---
title: "Crystal Clear: Centuries-Old Stones Uncovered by Archaeologist Reveal Stories of Ireland’s Mystical Past"
date: 2025-03-14T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/crystal-clear-centuries-old-stones-uncovered-by-archaeologist-reveal-stories-of-irelands-mystical-past"
section: Articles
---
# Crystal Clear: Centuries-Old Stones Uncovered by Archaeologist Reveal Stories of Ireland’s Mystical Past

*March 14, 2025* — by [John Tucker](/author/john-tucker)


> UMD Researcher Is the Only American Licensed to Lead Excavations on the Emerald Isle

*ANTH 1 web — Emma Weikert '24 (anthropology) and Brooke Ayers '25 (anthropology and geography) point to a nearly whole 19th century cream pan—a large bowl for making cream or separating milk from cream—they uncovered from an old trash heap in Lackaghane, County Cork. Since 2018, Associate Professor of anthropology Stephen Brighton has led students in excavations of 18th and 19th century Irish cabins in the townland.*

The four small crystals found on the land in County Cork where a farmhouse had been torched a century ago stood out among more typical artifacts. There were no natural deposits of quartz in this rustic hillside near the Irish coastline.

University of Maryland anthropologist Stephen Brighton and his students digging 23 inches into the soil in the summer of 2018 had also revealed a foundation with a kitchen and cast-iron pot still attached to a wall, along with buttons, cufflinks, a glass inkwell and a copper alloy candlestick.

But with thousands of items to collect, Brighton tucked the translucent stones away and eventually forgot about them.


*crystal — The crystals that Brighton's team unearthed in 2018 and 2024 date back to perhaps 1780.*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Anthropology](https://today.umd.edu/topic/anthropology), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research)


**Units:** [College of Behavioral and Social Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-behavioral-and-social-sciences)