Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

Over the course of 2017 I’ve published some 63 posts of varying kinds, that garnered just under 70,000 views. As the year is drawing to a close, I just wanted to thank everyone who has read, shared, and (hopefully) enjoyed some of the content along the way. For those who missed out and would like to catch up, here are the Top 10 posts from 2017, plus a final, end-of-year plug for two posts that I really enjoyed writing that, I think, should have been a bit more widely read than they were. Again, my thanks for reading in 2017 … I’m already working on a large number of posts for 2018, so I hope to catch your interest with some of those too! 10) Glendalough: St Saviour's Priory 9) Ain't talkin', justwalkin'. Carrying a dead man's shield 8) Bronze Age burials at The Mound of the Hostages, Tara 7) Spiral staircase. National Museum of Ireland, Dublin 6) Three Sides Live |Professor Etienne Rynne Lectures | October 1994 | Part III 5) D...

Bipartite vase from Burial 40 at The Mound of the Hostages, Tara, Co. Meath. This burial was represented by a spread of cremated human bone. Analysis indicates that these represented two individuals. Two pottery vessels were associated with the burial – a tripartite bowl & the pictured bipartite vase – along with a flint knife. The burial dates to 2033-1831 cal. BC ( 3600±60 BP ). The artefacts are now housed at the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.

Bronze Age pottery vessels from The Mound of the Hostages, Tara. Housed at the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.

Books ( Source ) Greetings one and all! Welcome to my 16th (and long overdue) ramble through my selection of the most interesting and exciting of the archaeology and history papers on the Academia.edu site. But first (and it will only take a moment) please divert your attention to Stuart Rathbone’s fantastic book: Archaeological Boundaries. Discussions, Experiments and Unprovoked Attacks . It’s published on the Leanpub platform and, while there is a suggested pricing, you can have it for free! I stand by my earlier claims that it the among the most significant books on Irish archaeology ever published and positions Stuart as among the most interesting and innovative thinkers in the field. Go on! You know you want to! If that’s not enough for you, come peruse my selection of freely available papers from Academia.edu: Marcus J Vandergoes, Maarten Blaauw et al .: A revised age for the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra, a key marker for the Last Glacial Maximum in New ...

[** 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 **] Nendrum was an early Christian monastery on Mahee Island in Strangford Lough, just outside the village of Comber [ map ]. It is Northern Ireland’s best surviving example on a pre-Norman monastery. Mahee Island is named for the traditional founder of the site, St Mochaoi, a disciple of St Patrick, who is believed to have established a monastery here in the 5th century. However, no excavated finds suggest that there was a monastery here any earlier than the 7th century. From historical sources, the monastery is believed to have continued in operation until sometime between 974 and 1178. Sometime after 1177, John de Courcy esta...

[** 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 **] Part II | Part III > It all started innocently enough. I received an ostensibly ordinary email from Conor McDermott at UCD to let me know that their Archaeological Research Seminar People and Their Worlds would be happening on May 1st. The brochure was certainly promising: This year's UCD School of Archaeology Research Seminar will include a range of presentations from staff, researchers and PhD students, showcasing ongoing and new research being carried out at University College Dublin. Topics will include reconstructing health patterns in the early medieval Irish community; Palaeolithic occupation and ancient g...