A whale head, believed to be from the Bronze Age, has been discovered buried on a beach in Islandmagee. Ten-year-old George spotted the back of the skull protruding from an earth bank while looking for fossils along the shore.
Archaeologists excavated the fossil, which was described as difficult to move and very heavy. It is now in a warehouse in Belfast, where a week of cleaning work is expected before a marine specialist can examine it further.
Flint tools found with the fossil suggest it could have been buried as many as 3,000 years ago. Geologist Ian Enlander, who works with the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, sent photographs of the find to the Natural History Museum in London. The museum confirmed it is a beaked whale, likely a Cuvier's beaked whale.
Enlander noted that beaked whales are typically deep-water, offshore species and have not been recorded in this area of Ireland. The discovery of a buried skull without other bones presents a question about how it came to be there. Researchers hope to find evidence of butcher marks on the skull, which could suggest Bronze Age people handled and possibly buried it.