Composite image showing the Wessex-type gold bead cover with the burnt human bone recovered from the Mucklagh 2 cremation burial.

At Mucklagh 2, excavated as part of the N52 Tullamore Bypass for Offaly County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, we identified a unique Bronze Age link between Co. Offaly in the centre of Ireland and Wessex, via a gold object and an antler awl found within the cremation burial of an adult and a child.

The StoryMap repurposes research undertaken by our osteoarchaeologists and paleoenvironmental team which was originally published in Offaly Heritage: Journal of the Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society by Carmelita Troy and Susan Lalonde (2011 'Bronze Age Bling - Wessex gold in an Offaly burial') and presented as a poster (Wessex Gold, Irish Lives) by Carmelita, Susan and Karen Stewart.

Portions of the text are edited from an earlier blog post, written by Damian Shiels. Rubicon Heritage gratefully acknowledges the help of Mary Cahill and Paul Mullarkey at the National Museum of Ireland for their work in identifying the bead cover and creating illustrations and images of the artefact. Thanks must also be extended to Orlaith Egan of Transport Infrastructure Ireland, Offaly County Council and Linda Hegarty, Archaeological Director, for her original excavation.

Rubicon Heritage are very grateful to Wiltshire Museum for kind permission to reproduce images from their online archive collection within the StoryMap.

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Michael Stanley of Transport Infrastructure Ireland and Carmelita Troy gave invaluable assistance in editing the text and content of the StoryMap, which was produced by Jonathan Millar on behalf of Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd.