Silver and bronze jewellery dating from the Viking Age has been discovered in a cave in County Kilkenny.
Dunmore Cave is an important heritage site which has previously revealed secrets from the Viking age. A massacre of up to a thousand people took place in the cave in 928 AD.
In November 1999, the National Museum of Ireland was informed of a discovery of 43 silver and bronze objects each dating back over a thousand years.
Among the find is a group of sixteen objects of beautifully woven silver wire shaped like conical buttons in three sizes.
The discovery of the buttons is a new Viking artefact previously unknown in Ireland or internationally.
Senior archaeologists at Dúchas have described the find as very exciting. Victor Buckley says the work of the archaeologists will be to build a picture of the people to whom these objects may have belonged. Pat Wallace, Director at the National Museum of Ireland, says the find has many implications which require further collaboration with scholars from overseas. Conservation of the objects will take place at the National Museum of Ireland.
Dunmore Cave is closed to the public at present and Dúchas have requested that people with metal detectors stay away so as not to disturb the site. There may be more historic treasures to be discovered.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 14 January 2000. The reporter is Damien Tiernan.
