Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

A review of Kytmannow , T. 2008. Portal Tombs in the Landscape: the chronology, morphology and landscape setting of the portal tomb of Ireland, Wales and Cornwall. Oxford: BAR British Series 455. Rena Maguire [** If you like this post, please make a donation to the IR&DD project using the secure button at the end. If you think it is interesting or useful, please re-share via Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc. To help keep the site in operation, please use the amazon search portal at the end of the post - each purchase earns a small amount of advertising revenue**] I have never liked the traditional implication that portal tombs were in some way inferior to court, passage and wedge tombs. Archaeology may have ‘trends’ and fads but there are some areas of study which seem to be the academic equivalent of the little black dress – eternally in fashion. The gleaming white stones of Newgrange always generates the megalithic sexy. It would appear that a single chamber, a pair...

[** If you like this post, please make a donation to the IR&DD project using the secure button at the end. If you think it is interesting or useful, please re-share via Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc. To help keep the site in operation, please use the amazon search portal at the end of the post - each purchase earns a small amount of advertising revenue**] It’s odd how disparate threads of ideas can swirl about in your head … often for quite some time before coalescing into something completely different. Let me explain how I got to today’s topic … It must be a couple of years ago that I first happened upon the “ The Photographic Archive of Irish Archaeology ” Facebook page. It is a page dedicated to making available the unofficial photos from excavations – the ones that never make it into the publications, but are still such a rich source of social history of our profession. I thought it was a fantastic idea, and have contributed some photographs from my own collect...

[** If you like this post, please make a donation to the IR&DD project using the button at the end. If you think it is interesting or useful, please re-share via Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc. To help keep the site in operation, please use the amazon search portal at the end of the post - each purchase earns a small amount of advertising revenue**] While this blog normally concentrates on matters archaeological and Irish, I do welcome the opportunity to do something different from time to time. In 2010, my good friend Nick Wright completed his PhD, “ Religion in Seleukid Syria: gods at the crossroads (301-64 BC) ”, at the Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University. Last year a revised version of the thesis was accepted by Archaeopress for publication in BAR’s International Series. Nick has a provided this extended abstract as an introduction to the book. He skilfully weaves together the disparate strands of the surviving evidence to produce a thoughtful, nuanced, sy...