Henry III type II penny at Clarin College, Athenry
This coin was discovered by Moore Group archaeologists excavating the site of the new Clarin College at Newford in Athenry a few years ago. During the course of archaeological monitoring of topsoil stripping for the new school we identified a site which comprised a series of pits and postholes of unknown purpose. The investigation of the […]
Creedon’s Epic East featuring Billy and Declan
And here’s Billy and Declan on an episode of Creedon’s Epic East.
Pole-axed in 13th century Eyre Square
Specially for the Races, here’s our breaking news about how visitors were treated in our pleasant town in the 13th century. We Irish pride ourselves on our supposedly hospitable and open nature, our open house, kettle always on the boil, door always open, receptive ways. But we may not always have been so pleasant to […]
Archaeology, Ethics, Corruption & the M3
I was going to introduce this blog post with the following, somewhat facetious, opener: While we were busy brewing beer in UCD, in deep conversation with our very good pal ‘Don’ Rumsfeld, it seems that field archaeologists were exposed as the corrupt and evil rabble that they are, in thrall to our evil paymasters, the […]
An Poll Mór, Bearna
Sean Beatty very kindly allowed us to present the following piece about Bearna, Co. Galway and the ‘Poll Mór’ (big hole), on the Pier Road. Much of the information was provided by Sean. Located on the Galway to Spiddal road, the original settlement at Bearna was concentrated in the townland of Freeport, in a predominantly […]
New Videos at Vodpod
Two new Vodpod videos added in the panel and here – one of us brewing ‘thousands of years before Guinness’ on TV3 and scenes and photos from the construction of a Mesolithic hunters camp from Headwave. The huts were built for an up-coming documentary and are functional. You can view our videos on both Vodpod […]
Assemblage III
Gathering stuff from the blogworld/internets on Beer, Archaeology, the Environment, Aquaponics and anything else that strikes us as interesting, since May. Julians suggestion that the EU offer us Ice Cream in order to ensure we (the Irish people, that is) back EU reform has been backed up by the chief foreign affairs columnist of the […]
Weekend Brewing
In preparation for WAC 6 in UCD next week we’ve brewed up a fresh brew of our Ale for general sampling and consumption on the day. Our brand new, watertight (ish), portable (ish) Fulacht held out after application of a good coat of (non toxic) bitumen paint externally. Our original fulacht, an old cattle trough, […]
WAC 6 Fringe beer
We’ve been invited to present the beer experiment at WAC 6 in July as part of the WAC Fringe at UCD’s Belfield Campus. WAC is shaping up to be a great event. We’ll be giving out free samples of our Fulacht Beer/Hot Rock Ale at the event as well as samples brewed by a student […]
Assemblage II
Gathering stuff from the blogworld/internets on Beer, Archaeology, Environment, Aquaponics and anything else that strikes us as interesting, since last month. We’ll start topically this time with Jim Corr setting out his stall on the Lisbon Treaty on ‘The Last Word’ (via Mulley)…… I still haven’t received my booklet – clearly I’m a victim of […]
Eyre Square Excavations Part I
Moore Group was engaged by Galway City Council as the consulting archaeologists for the Eyre Square Re-enhancement Project and from the outset in February 2004 carried out archaeological testing and monitoring of groundworks. A number of excavations were carried out during the scheme. Some post-excavation is ongoing and a final report will be prepared soon. […]
Harris online
Edward Harris’ Principles of Archaeological Stratigraphy is available for download online here. The Harris Matrix is now widely used worldwide. The book was first published in 1979 and is the seminal work on stratigraphical theory.
Great Beer Experiment video
Regular readers will have noticed that we’ve posted the video of last years Great Beer Experiment using VodPod on the right… Produced by BigYes, it documents the process and the events last August – please bear in mind when viewing that we had consumed quite a bit of our beer by the end of the […]
On the line
This post is the first of what we’ll call ‘On the line’ (until someone comes up with a better idea – suggestions welcome). Like Mulley’s Fluffy links or sort of our own in-house blog carnival, it will comprise of links to blog pots or websites which strike the author as interesting, entertaining or just plain […]
Great Zimbabwe
Many years ago, Billy and Declan lived for a time in the remote Zimbabwean low-veld. Those of you who have lived for any length of time in Africa know the spell that the continent can cast – the unforgettable smells and sounds that characterise the African landscape, the dusty heat of the low-veld, the crickets […]
36ft skeleton
Should have known there was a reason for the continuing searches for 36ft skeletons… From Worth1000.com
Brewing archaeology
The latest edition of the anthropology (in the American sense) blog carnival Four Stone Hearth came courtesy of Archaeoporn while we were away, and we’re delighted that our post on Corofin is linked to. Thanks once again to Archaeoporn for including us. The only problem with blog carnivals is that you just keep meandering the […]
Early Christian Settlement at Corofin
The discovery by Moore Group archaeologists of the skeletons of 58 people, believed to date from Early Christian times at Corofin, Co. Galway, provides the first palpable evidence of a previously unknown early settlement in the area. The find was made during development work for a housing estate in 2006. Tom Rogers of Moore Group […]
Archaeology in the Digital Age
The World Archaeological Congress (WAC 6 – with the ubiquitous Broighter Boat serving as the conference logo) will be held in June this year in Dublin, and one of the themes is Digital Archaeology – Archaeology in the Digital Age 2.0. Here’s the abstract for the Theme: “We are witnessing the transformation to a society […]
Blogging the environment
John Waters’ recent radio comments about blogging and the Internet have been widely commented on in the Irish blogosphere. Twenty Major has the Newstalk interview here. Notwithstanding the fact that Waters’ tirade should be taken with a pinch of salt, and, unconsidered as it is, the interview did give us some food for thought, particularly […]
Wired Magazine and Ancient Beer
Great piece about the Beer Experiment in this months issue of Wired, written by Nadya Labi. We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the writing about the experiment in the media over the past months. The pieces in both the IT and Wired and in many other outlets have been well researched, thoughful, and […]
Bronze Age Palstave
This is the first artefact in our virtual museum. We’ve also presented a report on the find including a description of the circumstances of it’s finding. We hope people find it interesting! From: Rogers, T., 04. Report on linear and offset testing on the N18 Ennis Bypass, County Clare. Moore Group. As part of the […]
An introduction to stratigraphy
Understanding an archaeological site is a process of interpreting contemporaneous archaeological horizons. On any archaeological site, the upper strata are later and the lower strata are earlier, because each layer must have either been deposited on top of or created by the removal of a pre-existing layer. That’s the basis of stratigraphy. The term stratigraphy […]
DEGRADING THE DEAD?
Phlllp Hensher (presumably this is meant to be author Phillip Hensher) writes in the Sunday Tribune today about displaying the dead. In a meandering and ill-thought out piece (imho) he criticises the unveiling of Tutankhamun’s body and rails at the ‘recent’ habit of displaying the bodies of ‘unremarkable’ people. By ‘unremarkable’ he seems to mean […]
