Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

[** 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**] Today (22 nd August 2013) is a very special day for me! It’s my blog’s second birthday! The stats are pretty impressive: 65 published posts 106 blog followers +81,500 page views OK … it’s not the Huffington Post , but it’s not bad! I had intended to write something for the first birthday of the blog, but with all the commotion going on about the Drumclay Crannog , there just didn’t seem to be the time. This year I wanted to reflect on where the blog came from, what it’s managed to achieve, and where it may be going. At Nendrum, Co. Down August 2011 was a pretty dark time for me. In terms of my c...

[** 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. **]   Preface I am delighted to welcome Merryn Dineley to the blog. She is an archaeologist with an interest in traditional brewing and malting, and is one a small group of people actively researching the archaeology of brewing and attempting to give beer back its rightful place in our early heritage. Robert M Chapple  2013 Introduction Malted bere barley This article was first published in British Archaeology in January 2008. It was not put on-line at the time. I think it is a good time to revive it, given the proposed re-creation of some of the buildings excavated at Durrington Walls by The Ancient Technology Centre and English Heritage . Obviously, it needs to be updated a little ... there is a reference to a new and potentially exciting lit...