When the national museum of Ireland received two 4,000-year-old ax heads, “thoughtfully” wrapped in foam in a cardboard box, from an anonymous source last month, it issued an appeal. The objects were “significant” and “exciting”, it said, but experts needed to know more about where exactly they were found.
Now they have their answer: a County Westmeath farmer has come forward as the mystery sender, saying he made the “absolutely crazy” discovery while using a metal detector on his land.
Thomas Dunne said he found the items by chance on his silage land at Banagher at the end of June. “I was cutting silage [grass fodder for beef cattle] one day and some metal fell off a lawnmower,” he said told the Irish Times.
He said: “We then started looking for it because we thought it might go into the silage harvester and break it up. So, I got a man with a metal detector to look for it and that’s how it was found. It was in the side of a field under a row of beech trees; there would have been ancient forts on the land around here.”
It is against the law in Ireland to search for archaeological objects with a metal detector unless written permission has been given. Penalties can be up to three months in prison or a fine of up to €63,486 (£53,435). However, it is understood Dunne will not stand trial.
When the museum received the anonymous axeheads, it issued an appeal asking for more information, saying it was “crucial to know the exact location where they were found” for “reasons that could range from ritual to supernatural”. Any information, it said, “will be treated confidentially and will only be used to supplement the discovery of the object”.
The museum also said it was participating in an international study of Bronze Age metalwork to trace the origins of the metals used in such artefacts, and that more details about the ax heads could provide critical information.
Dunne, whose family has owned the land for 40 years, said he initially thought the ax heads were the remains of a horseshoe and was “shocked” to discover their significance.
“I only found out about it a week after it was in the news and I was surprised, to say the least. It’s absolutely crazy when you think about it,” he told the Irish Times. The national museum, he added, was “terribly happy about this whole discovery”.
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Archaeological finds in Ireland without a known owner become the property of the state and, as part of the country’s heritage, are preserved in national or designated museums for future generations.
Researchers from the national museum have now visited the site to record it in the hope of finding more information about the people who lived there 4,000 years ago.
