Irish "Dead Sea Scrolls"?
Art history students may have a new artwork to study. More pieces of a rare prayer book have been found miraculously preserved in a peat bog. About 40 pages of this prayer book were discovered last month by a worker using a bulldozer. The find created a huge stir because it was one of the greatest discoveries in 200 years. The ancient book is called a psalter because it contains biblical hymns or poems called psalms. It was written on vellum at least 1000 years ago and about 40 pages were found intact. More digging recently yielded additional fragments as well as the leather pouch in which it may originally have been kept. How the precious object was deposited in the bog is unknown. Scientists think it's possible that it was placed there intentionally and the owner hoped to retrieve it later. Sometimes ancient people placed objects of great importance in bogs for safekeeping from raiders. It may have been accidentally lost while being transported, or could have been discarded by pagan thieves. Look for more information about the manuscript as experts continue to painstakingly work on its preservation.