Dublin, Ireland — Irish archaeologists Tuesday heralded the discovery of an ancient book of psalms by a construction worker who spotted something while driving the shovel of his backhoe into a bog.
The approximately 20-page book has been dated to the years 800-1000. Trinity College manuscripts expert Bernard Meehan said it was the first discovery of an Irish early medieval document in two centuries.
Medieval Psalmbook Dug Out of Irish Bog
Dublin, Ireland — Irish archaeologists Tuesday heralded the discovery of an ancient book of psalms by a construction worker who spotted something while driving the shovel of his backhoe into a bog.
The approximately 20-page book has been dated to the years 800-1000. Trinity College manuscripts expert Bernard Meehan said it was the first discovery of an Irish early medieval document in two centuries.
“This is really a miracle find,” said Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum of Ireland, which has the book stored in refrigeration and facing years of painstaking analysis before being put on public display.
“There’s two sets of odds that make this discovery really way out. First of all, it’s unlikely that something this fragile could survive buried in a bog at all, and then for it to be unearthed and spotted before it was destroyed is incalculably more amazing.”
He said an engineer was digging up bogland last week to create commercial potting soil somewhere in Ireland’s midlands when, “just beyond the bucket of his bulldozer, he spotted something.”
Wallace would not specify where the book was found because a team of archaeologists is still exploring the site.
“The owner of the bog has had dealings with us in past and is very much in favor of archaeological discovery and reporting it,” Wallace said.
Crucially, he said, the bog owner covered up the book with damp soil.
Had it been left exposed overnight, he said, “it could have dried out and just vanished, blown away.”
The book was found open to a page describing, in Latin script, Psalm 83, in which God hears complaints of other nations’ attempts to wipe out the name of Israel.
Wallace said several experts spent Tuesday analyzing only that page — the number of letters on each line, lines on each page, size of page — and the book’s binding and cover, which he described as “leather velum, very thick wallet in appearance.”
It could take months of study, he said, just to identify the safest way to pry open the pages without damaging or destroying them. He ruled out the use of X-rays to investigate without moving the pages.
Ireland already has several other holy books from the early medieval period, including the ornately illustrated Book of Kells, which has been on display at Trinity College in Dublin since the 19th century.
Irishwoman
Wow! Facinating! That is really interesting!
mayer
it is very interesting that the page it was opend to was 83…. read it and you will be suprised how this is applicable to today.
if this is not a message from G-d to the world i dont know what is.
anon.
Consider when it was found (with what is going on in Israel) and to where it was open
“The book was found open to a page describing, in Latin script, Psalm 83, in which God hears complaints of other nations’ attempts to wipe out the name of Israel.”
what
why are you reporting this? do you not realize that this is a x-tians version of the psalms.
dumb guy- can-t check a dictionary!!!!!!
whats a bog???
Anonymous
bog (bôg, b g) n.
1.
a. An area having a wet, spongy, acidic substrate composed chiefly of sphagnum moss and peat in which characteristic shrubs and herbs and sometimes trees usually grow.
b. Any of certain other wetland areas, such as a fen, having a peat substrate. Also called peat bog.
2. An area of soft, naturally waterlogged ground.
Relic
In response to "What," you must really be hard to impress! Don’t you think the fact that a 1,000-year-old book is found still intact is amazing in itself? I’m not that well preserved at 40!
Yakov
To Relic!
Thanks for your humor – gave me a laugh today.
Relic
Glad you liked it, Yakov. You’re welcome.
A CHASSID
Chapter 83
A prayer regarding the wars against Israel in the days of Jehoshaphat, when the nations plotted against Israel.
1. A song, a psalm by Asaph. 2. O God, do not be silent; do not be quiet and do not be still, O God. 3. For behold, Your enemies are in uproar, and those who hate You have raised their head. 4. They plot deviously against Your nation, and conspire against those sheltered by You. 5. They say, "Come, let us sever them from nationhood, and the name of Israel will be remembered no more.” 6. For they conspire with a unanimous heart, they made a covenant against You- 7. the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, 8. Geval and Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre. 9. Assyria, too, joined with them, and became the strength of the sons of Lot, Selah. 10. Do to them as to Midian; as to Sisera and Yavin at the brook of Kishon, 11. who were destroyed at Ein Dor, and were as dung for the earth. 12. Make their nobles like Orev and Ze’ev, all their princes like Zevach and Tzalmuna,1 13. who said, "Let us inherit the dwellings of God for ourselves.” 14. My God, make them like whirling chaff, like straw before the wind. 15. As a fire consumes the forest, and a flame sets the mountains ablaze, 16. so pursue them with Your tempest and terrify them with Your storm. 17. Fill their faces with shame, and they will seek Your Name, O Lord. 18. Let them be shamed and terrified forever; let them be disgraced and perish. 19. And they will know that You, Whose Name is the Lord, are alone, Most High over all the earth.
FOOTNOTES
1. These were the Midianite leaders who were captured (see Judges 7:25)