!

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