Technology

Jane Ruffino: We can't predict what our resource issues of the future will be, nor can we predict who will solve them

Around 2,800 years ago, some Bronze Age people found a spot in a bog near Birr, Co Offaly, took about 200 bronze swords, spearheads, and some buckets, and dumped the stuff there. It could have been to hide it, or ritual destruction of wealth in a time of scarcity. But what sort of scarcity? Is this assemblage, now known as the Dowris Hoard, the prehistoric equivalent of smashing a pile of iPhones?

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