The most famous archaeological finds from ancient Ireland are the “Bog People,” bodies preserved for more than 2000 years in the country’s swamps. Archaeologists believe these Bog People were the victims of ritual sacrifice by Irish pagans.

Historians say that after that period Ireland actually decivilized. Archaeological evidence suggests that agriculture receded, as did visible settlements. Pagans populated the island, and because literacy wasn’t a big thing there, much of what we know about second-century, third-century, and fourth-century Ireland is from the Romans in Britain who tell of being raided by Irish tribes.