Seandálaíocht - Irish for Archaeology

Your weekly round up of archaeology in Irish newspapers..

• The body snatching habits of medical students (relates to this)
• Museum talk to reveal what 'lies beneath'
• Researchers find bodies that may date back to Trojan war
• How we won out over the 'cavemen'
• Anglo-Saxon gold hoard found
• UCC expert judges gold find
• Visitors flock to see treasure hoard and here
• Jobless man strikes gold as hobby pays off with buried treasure find
• Annual memorial lecture
• Golden dreams for man who found Anglo-Saxon hoard
• Terry’s find is biggest Anglo-Saxon hoard

A spectacular new find from Staffordshire of a large hoard of Anglo-Saxon precious metalwork promises to be as significant, if not more significant than the material recovered from the famous Sutton Hoo burial.

It was discovered by a metal-detectorist who, along with the landowner, are set to share a substantial reward now that the material has been declared treasure trove. Hardly a good incentive to discourage metal detecting.

More here, here and images here and here.

Volume 23, issue 3 of Archaeology Ireland has arrived in the post and includes a little plug for www.seandalaiocht.com in the "News from the Net" section. Links discussed in this regular Archaeology Ireland feature are available online here.

Cairn T at Loughcrew passage tomb cemetery is aligned on the Autumn and Spring equinoxes, one of which falls on Tuesday 20th. On that day and those around it the sun shines down the passage and illuminates the back recess and the stunning megalithic art that decorates it.

O.P.W. staff are in attendance at the cairn today (from 7.15 - 8.30 am), tomorrow and Tuesday; so this morning I dragged myself out of bed at 5.30 a.m. and made the trip. We arrived about 7.30, fifteen minutes after sunrise but didn't get into the chamber for another half hour. I can't say it wasn't worth the wait though and with the absoloutely perfectly clear sky we got a spectacular experience. Check out some pics above and a time-lapse video of a previous equinox below.

I came across this on the Irish Art blog just now. I had been aware that there was an artist-in-residence at WAC-6 last year and wondered what would come out of it. And this tripartite piece of angular sculpture is it.

I'm not too sure what the relationship really is between Art and Archaeology although there must of course be some. Archaeology has a relationship with pretty much everything done by people but, considering its strong art-historical roots, art theory would seem obviously linked to archaeological theory.

I am by no means qualified or interested enough to comment on such things but the UCD Scholarcast Series does have some interesting discussions including a great piece by Blaze O'Connor on the archaeological excavation of Francis Bacon's studio.

As to the aesthetics of the sculpture, as with most of the art on the UCD campus I am ambivalent at best. Its not offensive in the slightest (though it might be if I knew how much it cost) but I'm not sure it inspires me or even gets a reaction which is how I personally judge a piece of art.

There is an interesting video below of the installation of the sculpture with a commentary by the artist that may or may not leave the meaning of the piece clearer in your mind.

Just came across this video on the National Geographic site. A Taiwanese smith talks about the use of human bone in the manufacture of swords to give them a soul.

Perhaps an interesing way of thinking about the iron slag that is occasionally found in the ditches of Irish ring barrows?

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