Ok, so its not strictly archaeology but since I can see it out the window from where I sit writing archaeology I figure its allowed. Feast your eyes on the unimaginatively named 'Dublin Wheel', a stunted cousin of London's famous eye. It has been rising beside the Point Theatre for the last few weeks but the spokes only arrived at the weekend. I heard a rumour that it was taken from under the noses of our northern neighbours in Belfast, maybe there was a bit of trouble smuggling it out? 

It has yet, as far as I'm aware, to acquire a witty moniker from Dublin's denizens but I'm sure that won't last long. Suggestions in the comments please! 

The NRA have announced the schedule for their annual public seminar. This is an important event that has grown very popular in recent years, last year's was packed out and had some really high quality talks (the resulting publication will be published at this year's seminar). This year's title is fairly ambiguous but is probably an attempt to tap in to the current recession zeitgeist. I'll be attending and would recommend it to anyone with any interest in archaeology, amateur or professional. 

Having it on a Thursday might be considered restrictive for those with full time jobs but considering how few people have them nowadays (particularly archaeologists), I suppose it makes sense. 

Click Read More for full programme and details on how to register (its free). 

Colleagues


We have just finalised the programme for this years NRA Conference "Past Times: Changing Fortunes".

The seminar will take place on Thursday 26 August at the Gresham Hotel, O'Connell Street, Dublin. Registration will begin at 9.30 am and the first presentation will be at 10.10 am.

Admission is free and Members of the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland will be accredited 10 CPD points.

If you wish to attend please contact Lillian Butler at (01) 6602511 or lbutler@nra.ie, to register, and please advise Lillian of any accessibility requirements.

Programme of Talks

9.30 am Registration
10.00 am        Welcome and introduction Rónán Swan, NRA Head of Archaeology (acting)

10.10 am        Souterrains, social stress and Viking wars in north County Louth
Niall Roycroft
10.30 am        Finding the plot: urban and rural settlement in 13th-century Cashel, Co. Tipperary, Joanne Hughes and Mícheál Ó Droma
10.50 am        Profiting from the land: mixed fortunes in historic landscapes
Ken Hanley

11.10 am        Questions & answers
11.20 am        Tea/coffee

11.40 am        Woodland clearances and farming in the Bronze Age: the evidence from peat and lake cores (N6 and N18 routes), Michael O'Connell and Karen Molloy
12.00 pm        Agricultural boom and bust in medieval Ireland: plant macrofossil evidence from sites along the N9/N10 road scheme, Scott Timpany
12.20 pm        Wax or wane? An insect perspective on past human and environmental interactions, Eileen O'Reilly

12.40 pm        Questions & answers
12.50 pm        Lunch

2.30 pm Excavating death on the N6: 3500 BC to AD 1500
Brendon Wilkins
2.50 pm Enclosing the living and the dead in early medieval Ireland—relationships between burial and settlement, Matthew Seaver
3.10 pm Health in medieval Ireland: the evidence from Ballyhanna, Co. Donegal
Catriona McKenzie and Eileen Murphy


3.30 pm Questions & answers

A new blog has been launched inviting feedback on the future of St James's Graveyard, Dublin 8. The graveyard dates back to a little after the Norman invasion of Ireland in the twelfth century but went out of use in the twentieth century. The land is to be transferred to Dublin City Council and, laudably, they are consulting the wider public about how the space should be treated.

There are a number of old graveyards dotted around Dublin city which can easily be missed. Two better known ones include the Huguenot Cemetery off St Stephen's Green and the old graveyard beside Donnybrook Garda Station. These are little-used spaces, relatively inaccessible to the public, but they do preserve a certain solitude and dignity which can sometimes be lost when graveyards fall out of use. 

Wolf Tone Square, formerly the graveyard of St Mary's church on the corner of Jervis Street and Mary Street is a case in point. After the graveyard's decline in the twentieth century its gravestones were removed and piled, rather forlornly, against the wall at the south end, where they remain today apart from a fe set into the ground. Recent redevelopment of the graveyard as a public square has been less than successful. A bland, non-interactive design combining with its use as a drinking spot to make it a non-destination for Dubliners even during the day. 

Its difficult to know what to do with cemeteries when they go out of use, modern sensibilities cringe at the thought of 'walking on graves' although our ancestors had no such qualms, often holding markets and fairs on what was often a very convenient open space. I'm not sure what should be done with St James's graveyard but i hope the solution is neither as bland as  Wolfe Tone Square nor as inaccessible as the Huguenot Cemetery. 

A blend of modern use with a respect for the past is usually the best approach. Graveyards are always fascinating and often very tranquil places, maybe preserving these two assets should be the main goal of the Council when planning for the future of St James's graveyard. 

I just got news of a major update to the archaeology.ie national monuments database. Some 55,000 summary descriptions of sites have been transferred from the published surveys and inventories and are now accessible online through a map-based interface. This is a great, if often not reliable, resource and apparently there is a major update, presumably similar to the OSI mapping interface coming early next year.

All they need to do now is get publishing that grey literature alongside all the summary descriptions. Click Read More for full details. 

This just popped up on my twitter feed from BAJRjobs. 

I'd like to draw people's attention to the blogs of two ongoing excavations from county Meath. One, taking place at Bective abbey is in its second year of blogging (it was  featured in the Irish Times last year) , and the other, based on an excavation in Rossnaree in the Boyne Valley has only been online a matter of weeks. 

You can follow the, generally daily, updates for a fascinating insight into two ongoing research excavations. Sure you could even visit if you manage to drag yourself away from the internet for a few hours..

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.  

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 

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. 

As promised in an earlier post I am proud to launch Seandalaiocht's first mobile app! It is fairly basic, providing a few photos, an RSS reader and some contact info for the site but considering I have no programming skills and its one of only a handful of archaeology-related apps in existence I'm quite chuffed with it. 

The app was created online using www.buildanapp.com and should have cost just $19 but because my weird non-postcoded address in Ireland wouldn't work with their system they were generous enough to publish it for free! So needless to say I highly recommend them.

Andoid users can get the app by scanning the barcode on this post, searching the Android Market for Seandalaiocht or downloading this file and putting it on their phone. Blackberry and Windows users can find versions on the Seandalaiocht App page. 

Unfortunately publishing an iphone app is just too expensive at the moment but for those who want to experience the app on their iphone they can surf to a web version at i.seandalaiocht.com. A mobile version of the site is available for non-smart phones at m.seandalaiocht.com.