Beneath a agglomerate of earthwork known as Navan Fort in Northern Ireland , archeologist have discovered wind of a massive temple complex date back to the early Iron Age . Altogether , the series of structures seem to make up the largest and most complex ritual anatomical structure incur in Northern Europe from this clip .
To the naked eye , Navan Fort looks little more than a round brow inclosure inside another enceinte circular hammock lined by tree diagram . Local tradition explains that this was a land site make by Macha , the ancient goddess of war and fertility . Found in County Armagh of present - twenty-four hour period Northern Ireland , the garrison was viewed as the ancient capital of Ulster and one of Ireland ’s royal sites , a group of five ceremonial centers of prehistoric origin found disperse across pre - Christian Ireland over 2,000 years ago .
While the site ’s fat account has long been appreciated , it looks like Navan Fort may have been even large and more pregnant than previously realized .
report in theOxford Journal of Archaeology , archeologists from Queen ’s University Belfast and the University of Aberdeen in Scotland have of late taken a deep look at Navan Fort using a range of non - incursive archeologic survey techniques . remainder in magnetized signatures and electrical resistance of the grease picked up on a routine of feature that lay hidden in the landscape beneath the priming , like footprint of long - lose ancient structures .
It was also previously assumed that the internet site was largely desert by 95 BCE , but the new finding also intimate that activity continued here throughout the Medieval geological era in the first millenary CE and beyond .
“ dig in the sixties uncovered one of the most spectacular series of buildings of any neighborhood of prehistorical Europe , including a series of anatomy - of-8 buildings of the former Iron Age and a 40 - meter timber - ringed structure construct 95 BCE . Upon the latter ’s twist , it was immediately filled with stones and burnt to the ground in social club to produce a monolithic mound that now dominates the site , ” Dr Patrick Gleeson , senior lecturer in Archaeology at Queen ’s University Belfast , suppose in astatement .
“ Our discoveries add substantial additional information , hinting that the construction uncovered in the 1960s were not domestic bodily structure lived in by kings , but a series of monumental temple , some of the largest and most complex ritual arena of any region of later prehistoric and pre - Roman Northern Europe , ” he added .
