#GalwayBay - The discovery of deer antlers and horse bones dating back some 1,500 years at a beach on Galway Bay may reveal much about early Christian society in the region.
According to The Irish Times, the important find was made by Brian O'Carra and Mike Williams at an inter-tidal zone west of Galway city, and indicate a possible pagan ritual custom.
O'Carra and Williams have also been studying the remains of a 'drowned' forest west of Spiddal that flourished before the sea level rose a millennium ago, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.
But this latest find suggests that "significant environmental changes" began 500 years before then, as the "still water conditions" that preserved the bones and antlers mark a stark difference to the "high energy" coastal environment of today.
Elsewhere, a find of a more morbid kind has prompted a Garda investigation after the discovery of a human skull on Sutton's Burrow Beach on Sunday 30 November.
As RTÉ News reports, it's believed that the skull had been in the sea for some time. The Dublin city morgue is conducting further examinations.