Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

  I’ve taken my 360-degree 3D Vuze camera to some sites that are interesting and important to me, but they’re hardly well known. That changes now! A while back I had the opportunity to go to Tara, Co. Meath and play around up there. Unfortunately, the camera wasn’t as excited to be on this important site as I was, and insisted on repeatedly cutting out after only a sort amount of time filming. For all that, I think they resulting short clips are worth presenting to give a feeling for the place. If you don’t already know, the Hill of Tara is an ancient ceremonial and burial site and I will not attempt to paraphrase the entire Wiki page here, but go have a read for yourself [ here ]. I’ve compiled the tour into a consecutive YouTube playlist [ here ], or you can access each video clip individually here: Standing Stones in Churchyard Pt. I [0:15] Standing Stones in Churchyard Pt. II [0:30] Ráth Chaelchon (Sloping Trenches) [0:13] Banqueting Hall [0:13] Ráth na Seanadh ...

Over the course of 2017 I’ve published some 63 posts of varying kinds, that garnered just under 70,000 views. As the year is drawing to a close, I just wanted to thank everyone who has read, shared, and (hopefully) enjoyed some of the content along the way. For those who missed out and would like to catch up, here are the Top 10 posts from 2017, plus a final, end-of-year plug for two posts that I really enjoyed writing that, I think, should have been a bit more widely read than they were. Again, my thanks for reading in 2017 … I’m already working on a large number of posts for 2018, so I hope to catch your interest with some of those too! 10) Glendalough: St Saviour's Priory 9) Ain't talkin', justwalkin'. Carrying a dead man's shield 8) Bronze Age burials at The Mound of the Hostages, Tara 7) Spiral staircase. National Museum of Ireland, Dublin 6) Three Sides Live |Professor Etienne Rynne Lectures | October 1994 | Part III 5) D...

Bipartite vase from Burial 40 at The Mound of the Hostages, Tara, Co. Meath. This burial was represented by a spread of cremated human bone. Analysis indicates that these represented two individuals. Two pottery vessels were associated with the burial – a tripartite bowl & the pictured bipartite vase – along with a flint knife. The burial dates to 2033-1831 cal. BC ( 3600±60 BP ). The artefacts are now housed at the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.

Bronze Age pottery vessels from The Mound of the Hostages, Tara. Housed at the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.

I am delighted to introduce the third submission for the  The 2014 Bob Chapple Archaeological Essay Prize in association with Wordwell Books . At its heart,  Alexandra Guglielmi's paper ' The Irish Royal Sites and World Heritage status: A Roman perspective ' is a truly interesting investigation into the relationships between not just between ancient Ireland and the Roman world, but how modern Ireland still deals with a more recent colonial past and how these concerns still influence academic discourse. I commend it to your attention! Robert M Chapple *           *             * The Irish Royal Sites and World Heritage status: A Roman perspective Alexandra Guglielmi “Nobody doubts that there were strong Roman influences in Ireland in the early centuries of the Christian era. The only point for debate is how these influences should be explained”.   Barry Raftery 1996, 18 In 2010, Ir...