Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

Some time ago I was struck by the idea to comb through the online British Museum catalogue to find artefacts in their collections that came from Ireland. This was a terrible idea. It was terrible not because there was so little, but because there was so much – had I any idea of how much work was involved, I’d probably have been best advised to leave it alone. As I appear to be unencumbered by common sense I pressed on and have begun publishing a series of blog posts that seem quite well received. Each post usually represents a single traditional county and lays out the material in broadly chronological order. A Table of Contents to these posts can be found [ here ]. In putting together my brief introductory comments on each post, outlining the most common materials, periods represented, and artefact types etc. I’ve relied on a hastily assembled data visualisation created in Tableau. I had thought to develop it a little further and release it as an additional resource to the seri...

A little while ago I had an idea to search the online catalogue of The Metropolitan Museum of Art for antiquities of Irish origin. The resulting blog post [ here ] was quite successful and I thought to seek out other major museums with the trifecta of online catalogues, Irish material, and liberal views on using their imagery. That is when I discovered the The Museum of Fine Art, Boston. The post I put together was also quite successful [ here ]. Emboldened, I considered where I could go next. I should have had more sense, but I did not. That is why I believed that it was a good idea to tackle the online catalogue of The British Museum. Had I realised the amount of work involved, I’d probably have left it well alone. However, I have persevered and I hope to present (at relatively regular intervals) a county-by-county (and occasionally sub-county level) series of posts, presenting the material held by that institution. This post will act as a Table of Contents for the series and links...

I was recently browsing for something completely different in The Met’s online catalogue when I thought ‘I wonder if they have any Irish stuff?’ Not only do they hold Irish material in their collections, they generously make photographs available under a Creative Commons Zero Licence. These 20 items are all of metal (bronze, copper alloy, silver, and gold), and represent finds from 10 counties (Antrim, Cavan, Cork, Down, Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Tipperary, Westmeath, & Wexford) along with five merely provenanced to the island of Ireland. Together they are ascribed to three archaeological periods: Bronze Age (9), Iron Age (1), and Early Medieval (10). The Met does hold a number of other ancient Irish pieces, but all are without images so I've decided to omit them from this post. The one story that strikes me immediately from putting this collection together is to wonder who one  Patrick O'Connor of New York was and how he amassed his little collection of metalwork and h...

Over the last few years I’ve been lucky enough to get over to London on a number of occasions on my own just to bask in the gorgeousness of various museums. Not doing research on any particular project, just as a tourist out having a look and a poke about. In this series of posts, I want to share some photographs from my excursions to three of my favourites: The British Museum; The Victoria & Albert Museum; and The Petrie Museum. In most cases, my intention is to merely give a few basic details about the piece: the location, provenance, date, that kind of thing. Some will have little snippets of stories to go with them, explaining my fascination with the piece or maybe it won’t. Some of these pieces I consider to be old friends – visited every time I go to the museum – while others are new acquaintances. All of them touched me in some way – intellectually, aesthetically, or emotionally ... sometimes all three … maybe they’ll do the same for you! My intention with this post is...