Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

[** If you like this post, please make a donation to the IR&DD project using the secure button at the right. If you think it is interesting or useful, please re-share via Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc. To help keep the site in operation, please use the amazon search portal at the right - each purchase earns a small amount of advertising revenue **] < 3D Images As many readers of this blog know, I no longer work in archaeology as my day job. These days, I’m to be found toiling away in the in world IT. While I try to keep these two strands of my life apart, they do occasionally conspire to entwine and entangle themselves. This is one such instance. We had a pretty good year in 2013 and the management were keen to see some of that passed back to the people on the ground. To this end, we had a ‘Rally for Good’ where the regular canteen of the Belfast office was transformed into a really lovely restaurant and all the staff were treated to a three course meal – with desert se...

[** If you like this post, please make a donation to the IR&DD project using the secure button at the right. If you think it is interesting or useful, please re-share via Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc. To help keep the site in operation, please use the amazon search portal at the right - each purchase earns a small amount of advertising revenue **] Back to main post > Here are a couple of extra images of the Crumlin Rd. gaol, rendered as 3D (anaglyph) images (click for larger images). To view these, you’ll need to  buy a set  of the red/blue kind of 3D glasses (or  make your own ). Main internal entrance Prisoner reception area Wrought iron work in The Circle View along the wing Panoramic overview of The Circle View down the wing Inside the condemned cell A view back along the wing Panoramic view across the yard I Panoramic view across the yard II Panoramic view across the yard III Panoramic view across ...

European Heritage Open Days was held on the weekend of 13-14th September this year. I'm not sure of actual numbers of buildings that were open, but it was certainly impressive and there was a huge choice to be had around Belfast alone. I did my best to get out and see what I could. In all, I got out to see six properties and have several Gbs of photos and a small pile of semi-garbled notes. Again, this year, I decided to concentrate on locations in my adopted home of east Belfast, though I did make an excursion into Belfast city centre. In the fullness of time (read: in the next 8 to 12 months), I will attempt to get a few blog posts together to promote these beautiful buildings, to share them with the wider world, and (hopefully) convince a few people to come to Northern Ireland and experience these places for themselves. In the interim, I just wanted to share a few photos of the places I got to see. More importantly, I want to express my thanks to the organisers and to the sma...

[** If you like this post, please make a donation to the IR&DD project using the button at the end.  If you like this post, please consider re-sharing this post via Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc.**] If you know me – either in real life or just through my activities online – you’ll be aware (possibly to the point of exasperation) that I’m obsessed with archaeology. You’ll probably also know that my main area of interest is Irish archaeology, especially prehistory, the Early Christian period, and post-Medieval gravestones – it’s just how I am! What fewer of you may know is that I’m also pretty obsessed with Egypt and Egyptology! What almost no one knows is that my family and I are the curators of a small collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts. I say curators, rather than owners, as we believe that we can never truly own such items – we are merely their custodians for the next generation. The collection was passed to me contained in a small Godfrey Phillips tobacco...