Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

We’re in the last days of 2015 and I just wanted to take a moment to say a sincere Thank You to everyone who has read and supported this blog over the last year. I enjoy writing for this blog, but there would be little point in continuing if there were no readers. So, thank you all for bearing with me and supporting my work. Going by the numbers, the following have been the ten most read pieces from the last 12 months. Inevitably, the crannog at Drumclay figures prominently, with two entries on the list. I'm afraid that this will be the case for 2016 too as there is much work to be done to secure answers and positive change from Government departments that seem more keen on pretending that all is well (who would have guessed it?). Thankfully, the rest of the list covers a broad selection of topics from aspects of data analysis (Ashley Madison & company accounts) to lightweight photo-essays (The Floral Hall & Poulnabrone), along with my IR&DD research pro...

Books ( Source ) Welcome to this, my 10th, ramble through what I find interesting in Irish archaeology and beyond. If you sign up for a free Academia.edu account you can always come and follow my work too ! But before you do any of that, please take a moment to look at Stuart Rathbone's new book:  Archaeological Boundaries. Discussions, Experiments and Unprovoked Attacks . Philip Macdonald: Excavations in the Vicinity of St Jarlath’s Church, Clonfeacle, County Tyrone Philip Macdonald: Excavations at Crossreagh West, County Londonderry Philip Macdonald: Dundrum Castle, County Down: An Overview and Excavation Report John Waddell: Rathcroghan, Co. Roscommon: where the Táin Bó Cúailnge began John Waddell: The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland John Waddell & Jane Conroy: Celts and others: maritime contacts and linguistic change Christina Fredengren: Lisnacrogher in a landscape perspective Spencer Carter: Monitoring of Mesolithic Lithic Sites at E...

[If you like what I write, please consider throwing something in the Tip Jar on the right of the page. Alternatively, using The Reading Room portals for shopping on Amazon brings in some advertising revenue and costs you nothing] You can skip to the Visualisation embedded at the end of this post, or go directly to my page on the Tableau Public server [ here ] Introduction As many readers of this blog will be aware (probably painfully), I spend much of my free time on a research project that’s all about collecting radiocarbon determinations and dendrochronological dates. The last publicly released version of the catalogue was in September 2013 (though the most current version has always been freely available to researchers who contact me directly). Back then the catalogue boasted 7015 radiocarbon dates and 260 dendrochronological ones. As of December 2015, the catalogue now holds 8288 radiocarbon and 313 dendro dates. As headline figures go, that’s not bad – respective in...

I’m going to keep this short! The nominations for the Current Archaeology Awards [ Facebook | Web ] have just been announced and there are two entries from the island of Ireland there and I would be very grateful if you would consider voting for them. Rescue Dig of the Year 2016 The Drumclay crannog-dwellers: revealing 1,000 years of lakeside living (Nora Bermingham and Caitriona Moore) Book of the Year 2016 The Archaeology of Caves in Ireland (Marion Dowd) Please go to the voting page [ here ] and do your bit! That’s it! That’s all! Thank you for helping! +           +           + The longer bit: Every one of the nominees deserves their place on the list, but I think these two are particularly special and deserve all-Ireland archaeological support. The nomination for Drumclay reads: “The rare excavation of a medieval artificial island,...

[If you like what I write, please consider throwing something in the Tip Jar on the right of the page. Alternatively, using the site portals for shopping on either Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk brings in some advertising revenue and costs you nothing] As we rapidly plunge towards the end of another year, many people’s minds turn to Yule festivities, gifting, feasting, quaffing and all the joys that the Winter Solstice has to offer. For myself, I find my mind turning to the financial health of the archaeological sector in Northern Ireland, because that’s just how I roll. In what is becoming something of a year-end tradition, I’ve been looking at a number of Key Financials for the four main archaeological consultancies in Northern Ireland. Previous posts have analysed the period from 2011-2012 and 2013 . A recent post on the commercial archaeological sector in the Republic of Ireland made use of a Tableau dashboard to display the data and allow a degree of user interactivity beyond ...

Hello & welcome again to my personal pic of what's interesting to read in Irish archaeology & related topics on Academia.edu ... go ahead, have a read ... it's free! Philip Macdonald: The Base of a Probable Candlestick from the Mass Rock at Carrickanaltar, Aghanaglack, County Fermanagh Philip Macdonald: A New Survey of Templecormick, Audleystown, County Down Philip Macdonald: Medieval Belfast Considered Philip Macdonald: Excavations within the Woolworth’s and Burton Building, High Street, Belfast Philip Macdonald: Archaeological Evaluation of the Inaugural Landscape of Crew Hill (Cráeb Telcha), County Antrim Philip Macdonald & Barrie Hartwell: Anne Plumptre and the Giant’s Ring, County Down: an Account of a Possible Bleach-Green Watch-Tower Philip Macdonald, Naomi Carver, & Mike Yates: Excavations at McIlwhans Hill, Ballyutoag, County Antrim Stephen Cameron, Philip Macdonald, & Brian Sloan: Two Assemblages of Worked Flint from Lin...