Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

It’s no secret that many denizens of east Ulster regard anywhere ‘West of the Bann’ as a wild, lawless frontier populated with teuchters. I’m sure that it goes the other way too and those folks look east and judge us just as harshly. potayto/potahto. The Ferman-o-Monster ( © Trustees of the British Museum ) However, as part of my research on artefacts of Irish origin in the British Museum ( here ) I was surprised to come across evidence of how far back this kind of geographical sectarianism goes. The image above was published by Elias Bäck in Augsburg, Germany, around 1740. It is a satire on the alleged savagery of the native Irish as claimed by Scottish planters in the 1690s. I’m not entirely sure why it took 50 years for the Scot’s tales of wild goings on in darkest Fermanagh to be ridiculed in Germany, but that’s another story. In the foreground we see one of these fearless Scots, having managed to fit a bridle on the man-eating creature, displaying the beast for th...

The British Museum holds 806 items identified as coming from Co Antrim. A further six items are identified as coming from either Antrim or Derry~Londonderry, two from Antrim/Down, and one from Antrim/Donegal. The majority of these (445) are assigned to the Neolithic/Bronze Age, followed by the Neolithic (86), and Early Medieval period (83). The most common object type represented are axes (172). The main material types represented in this assemblage are Stone (596), Metal (121), and Pottery (70). < Table of Contents Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age: Stone items Antrim arrow-head 19641206.204 Flint barbed arrow-head. http://britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1377048&partId=1 Antrim barbed-and-tanged arrow-head 19280509.100 Flint barbed-and-tanged arrow-head. http://britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1387262&partId=1 Antrim arrow-head 185...