Short-Lived Village Excavated in Ireland

GALWAY, IRELAND--A team from the University of Notre Dame is excavating a lost village on the island of Inishbofin that may have been occupied for only 20 or 30 years. The village’s long, thatched houses may have housed as many as 100 people, whose porcelain has also been recovered. Project leaders Ian Kuijt and Meredith Chesson think the settlement may have been wiped out by a downturn in fishing, eviction, or a famine in the early nineteenth century. Stones from its buildings were later reused to build roads and other structures.