Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

Reconstructing the lifeways of people who perished in 19th century Kilkenny and London. Lecture by Drs Julia Beaumont and Janet Montgomery at the Discovery Programme, 19 th of March 2014. Report by Philippa E Barry In March 2014, the Discovery Programme , in partnership with the Irish Isotopes Research Group (IIRG), was delighted to welcome Drs Julia Beaumont and Janet Montgomery to speak about their work on Great Hunger victims in both Kilkenny and London.  The research was mostly a product of Julia’s PhD for which Janet acted as supervisor.  Janet was instrumental in bringing the use of strontium and lead isotope analysis to investigate human mobility into archaeology in the UK and as such, contributes to the recently formed IIRG. Julia’s research turned out to be groundbreaking – because they sampled teeth from individuals from known contexts over very specific periods of time, they were able to apply historic data to a Neolithic Scottish popula...

[** If you like this post, please make a donation to the IR&DD project using the secure button at the right. 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 right - each purchase earns a small amount of advertising revenue **] Exploring the Archaeological Landscape of the Hamada Deserts of Western Sahara Kevin Mc Donald Background Western Sahara is situated south of Morocco and north and east of Mauritania , and has a narrow border in the east with Algeria. It covers approximately 126,000km 2 and, with an estimated population of around 550,000 people, is one of the least densely populated places on earth. It has some of the richest fishing grounds on the west coast of Africa, and also it has extensive deposits of potash , which is used in the production of fertilizer. Mauritania was a Spanish colony from 1884 until 1976 when the Spaniard...

Facebook, eh? Don’t ya just love it? Endless streams of Lolcats … ‘I’m doing this mildly amusing thing for charity’ events … ‘which 18th century Pope are you?’ quizzes (I got ‘ Servant of God Benedict XIII ’). I can't really complain - I’m as guilty as anyone of contributing to this constant sensory bombardment. My particular humour niche appears to be the Star Wars pun – especially if judged by what people post to my Facebook wall saying ‘you’ll like this!’ (answer: yes, yes I do!). I hope that I post enough links to solidly interesting, engaging, and though provoking material too to provide temper and not alienate the entirety of my online friends and family. Why do I mention this? Well … a little while ago I was trawling through Facebook … reading an article here, looking at a funny video there … the usual stuff! Along the way there was a link to ‘ Rare Historical Photos ’ on The Slightly Warped Website . I’ve seen so many of these over the last few years, I almo...