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