Message #266686

[Preinfalk]

Davis and his team began their excavation work at the Hill of Ward in 2014, supported by the Meath County Council, the Irish Office of Public Works, and the Royal Irish Academy. They nearly immediately unearthed evidence of large-scale burning activity—but Davis cautions against connecting the find to Samhain celebrations without further scrutiny.

 

“Equating the intense burning evidence directly to Samhain fire celebrations is definitely tempting, but difficult to conclusively prove,” he says. “It could be related to metalworking, pottery, or glass manufacturing, which we’ve also found evidence of. However, since these skills effectively transformed everyday materials into new objects, rare enough at the time, they perhaps could have been considered ‘magical.’ Of course this ties in with some of the main Samhain themes.”