Archaeological Wallabies on Lambay Island 08/07/2010
 Flicking through my photographic archive of generally forgettable snaps I came across a batch from my Masters fieldwork on Lambay Island, off the coast of Dublin. I spent a week on the Island surveying the flint resources on its beaches for my thesis and along the way got to visit the Lutyens-designed castle (no photos unfortunately!) and catch a glimpse of some of the wildlife.  Wallaby Camouflage Lambay is home to lots of wild birds, rabbits, deer, seals and, a little unexpectedly, a flock? of wallabies. These furry creatures are surprisingly difficult to spot despite the fact they are clearly a little out of place on an Irish off-shore island. I had to wait until my last day of fieldwork to spot them and only managed to get one shot  Wallabus Hibernicus Lambayicus before they hopped it. You can see the shot above and a close up to the right. Obviously this post hasn't been strictly archaeological thus far so I've attached a few more-or-less archaeo/landscapy shots from my Lambay trip. For the record my hair has subsequently been shorn and I'm an awful lot less scruffy now. Most of the time anyhow.. My work on Lambay was published with Gabriel Cooney this year in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy.             UCD Images of Research 29/06/2010
I just submitted a few photos to the UCD Images of research competition and thought I'd share them along with the waffly blurbs I had to make up for them. feel free to laugh, I did.         The Skelligs 22/06/2010
 Here are a few photos from a recent trip to Skellig Michael for reader's delectation. If you're not sure what/where Skellig Michael is have a look here, and some might be interested in the draft management plan here or the tourist information leaflet, which has good a good map of the island here.                               The trip was very pleasant and included an excellent talk by the guide at the top who's name escapes me. There seemed to be some excavation work going on while I was there but I'm not sure what exactly they're digging/conserving. Anyone looking for copies of any of the photos can get some from the Seandalaiocht flickr page or contact me for full resolution images. SMELT 2010 - Preparations 23/02/2010
I spent yesterday researching and organising things for Smelt 2010 which is fast creeping up on me. One of the fancy things I'd like to do for the smelt is some time-lapse photography so I devoted a bit of time to figuring out how my still relatively new digital slr works; familiarising myself a bit more with terms like apeture, shutter-speed and ISO. The result is a test video of me working for a couple of hours in my little home office: It reveals a weird tendency to play with my beard (shared by all bearded men i'd imagine) and a dangerous sedentism that reminds me how much exercise I don't do. Besides that, preparations are coming along and the Smelt will go ahead on the 6th and 7th of March. The one big thing I need to sort out is a bellows system, which I will make if need s be but I would be more than happy to borrow if someone would like to donate! For people who would like to come to see the smelt (taking place in the Irish National Heritage Park in Co. Wexford) the schedule will hopefully run as follows: Friday 5th - I'll be there prepping and setting up the smelting area and probably starting construction of the furnace Saturday 6th - Completion of furnace and pre-firing with wood. Ore preparation and roasting. Sunday 7th - The smelt (volunteers needed!) Monday 8th - Clean up All are welcome to come but if you can't make it I will be putting up videos and images from the smelt on the project's website. Loughcrew Equinox 20/09/2009
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. Incredible Cave Photography 20/04/2009
 This is a photo of Park Cave, White Park Bay, Co. Antrim taken by photographer Andy McInroy. The photo was taken as part of a project that is re-visiting some of the many caves along the Antrim coast photographed a century ago by Victorian pioneers.  The exploration of caves all over the world has brought about huge advances in our understanding of the prehistory of the human race; their occasional preservation of long stratigraphical sequences and their use in multiple periods have made them important resources for archaeologists from France to the Philipines. This is less true in Ireland although archaeologists such as Marion Dowd have recently begun to tease out the complex and incredibly interesting stories of our excavated cave sites. | What?A site about Irish archaeology: conferences; links; opinions;news; information and the internet.      CategoriesAll ArchivesJuly 2010    
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