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From the January – February edition of Britarch (thanks to Merryn for pointing it out to us):

Burnt mound theory tested to perfection

David Chapman found an eroding “burnt mound” – a common but unexplained prehistoric mound of fired stones – on the Lleyn peninsula at Hell’s Mouth. Excavations in 2008 revealed an oak trough containing a residue of burnt stones and charred chaff and seeds (News, Mar/Apr 2009). Last summer Chapman and a team from Ancient Arts tested the theory that the trough had been used for brewing. The result was a lot of burnt stone – and 77 pints of light ale.

Read more at Britarch here..

David used elderberry to flavour his ale and added some brewers yeast as a backup.

WhenonGE 82

As Declan solved When on Google Earth 81 (WhenonGE) at seandalaiocht.com,  here’s WhenonGE 82…

So once again here are the rules:

Q: What is When on Google Earth? A: It’s a game for archaeologists, or anybody else willing to have a go!

Q: How do you play it? A: Simple, you try to identify the site in the picture.

Q: Who wins? A: The first person to correctly identify the site, including its major period of occupation, wins the game.

Q: What does the winner get? A: The winner gets bragging rights and the chance to host the next When on Google Earth on his/her own blog!

Be the first to correctly identify the site below and its major period of occupation in the comments below and you can host your own!

For a list of previous WhenonGE’s see the list on our blog post here and then you can follow the link in the comments to trace the sequence back to here… or join the Facebook group here….

The Fading Light

There are a number of archaeology connections to Ivan Kavanagh’s award winning film ‘The Fading Light’. The film won Best Irish Film in the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival and Best Actor went to Patrick O’Donnell, for his role as a special needs adult in the same film. More info here..

Congratulations to Patrick/Dicey who carries out a lot of Moore Marine’s archaeological research. And we also note that Bibbi Larsson, another archaeologist known to us, stars in the film. Well done all.

The trailer is here (YouTube).

Assemblage VI

Gathering stuff from the internest on Beer, Archaeology, the Environment, Aquaponics and anything else that strikes us as interesting, since May 2008.

On architectural job losses and planning, more garbage patches – this time in the North Atlantic, Irish Film Stereotypes, Atheistic visitors to the Emerald Isle, Adolf Hitler and his fondness for Trad and more Flickr pics…

It’s been a while since we’ve put together an ‘Assemblage’. The linkage we do is mostly done on twitter now. But for those of you who don’t tweet, we’ll put together a regular collection of stuff which struck us and we tweeted or retweeted in the previous few weeks as well as items from blogs we regularly read.

On environment, oceanplastics points us to the new Rubbish patch’ which blights the North Atlantic: http://bit.ly/bswxRi. We linked last year to a similar situation in the Pacific: http://short.ie/kzjy4x

KyleCrider retweeted bluelivingideas who tells us that Brazil has approved an enormous hydroelectric dam in heart of Amazon http://ow.ly/16ALCn on their blog. The decision has brought criticism from environmentalists regarding the potential damage to the river basin and displacement of indigenous peoples, although the project is touted as a carbon neutral way to meet the region’s power needs.

CiaranCuffe of the Green Party tweeted about how the Irish Planning Institute says unsustainable proliferation of one-off houses are undermining rural towns & villages http://bit.ly/9HYlRG IPI President Gerry Sheeran contends that one-off housing is causing serious environmental impacts, both visually and on groundwater and biodiversity, and that this iss unsustainable in terms of traffic generation and emissions. In a letter to the Irish Times in response, http://short.ie/u5po5y, Marian Harkin MEP, argues that Sheeran is misrepresenting the statistics in furtherance of ‘the ongoing campaign against building houses in rural areas’.

archiseek writes that 60pc of architects in Ireland have lost their jobs http://bit.ly/5iNNvP We’re still waiting for the results of a recent Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland jobs survey and are expecting even worse statistics.

MargaretKinney informs us that the UN has proclaimed 2010 ‘International Year of Biodiversity’ and directs us here; Save Ecosystems http://bit.ly/8mKgxg

In other internet stuff, urchinette links to the always great Donald Clarke, who takes down appalling Irish film stereotypes. As she says ‘Go Donald! http://bit.ly/bRP356’. We recently went along to see PZ Myers in UCG, which was a great talk. And on Myers, Ronan Mullen and Tom McGurk are discussed here by the Pharyngulites: http://short.ie/x97ns0 and catch the interview with PZ here: http://short.ie/sef4t7

In archaeology, WhenonGE is now up at Seandalaiocht: http://short.ie/2bjt4k. We got WhenonGE 79, after some very helpful hints!

In history, historytweeter tells us that DNA shows King Tut was disabled, malarial and inbred http://goo.gl/fb/YQls, while HouseHistorian points us to some breathtaking footage of Londons streets in 1903 – ‘This is breathtakingly amazing (literally)!! I love it! RT @theretronaut Rare 1903 film of London’s streets… –http://tinyurl.com/ydj3tdr’ Also on historical film, British Pathe have published an online Irish newsreel Collection here:  http://short.ie/eq3yee. In other internet resource news, the entire archive of ‘History Ireland’ is available free on their website here (save the last 6 issues): http://short.ie/e0hy5r A great resource for anyone interested in Irish history… historytweeter also tells us that Hitler was a fan of Irish folk music at http://bit.ly/dgSkRu

And finally, we’ve added a new finds set to our Flickr. Nigel’s pic of the Halberd is up along with items recovered from Eyre Square http://short.ie/wmjyai We’re slowly building a gallery there and some of the pics are well worth a look see.

Irish Blog Awards 2010

We’ve been nominated (part of a very long long list of nominees)  in the Irish Blog Awards – Best Blog of a Business (section sponsored by http://www.redcardinal.ie/. Thanks you to anyone who might have nominated us….

Nomination badge from skitch.com