Fifty years ago in the spring of 1955 a team of archaeologists led by Dr Sean O’Riordain of University College Dublin began what was intended to be a routine expedition on the hill of Tara.

On March 12th while excavating what they firmly believed to be a prehistoric settlement on the eastern side of the Mound of Hostages, this dated from about 1500 BC.

Tara has for centuries in legend, myth and tradition, always been associated as the seat of the High Kings of Ireland. Since the arrival of the first Celtic Gaelic tribes around 300 BC, its true history remained somewhat of an enigma.

The excavation hoped to unearth some proof to verify that. As the team began to remove soil from the Mound, they eventually came across a huge boulder. Behind it they found a narrow stone passage, four metres long, which divided into three separate chambers.

In the first two they found many human remains and simple stone artefacts which led them to believe that they might perhaps be Neolithic or late Stone Age. Burial chambers similar to this were fairly common in Ireland and Britain from 3000 BC until the coming of the Bronze Age tribes from Europe around 1500 BC.

The third chamber revealed a truly astonishing find. In a pit surrounded by the cremated remains from a number of bodies, a skeleton was discovered crouched in a foetal position.

The remains were clearly later than the previous chambers and lying beside the skeleton was a Bronze Age dagger and pin. Around the area of the neck was an exquisite necklace, consisting of a selection of amber and jet droplets. Set in between them was a series of smaller beads, turquoise coloured and conical in shape, which had been artificially made and were known popularly as faience beads.

These were relatively common in places with advanced civilizations, such as Kemi (Egypt), Minoan Crete or Sumeria. Technology such as this was way beyond the comprehension of the Bronze Age peoples inhabiting Ireland then.

Who then was this skeleton the remains of, seemingly buried out of time and place? The fact that he was interred at Tara intact could only mean that he was an important personage of some significance.

After intensive forensic examination the remains were identified as that of a 14-15 year old male and carbon dated to around 1350 BC. The Irish media and broadsheets of the day called him ‘The Tara Prince’. Dr O’Riordain the leader of the expedition died shortly after the discovery and the work here ceased completely.

Many archaeologists were approached and asked for an opinion as to how the beads may possibly have ended up there, almost all gave the same stock reply: by fluke and a rather extremely isolated incident. Somehow or other they arrived along trade routes, exchanged by different peoples across the European mainland.

This glib answer at first seemed so very plausible yet highly improbable. With the cessation of excavations here the Tara dig may yet hold a few more surprising secrets waiting to be revealed.
Sixty-six years previous to the Irish find, in 1889 at North Molton, Devon, a farmer’s horse accidentally put his hoof through the top of a Bronze Age tomb. A similar necklace was discovered here around the neck of a man, who it was later revealed died around the same period as the ‘Tara Prince’. This artefact is now on display in the Exeter museum.

One discovery may be considered a fluke, but two and similar in design, is much more than mere coincidence. When both necklaces were compared with the golden collar around the boy king Tutankhamum, who died around the same period as the Irish and English find, the faience beads were found to be, not only of identical manufacture, but also of matching design.

In a recent visit to the National Museum, we were informed by the duty officer that tests were still being carried out on the remains and artefacts of the 1955 dig and no definite date could possibly be given before they would be permitted to go on exhibit.

In Britain and Ireland a total of 286 beads were discovered that archaeologists would have us believe all arrived completely by accident. They are only human and even today, with the vast advances made in radiocarbon dating and DNA testing, are still prone to error. Our minds must always remain childishly inquisitive as well as open and investigations into our past must remain constant and continuous or else it will remain a mystery to us forever.

(Further reading: ‘Kingdom of the Ark’ by Lorraine Evans).