Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

A little while ago I had an idea to search the online catalogue of The Metropolitan Museum of Art for antiquities of Irish origin. The resulting blog post [ here ] was quite successful and I thought to seek out other major museums with the trifecta of online catalogues, Irish material, and liberal views on using their imagery. That is when I discovered the The Museum of Fine Art, Boston. The post I put together was also quite successful [ here ]. Emboldened, I considered where I could go next. I should have had more sense, but I did not. That is why I believed that it was a good idea to tackle the online catalogue of The British Museum. Had I realised the amount of work involved, I’d probably have left it well alone. However, I have persevered and I hope to present (at relatively regular intervals) a county-by-county (and occasionally sub-county level) series of posts, presenting the material held by that institution. This post will act as a Table of Contents for the series and links...

'Hundred Bird' coat - Front (As1998,01.175) © Trustees of the British Museum I was recently in London on family business, but had the opportunity to drop into the British Museum and catch their current show ‘Living with gods: peoples, places and worlds beyond’. I don’t intend to provide a review of the show – if you’re looking for reviews I can direct you [ here | here | and here ]. Instead, I want to note just one exhibit on display – the gorgeous ‘Hundred Bird’ Coat from Guiyang in China’s Guizhou province . Gina Corrigan, who purchased the piece in China and later sold it to the British Museum, notes that it was ‘Worn at the Guzang festival held by the Miao at irregular intervals to renew and reinforce spiritual links with their ancestors.’ The coat is thought to date to the period between 1950 and 1990 and is made of mostly undyed cotton, with unstitched sides and sleeves. These open edges have fabric lops and knots at intervals (I presume) to allow it to be...

I recently published a post on the Archaeological Items of Irish origin at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and wanted to follow it up with some posts on some other museums with both Irish material and an online catalogue, not to mention progressive view on the usage of their images. To this end, I’ve been perusing the collections of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and they’ve kindly granted me permission to use images of the four pieces they hold of ancient Irish origin. Four artefacts may not sound like much, but each one is a masterpiece that commands attention in its own right. The pieces include a Middle Bronze Age ribbon torc from Innishowen, Co Donegal; two Late Bronze Age penannular armlets; and one Early Medieval shrine. The torc was discovered in 1882 by Rev. Dr. William Chadwick Neligan of Cork. This is, presumably, the same Rev. Mr. Neligan, Rector, Shandon Church, Cork City who sold the silver Rathcormac torc [ here ] in 1885. Nelligan sold the Innishowen torc to the Pi...

< Back to Table ofContents The excavations at Saint-Laurent recovered substantial portions of a smashed terracotta statue of a Madonna and child. In archaeological terms, it’s not particularly old, only dating to around 1860 to 1880, but I’m simply taken by the post-excavation dedication to carefully putting as much as possible back together.

I was recently browsing for something completely different in The Met’s online catalogue when I thought ‘I wonder if they have any Irish stuff?’ Not only do they hold Irish material in their collections, they generously make photographs available under a Creative Commons Zero Licence. These 20 items are all of metal (bronze, copper alloy, silver, and gold), and represent finds from 10 counties (Antrim, Cavan, Cork, Down, Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Tipperary, Westmeath, & Wexford) along with five merely provenanced to the island of Ireland. Together they are ascribed to three archaeological periods: Bronze Age (9), Iron Age (1), and Early Medieval (10). The Met does hold a number of other ancient Irish pieces, but all are without images so I've decided to omit them from this post. The one story that strikes me immediately from putting this collection together is to wonder who one  Patrick O'Connor of New York was and how he amassed his little collection of metalwork and h...