Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

It seems so long ago now, but during one of the inter-lockdown periods of last year the Chapple family headed for the distant shores of mid-Ulster to spend a few days in the open air and experiencing some of the great archaeology of the Tyrone/Fermanagh area. Along the way the Chapples Minor were fed, watered, and introduced to some of the most beautiful and important archaeological sites anywhere you choose to look ... well, in my opinion at any rate. First on our virtual tour is the Beaghmore complex of Early Bronze Age cairns, stone circles and stone alignments. From excavations carried out from the 1940s onward it has been established that the area has been inhabited since the Neolithic period and that some of the later Bronze Age monuments directly overlie the remains of Neolithic field walls etc. Over-farming throughout these early periods led to a deterioration of soil quality and eventually resulted in the grown of substantial bog cover, which enveloped and protected the site. ...

In this, the concluding piece from the Chapple Family’s sojourn in the wonderful county of Donegal, we stopped off at Rathmullan Priory. I would point out that we only got there by accident – we never actually intended to go. We been staying in Buncrana and had decided to head further west to my old stomping grounds around Dunfanaghy and Portnablagh. As I detailed in my previous post [ here ], I’d managed to escape the clutches of my beach-loving family and spend some time wandering around the secluded ruins of Doe Castle. Well, by the time I returned from the castle, everyone was pretty much exhausted from playing on the beach. We slowly packed up, made our way back to the car, turned on the GPS and headed for home. A well-prepared, thoughtful driver would have been aware of the GPS settings and, perhaps, plotted some way points to ensure that the correct route was followed. I, on the other hand, simply turned it on, set the address for Buncrana and trusted to whatever small gods exis...

As we come to the last days of the old year I’ve been having a look at what people enjoyed reading. Here’s my Top 10 most-read posts of 2019: 10: The Petrie Museum | Overview 9: Co Tyrone: Archaeological Objects at The British Museum 8: Co Kildare: Archaeological Objects at The British Museum 7: I have always imagined Paradise as a kind of library: some books of enduring importance (to me) 6: The Tauntaun of Fermanagh. 17th Century Cryptids in West Ulster 5: Co Louth: Archaeological Objects at The British Museum 4: Co Antrim: Archaeological Objects at The British Museum Part III 3: Don’t steal, don’t lift: Thoughts on the consequences of plagiarism 2: I got a letter on a lonesome day: The anatomy of a dispute with the Keeper of Irish Antiquities 1: Archaeological Archives for Sale! Buy it or bin it! To this list, I’d add three further posts for your consideration that I think are worth a read but didn’t make the top 10. John de...

How many days has it been since the Keeper of Irish Antiquities claimed that I was trying to defraud the Irish State when I was merely looking to be paid for work they directed me to undertake? My count up Countup Backstory: In a letter dated February 17 2019  Maeve Sikora , Keeper of Irish Antiquities said that  “It is completely unacceptable for you to attempt to extract public monies for discharging duties to which you signed up under the terms of the excavation licence.” She appears to believe that I am held in perpetual indentured servitude to her on the basis of a licence application I signed almost two decades ago and that I must carry out her orders on my own time and at my own expense, without expectation of payment for my services. I have repeatedly asked for a retraction of her egregious and wounding words and to offer a full, unconditional apology. To date, this has not been forthcoming. On November 27 2019 I published my account of m...

Regular readers of this blog may just have an inkling that I have a tendency towards the controversial and downright provocative. I realise that it’s hard to believe such notions from a blog that has published posts on both swastikas and cock rings (though not at the same time … yet). Still, it may come as a surprise that a little piece I published on February 6 2019 called ‘ Archaeological Archives for Sale! Buy it or bin it! ’ ruffled a few feathers. While I would urge you to go back and read this minor masterpiece, the TL;DR version is that under the guise of putting all the archaeological archives I still hold (but have never been funded to completion) up for sale, I wanted to highlight a real issue in Irish field archaeology. Simply put, this is the well-known fact that many excavation directors are forced to hold onto excavation archives in their own homes and at their own expense for many years, even past the point of any hope for their eventual publication. Some of wha...

'Hundred Bird' coat - Front (As1998,01.175) © Trustees of the British Museum I was recently in London on family business, but had the opportunity to drop into the British Museum and catch their current show ‘Living with gods: peoples, places and worlds beyond’. I don’t intend to provide a review of the show – if you’re looking for reviews I can direct you [ here | here | and here ]. Instead, I want to note just one exhibit on display – the gorgeous ‘Hundred Bird’ Coat from Guiyang in China’s Guizhou province . Gina Corrigan, who purchased the piece in China and later sold it to the British Museum, notes that it was ‘Worn at the Guzang festival held by the Miao at irregular intervals to renew and reinforce spiritual links with their ancestors.’ The coat is thought to date to the period between 1950 and 1990 and is made of mostly undyed cotton, with unstitched sides and sleeves. These open edges have fabric lops and knots at intervals (I presume) to allow it to be...