DUBLIN, IRELAND—Irish Central reports that charred fig fragments dated to 2,000 years ago have been uncovered in Drumanagh Promontory Fort, the site of a Roman-era trading post near Ireland’s eastern coastline. “Fig seeds dating to as far back as the thirteenth century have been recovered from excavations of medieval Dublin, Cork and other towns,” said Meriel McClatchie of University College Dublin. “An actual fruit has never been found in Ireland until now, but what is most important about the Drumanagh fig is its antiquity. It is without parallel in Ireland and is by far the oldest example of an exotic fruit found here,” McClatchie explained. It is likely that the fig had been grown in southern Europe and was traded across the Roman Empire, until it reached Ireland, she added. Traces of spelt, a staple grain commonly grown in Roman Britain, were also identified at the fort. Archaeologist Christine Baker of Fingal County Council and her colleagues have found metal and ceramic objects at Drumanagh that had been imported from Roman Spain, Gaul, and Britain. She suggests that the people living at Drumanagh had adopted aspects of the Roman lifestyle by eating spelt bread, olive oil, and figs; drinking from glass vessels and fine ceramics; and wearing Roman-style brooches and glass beads. To read about traces of an ancient wooden fort in Wales that were exposed by a summer 2018 drought, go to "The Marks of Time: Roman Fort."
