EXPERTS FROM the National Museum are still trying to explain how two human feet dating from 2,000 years ago were found in an attic in a house in the Terenure area of Dublin last December.
The human remains, a foot from a young child and the foot of an adult male with part of the lower leg attached, turned up during renovation work on the house in south Dublin.
The builders informed the gardaí who in turn called in the Dublin City Coroner Dr Brian Farrell, who ordered the remains be sent to Dublin City Mortuary for postmortem examination.
According to a report in the autumn edition of Archaeology Irelandto be published this week under the heading "Not One Foot in The Grave but two Feet in the Attic", the mystery is unresolved.
During his examination, Dr Farrell and other scientists concluded the two mummified right feet had come from an adult and from a child. There were no signs of antemortem injuries or cut marks.
The foot of the male adult had part of the lower leg attached although the stretching and tearing of the muscle fibres suggest it had been pulled off a body, said the report.
“It closely resembled a bog body in appearance, as it had the dark brown, almost black colour seen in recent bog bodies such as Oldcroghan Man and Cloneycavan Man,” the report continued.
A series of X-rays found the feet were perfectly normal and these established the foot came from a child of about 10 years of age.
The bone formation indicated the child was more than eight years of age.
Dr Paula Reimer of the Chrono Centre at Queen’s University Belfast carried out radiocarbon dating while gardaí sought to trace previous owners of the house.
The radiocarbon dates found the adult foot dated to AD52-230 and the juvenile foot was dated to 60BC-AD53, indicating there was a real possibility of these being parts of bog bodies.
The report, by Laureen Buckley and Brian Farrell, said the case had now been handed over to the National Museum of Ireland which is determined to trace the provenance of the bog feet and discover how they ended up in a Dublin attic.
The latest indications are the house may once have been the residence of a pathologist who worked in the midlands where many of these bodies and body parts have turned up during the cutting of turf and milling of peat.
Gardaí have checked out pathology departments to see whether the feet may have been medical specimens at one stage and may have been removed to the attic.