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The conserved Faddan More Psalter

In the sumer of 2006 a spectacular find in a bog in Co. Tipperary Ireland caused a sensation. Against all odds an eight century vellum manuscript was found almost intact by the driver of a mechanical digger, Mr Eddie Fogarty.

The book had been lost, or perhaps placed, in the bog over a millennia ago and represented the first book of this age ever to be found preserved in such a context anywhere in the world. Since the discovery the book, now named the Faddan More Psalter, has been conserved by the National Museum of Ireland and will go on display in the museum in 2011.

While the book is, on its own, one of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries in Europe in the last decade, it held one more spectacular secret. In the final stages of its conservation fragments of papyrus, a type of reed paper probably originating in Egypt, were found in its leather binding. Speculation about the connections between early Irish traditions of ascetic monasticism and those of the Coptic Church in Egypt has been around for many years and this discovery adds solid evidence for contact between the two regions in the eight century.

The psalter prior to conservation

A documentary on the Faddan More Psalter and its conservation will air on RTE Television tonight at 10.15 p.m. Click Read More to view the press release.

New RTE Archaeology Programme - Dig It! 09/04/2010

RTE are currently looking for entrants for a new archaeology programme involving fifth and sixth class students. There's a website to go with the show that gets applicants to play an interactive game where they identify a variety of archaeological objects that belong to a Bronze Age burial (I'm going to pretend I got them all first time..). Its really well done and actually informative!

I presume this is connected with the archaeology element of the school curriculum which recently saw the launch of a transition year resource pack to go along with the primary school one. You can play the game yourself on the programme's website but I'm afraid you can't enter unless you're in fifth or sixth class and are happy to 'don an archaeologist's hat'.

There's no indication that I can find of how the programme will work or what format it will follow but I'm a big advocate of this kind of popularisation of archaeology. Getting kids, and by extension their tax-paying parents, interested and involved in archaeology is the best way to justify our largely publicly-funded research.

The production company doesn't appear to have any background in historical/archaeological programming (judging by a brief glance at their website) and a lot of their recent stuff falls into the category of very light entertainment (e.g. 'Celebrity Jigs and Reels') but the website shows promise so I'll withhold judgement for now.

EDIT: More info on how to apply here.

Help Build a Neolithic Newgrange Currach 10/02/2010

Readers may be interested in a brilliant opportunity to get involved in a project reconstructing a large currach based on the Boyne-type currachs used up until the twentieth century.

This summer the project will be experimenting with methods of transporting stone based on theoretical ideas about how stone was transported from various places on the east coast of Ireland to Newgrange and there are further plans for next year. The film company Crossing the Line Films is involved on the project. They were previously involved in the extremely professional production of Blood of the Irish.

I was involved in a similar project based in Denmark which resulted in the sailing of a reconstructed viking ship called the Sea Stallion from Roskilde to Dublin and back. I can highly recommend it and if I can find the time I might get involved myself.

I'd strongly advise a look at the superb website and encourage people to get involved in a project that represents an exceedingly rare opportunity.

Hidden Heritage in Northern Ireland 02/02/2010

View from Divis Mountain, Belfast (Photo: Rowan of Ravara via flickr)

A new series of the UTV programme Hidden Heritage has started recently and is available from the UTV Player. You can read summaries of the four episodes here and catch the first one for the next month here.

From a brief look at the first episode it seems to have some good interviews with some familiar faces. It covers old ground but in an interesting way for the short format. Well worth a look.

Viking House on the Northside of the Liffey 27/01/2010

Dublin-type house reconstruction Photo: David Hawgood

I found out about a newly discovered Viking house located behind the Four Courts in Dublin (Hammond Lane/Church Street) at the weekend through a friend working on the site but it has now trickled through to the national news. It was featured on Morning Ireland yesterday morning through a five minute interview with Margaret Gowen, complete with obligatory northside/southside comment at the end. You can listen to it on their podcast of the whole programme or just the interview below:

As a bonus, you can also see the report broadcast on the six-one news by clicking here or watch the whole programme on the RTE Player (skip to about 37 minutes in for the juicy bit). Also an Irish Times article here.

View Viking House in a larger map

Nationwide Archaeology 11/01/2010

RTE rarely ventures into the mysterious waters of archaeology, usually preferring the well-trodden path of civil war and later politics when dipping its toes in the pond of history. Two recent series, Secrets of the Stones (free to watch on the RTE player here) and Blood of the Ancestors have begun what is hopefully a change in this mysterious aversion to archaeology which afflicts the corridors of power in Donnybrook.

Newgrange and the Bend of the Boyne

However, while we wait for a full series (with more than two episodes) dedicated to Ireland's history prior to the Norman invasion we must be sated with the usual tidbits. The latest comes in the form of an episode of Nationwide which deals with an attempted full-scale facsimile of the Newgrange entrance and chamber as well as some recently discovered rock-art at Loughcrew. The episode is fairly well made and features some eminent archaeologists who acquit themselves well.

However, the show left me cold. It barely scratched the surface of what is interesting about Newgrange and Loughcrew and focused more on the group of (art) students who had built the Newgrange reconstruction as part of a class project. It left me and I'm sure most of the other viewers with a curiosity about the many interesting questions raised that would take a whole series to address (hint hint RTE).

While I applaud those archaeologists who took part in the programme I just wish our national broadcaster would get serious about the huge heritage area that is archaeology. Not only would it find a ready-made audience, it would probably end up with a product it could sell world-wide to the gigantic diaspora with an interest in their ancestor's past. When I look at the high quality of archaeological programming across the water it really does make me wonder why we can't expect and receive just a little bit more than half hour specials and a few very rare two-part series.

See the Nationwide episode here and Secrets of the Stones here.

Secrets of the Stones 22/04/2009

The first episode of Secrets of the Stones: Decoding Ireland's Lost Past was broadcast on Easter Monday and seems to be another in a line of very welcome heritage/archaeological oriented mini-series being produced by RTE (another recent one being Blood of the Irish).

The programme was impressively produced with none of the usual celtic mysticism, new-age spiritualism or shoddy camerawork associated with archaeology-related programmes on RTE. The graphics, camerawork and general quality of the show's production was on a par with what you might expect from a BBC show and probably better than most Discovery Channel/History Channel fare.

In terms of the archaeological quality of the content it was patchy to say the least. An uninformed viewer might easily believe that Ireland's first inhabitants built passage tombs and went to parish church every Sunday and the lack of a Mesolithic reminds us of an archaeological perspective that should have dissappeared in the seventies. The rolling out of Mike Baillies comet hypothesis is understandable in the light of its obvious entertainment value but perhaps a little more of a balanced view could have been given.

There are plenty of other quibbles any archaeologist could have with the programmes content but I for one salute it as a key element in getting archaeology to the public. Despite its flaws it was interesting enough to keep a number of non-archaeological friends of mine watching for longer than five minutes and anything that gets the general public interested is, in my view, a very very good thing.

Episode 2 of Secrets of the Stones, which will look at the arrival of Christianity, will air on Monday 4th May at 6.30pm on RTE One. Click here to download a pdf leaflet about the programme.