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When Irish Eyes are Smiling

Via Eachtra (who have gone live with an impressive new website), we found Wordle. As Eachtra state, the words we use can say a great deal about us and we found the results interesting – a lot of earth, stone and fire, with the occasional ‘colour’ and a little ‘bragging’ (with a hint of ‘won’ and ‘winner’).

Wordle is a web toy for generating “word clouds” from text, in this case generated by our RSS feed. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the  text.

moore-group-wordle

By the way, WhenonGE # 11 is still up at PhDiva and the most recent 4 Stone Hearth is up here at the Swedish Osteological Association’s blog.

And for St. Patricks (or St. Patty’s) Day, when all America will be eating ‘Corn beef and Cabbage’ and ‘Rueben’ Sandwiches (Corn Beef sandwiches, I think), here’s a snippet of what is likely to be happening in all the Moore Group staff households (and in exactly these type of accents, by jiminey, begosh)…..

And if anyone can explain exactly what is going on in this movie excerpt, it’d be appreciated… Why is the lovely lady so angry?

Or how about this special Remington Steele version.

Now, by jaysus, I’m off out for a quick fight before my spuds.

Ah! Just got it on the Remington Steele vid – ‘When Irish Eyes are Happy, They’d ‘Steele’ your heart away’!

Happy St. Patricks Day/Week

This letter from the Irish Independent drew our attention recently, and we thought we’d repost it for the weekend that’s in it…

Ken is an ex-Moore – well done Ken!

Deep thanks for help in Oz fires

Thursday February 26 2009

I am writing to express my true and sincere thanks for the help of two Irish lads who helped at Yea Emergency Relief Centre, Victoria, Australia, during our recent devastating Black Saturday fires.

These fires took many lives, destroyed homes and decimated our history and natural landscape.

Yea Emergency Relief Centre was short of young male volunteers, when Ken Fitzsimons of Dublin and Eoghan Dowling from Dunmore, Kilkenny, came along.

Ken and Eoghan pitched in and helped in such an incredible manner and were so generous with their time, efforts and concern for the people whose lives had been affected by the devastation of the fires.

Without the help of Ken and Eoghan and their dedication to supporting our community we could not have coped with the huge task of supplying emergency relief to those in need.

I thank their families for raising men of such strong standards and ethics and I thank Ireland for the support you have provided through these mentors for your country; you should all be proud.

Lisa, Paul, Lily & Ethan Rudd

Yea, Victoria, Australia

Moore Group’s office will be closed on Monday and Tuesday 16th & 17th March for the St. Patricks Day/Week festivities.

When on Google Earth #9

Note: Guest post from Southie Sham

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!

whenonge-9

Like so much in archaeology, this game comes to us from our methodological cousins in geology. Shawn Graham adopted their game, and modified it for our use at whenonge #1. Chuck Jones had the first correct answer, and then hosted whenonge #2. The mysterious and elusive PDD got #2 right but never claimed his prize, so Chuck struck back with whenonge #2.1. Paul Zimmerman got the correct answer to #2.1 and hosted whenonge # 3. Heather Baker got the correct answer to #3 and hosted whenonge # 4, and Jason Ur won and hosted whenonge # 5. Dan Diffendale won that, and hosted whenonge #6 . Claire at the Geevor Mine won #6 and hosted #7, which was won by Ivan Cangemi. Ivan  presented # 8 which was hosted at Tria Corda, because, like myself, he is an internet nomad with no fixed abode. So Moore Group has taken me under their wing and out of the goodness of their heart have given whenonge # 9 a home!

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

Four Stone Hearth 62

four-stone-hearth

The next Four Stone Hearth Blog Carnival will be at the Swedish Osteological Society
blog on the 11th March….

Send your submissions to them now….

More on the Barnhill Roundhouse

Part one of the Roundhouse report here...

The round house was basically defined by an inner semi-circular, contiguous footing trench with a single outer ring of postholes. Unfortunately the entire site to the east had been excavatedby machine  for the foundation of the reservoir leaving only the western half of the house remaining. The internal diameter of the house measured 11m and the outer external measurement was approximately 16m. Internally, there were a number of features including a NE/SW linear slot trench with a complex of post holes, pits, amorphous spreads and two rock outcrops around a centrally located posthole that may have functioned as the primary roof support. There was no real evidence for an obvious surface or beaten earth floor.

The internal footing trench, which presumably would have supported a post and wattle wall consisted of a cut and single fill. The cut (C168)  for the trench was semi-circular in plan arcing with a consistent radius of 5.5m around a central posthole (C199). The cut varied in width, profile and depth but generally it had a gradual break of slope with irregular sides ranging from near vertical to concave with an average 60°-80° slope breaking to an uneven base. The upper width varied from a minimum of 0.15m to a maximum 0.42m with an average of 0.28m wide. The fill (C167) was generally uniform in composition albeit with minor variations in colour due to its proximity to a rock outcrop. The fill was of loose to medium compaction, dark brown/grey in colour, composed of silt with medium and small stone inclusions and occasional charcoal fleck. Below (C167) found intermittently along the base of the cut was a lower firm mid orange deposit with black charcoal mottling in a silty clay matrix. There was no evidence for secondary cuts or stake holes along the length of the trench.

The outer ring of postholes consisted of approximately 19 different cuts and fills, surrounding the internal footing trench. That these occur less frequently at the southern end of the site cannot be easily explained, though one could suggest that some of the timbers were secured on a pad stone and weighed down with rocks.

barnhill-structure2

Barnhill Structure Plan