Archaeology Ireland

Delving into the past

‘A first-rate publication with the very best in making a wide and varied readership aware of current archaeology’—Professor Bruce Proudfoot.

Archaeology Ireland, founded in 1987, is the only magazine of its kind, reporting on Ireland’s treasury of archaeological artefacts, monuments, investigations and discoveries.

Archaeology Ireland is a quarterly publication aimed at the professional, academic and interested reader. It is authoritative and up to date, providing in-depth information and comment on what’s new, interesting and important in the world of Irish archaeology.

In the trial issue, find out about changelings, mylingar and other Dead Child Traditions and how these ‘old wives’ tales’ may have influenced both the treatment of children in burial and their subsequent acceptance into the afterlife; discover the possible prehistoric origins of the extinct Irish hobby breed of horse; and read about more evidence of a powerful solar cult that endured throughout Irish prehistory, as a re-examination of a very unusual stone die provides new insight into the nature of early Bronze Age gold-working in Ireland.

Each issue provides news, event listings and book news as well as a 6pp Heritage Guide, a lavishly illustrated and informative guide to one of Ireland’s well-known or lesser-known sites and monuments.

Latest issue

Lost, found and still to be discovered—this current issue of Archaeology Ireland throws light on new discoveries, old puzzles and answers yet awaited. A chance discovery of an apotropaic mark and concealed shoes during restoration of a timber-framed house in Dublin reveals active attempts to ward off witchcraft—a practice that reached its peak during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The unique remains of an apothecary’s shop dating from the mid-seventeenth century have recently been discovered during excavations in Dublin. The discovery of a stone cross with a central domed boss, with a probable tenth-century date, suggests an early medieval church at Ballyboys Upper near Valleymount, Co. Wicklow. Preliminary results of excavations conducted ahead of developments at Bay, Co. Dublin, a sparsely settled rural hinterland north of the city which had been farmland for millennia, reveals long and continued settlement not previously recorded on even the earliest Ordnance Survey maps. Even before the first Ordnance Survey, the great Anglo-French cartographer John Rocque compiled city and county maps. His estate maps of County Kildare provide a perspective on landscape changes in the county and an opportunity to chart the progress of enclosure in the low hills of south-east Kildare. Know Your Monuments focuses on medieval churches and highlights the great period of church development in Ireland from the opening centuries of the second millennium AD, while an examination of the puzzling pre-Gothic architecture of Christ Church in Dublin provides some surprising and interesting answers. Posing questions, with the answers still to be revealed, is the HMS Drake, recently designated as a scheduled historic monument, which will become a focus for understanding, exploring and appreciating the world of 1914–18 and the often-overlooked War at Sea. Questions also abound at Drumanagh, the large coastal promontory fort in north County Dublin, where future excavations may lift the veil on the enigma of the Irish Iron Age.


Full contents

• Drumanagh: an exciting prospect. Will excavations lift the veil on the enigma of the Irish Iron Age?
• A kind of magic: evidence of protection against witchcraft found in a seventeenth-century Dublin house.
• Retrieving the landscapes of eighteenth-century County Kildare: the 1755–60 estate maps of John Rocque.
• Crosses with bosses: a new find from Baltyboys, Co. Wicklow.
• Rediscovering a lost archaeological landscape: preliminary results from Bay, Co. Dublin.
• HMS Drake: a historic shipwreck worthy of protection.
• Know Your Monuments: Medieval churches—the great period of church development in Ireland from the opening centuries of the second millennium AD.
• A cryptic puzzle: addressing two key and puzzling questions about the pre-Gothic architecture of Christ Church, Dublin.

PLUS

News, Obituary, Net news, Quote…unquote, Events, Book news, Hindsight

Latest Heritage Guide (free to subscribers):
Swords Castle, Co. Dublin