Here’s our new fulacht…

Had another taste yesterday of the Inishfood brew and it’s aging nicely’ Looking forward to what the foodies suggest might accompany it…

Occasionally we’ve been adding to our ‘virtual museum’, with brief descriptions of the artefacts we’ve recovered over the years. Generally we’ll only post up the very special finds! One of Billy’s most notable stray finds from 2009 was retrieved during the course of archaeological testing near the River Corrib. The find was un-associated with any other artefacts or features and was identified as a Bronze Age Halberd. This weapon was fashionable in various parts of Europe in the third and second millennia BC. The halberd is distinguished by its pointed, dagger like metal blade that would have been mounted using rivets at right angles to a haft. Only 170 have been found in Ireland half of which are un-provenanced. This find has to be considered as very significant given its antiquity, rarity and its discovery near a known fording point over the River Corrib

In Professor E. Rynne’s ‘Military and Civilian swords from the River Corrib’ (1984) there is an inventory of finds recovered by amateur divers from the River during the period 1982-3. This inventory includes late mesolithic flint, chert Bann flakes, ten swords and a 20^th century flare gun. Three swords were found in the vicinity of the area we were testing. They include a La Tene type, 2^nd century AD sword found between Menlough and Newcastle, and a Viking period 10^th century sword in close proximity to a late medieval 15^th century sword both found near Jordans Island. Other finds recovered along this stretch of the river in the recent past include Bann flakes, hammerstones, axeheads, scrapers and chert and flint debitage. This material indicates a high degree of pre-historic activity on the Corrib particularly so in the vicinity of Jordan’s Island which was a documented fording point.

Our trench measured approximately 53m in length by 2m in width and was excavated to an average depth of 1m. The stratigraphy along the length of this trench consisted of an upper layer of tarmac and hardcore on a mixed silty deposit with frequent small to medium sized stones overlying a thick layer of peat. The peat contained some modern finds including brick and willow wear pottery sherds and fragments of ceramic pipe.

During the course of the testing a metal object was retrieved at a depth of 920mm from the existing surface. The object was identified as a Bronze Age Halberd dating to the second millennium BC. This weapon would have been mounted at right angles to a haft using rivets. The blade, probably made from copper was shaped like a thorn and measured 160mm in length by 110.5mm along its butt. It had a central ridge tapering to a point along its blade and near the butt were two central placed circular perforations with evidence for three rivet holes along its back edge. A small section of the upper butt was missing. On discovery permission was sought and granted from the National Museum and the Licensing Section of the National Monuments Service to enlarge the immediate area around the find spot by a further 3m to the east and 2m to the west. Consent was also granted to metal detect the area and spoil heap for associated finds. Over the course of a two day period this area was manually investigated and metal detected resulting in the retrieval of a small rectangular band of metal from the vicinity of the find spot and the recovery of the missing piece from the butt of the halberd. The find spot was later planned and recorded. Due to the antiquity of the find and to prevent against any degradation the halberd was handed over to the National Museum for immediate conservation.

The full line-up for Inishfood is available here on the Irish  Food Bloggers Association website. We’ll be demonstrating the Fulacht Brewing on Sunday 20th May as part of Féile Grianán Áiligh – An Grianan Fort, Burt.  Other events on the day include an Ancient Celtic Celebration of Crafts, Celtic Games, Celtic Lifestyle Demonstrations and Cultural & Musical Carnival.

Apologies to regular readers for the long hiatus.

Thanks for visiting Moore Group. Unfortunately our website has been the victim of an evil redirection malware hack, but don’t worry, this temporary page is perfectly safe. We’ll be back up and running after we expunge the nastiness.
UPDATE 1st March 2012: Nearly there, site should be back up next week..
You can find us on twitter here or on Google + (Declan) here. We also have a telephone number: +353 (0) 91 765640 and a regular address: Corporate House, Ballybrit Business Park, Galway. Or you can email us at info@mooregroup.ie
And, for your entertainment while we work to put everything back together again, from our youtube channel, here’s a video of Declan and Billy making bronze age beer… followed by Declan speaking nervously at Ignite Dublin 8 in December 2011 about, of all things, the archaeology of beer…

Moore Group and Moore Marine would like to wish all our readers, clients and friends a very Happy Christmas and a successful 2012.

And in our now annual tradition here’s Chris’ Little Drummer Boy film for your Christmas viewing.

Our office will be closed until the 4th of January, with a brief appearance next week.

The debate about how we excavate, treat and curate our dead received some airing at the end of December, with Irish Times journalist Sarah Carey raising the issue in a piece recently, subsequently debated on the Pat Kenny show, resulting in Pat Wallace (director of the National Museum of Ireland) deciding to return some of the subject remains (recovered during a road project) to County Meath. This isn’t the first time we’ve discussed the treatment of the dead on the blog (see our post here on ‘Displaying the Dead’), and is unlikely to be the last. Sarah Carey, (her blog GUBU is here) intriguingly, identifies the Museum as the enemy and she asks Ronán Swan, chief archaeologist at the National Roads Authority (NRA) for an opinion – and identifies him as ‘one of the good guys’ (and her Mother was cross too – “They’re like beetles crawling around in the dirt,” she complained. “I’m sick of looking at them”).

I’m getting awfully confused as to who the bad guy archaeologists are now. Is it the consultants who remove the burials, the clients who pay for it or the museum which displays or curates them?

The “Kingship & Sacrifice” exhibition in the Museum (the exhibition is based around the theory that human sacrifice and the deposition of the victims in bogs along tribal boundaries is related to sovereignty and kingship rituals during the Iron Age) has also apparently been at the receiving end of some criticism from a small number of visitors and the recent Tutankhamun tour drew the opprobium of some (well – one journalist at least).

There is ongoing debate in communities throughout the world regarding the ethics and standards applied to the excavation, retention and display of human remains. It’s a complex debate and all proper professionals make every effort to avoid causing offence and to treat the remains of our ancestors with the utmost respect throughout the process. Every archaeologist and museum professional would recognize and acknowledge that the human remains which we work with were once part of a living community – in other countries their treatment would/should always be influenced and led by the concerns of Indigenous peoples and in the context of Ireland the concerns of modern religions, beliefs and philosophies are genuine considerations whenever we deal with human remains.

But it must also be acknowledged that human remains recovered during scientific excavation are a hugely important scientific resource. They have great research value and can tell us a great deal about how our ancestors perceived death and disposed of the remains of their loved ones. The remains in the possession of archaeologists and the museum represent a vast source of information, providing a wider resource to advance knowledge in the history of disease, the effects of hunger and disease on our forebears, the field of forensics etc.. Osteoarchaeologists (such as our Camilla) use a variety of methods to investigate the lifestyles and living conditions of our ancient dead. Human skeletal remains can provide a wide range of information, e.g. demography, sex and age profile, stature and diseases. Furthermore the analysis can provide details of diet, general state of health and traumas caused to individuals and can even indicate occupation (such as with one of our Eyre Square skeletons who may have been a longbowman).

According to a recent Heritage Council publication an estimated 15-20,000 individuals were excavated from archaeological sites in Ireland in the period from 1989 to 1998. A very rough estimate of the amount excavated since would probably bring that number up by another 15,000 or more (admittedly based on very flimsy data – Moore Group has excavated almost 500 in the past 7 years) dating from the Mesolithic period (around 9,000 years ago) up to recent times. In the case of the burials we have excavated, in all cases these remains were unexpected and unanticipated.

According to the Heritage Council

Excavated human remains are defined as ‘archaeological objects’ under the National Monuments Acts. A 1994 amendment to the Acts vests ownership in the State of all ‘archaeological objects’ discovered since this date. There is no consensus on the meaning of the term ‘ancient’, save that it seems to be shifting to an ever later period; in this, most courts would probably defer to the opinion of an archaeologist. Most ancient human remains will be considered of some archaeological interest by archaeologists.

The Heritage Council outlines four fundamental principles to serve as a framework for conduct and decision-making in the area of the treatment and of human remains:

1. The conduct of archaeologists must be within the law
2. Ancient and historic human remains should always be treated as the remains of people
3. Ancient and human remains comprise a finite scientific resource
4. There is a legitimate public interest in the treatment and disposal of human remains by archaeologists.

In most cases, where possible, the ideal outcome of an archaeological assessment is avoidance of human remains – preservation in situ. The cost of excavation and removal of human remains (as well as the potential delay) is often convincing enough to a client, but in some cases avoidance is not possible.

Although ancient human remains are legally as defined ‘archaeological objects’ (ie.. in the ownership of the State) they obviously differ from conventional archaeological objects. The Director of the National Museum is empowered to ‘dispose’ of these objects at discretion, either by taking them into permanent curation or by waiving claim of ownership.

According to the Heritage Council:

Legal ownership of human remains not retained by the Museum is not straightforward. Are they the property of the excavating archaeologist or the landowner of the site of discovery? Common Law holds that there can be ‘no property in a corpse’ but should a court decide to regard ancient human remains as ‘chattels’ the landowner will almost certainly have superior title to that of the finder/archaeologist, even if the archaeologist is excavating under licence and with the landowner’s permission. A landowner could in such circumstances demand that an archaeologist return ancient human remains for reburial.

However permanent curation allows the potential for assemblages to be re-assessed in later years when analytical methods have advanced, or to answer new research questions. Assemblages are currently kept at the Museum’s storage facility at Collins Barracks in Dublin. Bones are cleaned and dried and then packed in an acid-free material by the licensed excavator before delivery to the Museum, where a catalogue of remains – the ‘Bone Coffin Lists’ – is maintained. Any individual with a legitimate research interest is allowed access to the collection.

Where possible reburial in controlled conditions (such as using accessible vaults or the accessible ‘keeping places’ they have in Australia) could represent a satisfactory compromise. However, this is not always an option. In some cases, for instance, reburying human remains in close proximity to their original location runs the risk of disturbing further remains. In other cases there is simply no immediately accessible land available to do so. It is also palpably the case that some assemblages of human remains are far too important to be housed in an unsecure location. Whatever the case, this is obviously a debate that is sure to run and run.

We’re delighted to note that Billy and Declan feature in the latest issue of Archaeology Magazine in a piece by Erin Mullally about Fulacht Fiadh and the mystery of their purpose – needless to say, we espouse our beer theory..

Follow the link below…

Letter from Ireland: Mystery of the Fulacht Fiadh – Archaeology Magazine http://bit.ly/v1Bmuu

And last Thursday Declan gave  a presentation on ‘Ancient Booze’ at Ignite Dublin 8. Ignite (from http://ignitedublin.tumblr.com/) ‘is a social evening arranged around sixteen talks on diverse topics: each speaker has five minutes and 20 slides, the slides auto-advance every 15 seconds. The odd, oddly rigid, format allows for great for amazing flexibility: it is possible to put together talks on completely different topics delivered in completely different style and the essence of Ignite is its breadth, that and its awesomeness. ’

It was a great evening with a range of fascinating and entertaining talks. Three archaeologists spoke – Jane Ruffino, Finn Delaney and Declan…  At some point the videos are to be posted to YouTube and we’ll link to them here. Here are the slides from Declan’s presentation.