Fulachta fiadh, or burnt mounds, generally date from the Bronze Age and are one of the most widespread of Irish field monuments, perhaps numbering up to 5,000. Of the 500 or so sites currently entered in the NRA Archaeological Database (www.n

archaeology | analysis and testing techniques | fulacht fia

  Text

The early medieval period is one for which we have an abundance of archaeological and historical evidence, which has increased in recent years as a result of the national roads- building programme. This has led to a wealth of information that benefits research in all sectors of

archaeology | analysis and testing techniques | archaeobotany

  Text

Archaeology is the study of past human life, society and culture through the investigation of surviving material remains. This is an evolving process of discovery, data retrieval, data analysis, the creation of hypotheses, and ultimately the development of theories or co

archaeology | analysis and testing techniques | three-dimensional

  Text

The excavation of a ‘lost’ medieval cemetery on the route of the N15 Bundoran–Ballyshannon Bypass has created the opportunity for an innovative research project based at the Institute of Technology, Sligo.The aim of this research study is to extract and amp

archaeology | analysis and testing techniques | DNA

  Text

Human palaeopathology has been defined as the scientific study of disease processes in past populations through the examination of human remains (Aufderheide & Rodríguez- Martin 1998, 1). It examines how diseases have evolved and changed over periods of time and how humans

archaeology | analysis and testing techniques | paleopathology

  Text

In the recent past it has often been reported that animal bones are not found in the excavation of burnt mounds/fulachta fiadh. Explanations for this lack of faunal remains have ranged from acid soil (Hedges 1974–5, 42) to scavenging animals (O’Kelly 1954, 141) or to specific f

archaeology | analysis and testing techniques | fulacht fiadh

  Text

Concentrations of major, minor and trace elements within archaeological bone reflect elemental concentrations in diet and subsistence patterns of the sampled population. Through the determination of a variety of elements (substances, such as iron, that cannot be resolved by

archaeology | analysis and testing techniques | chemical analysis

  Text

The term ‘disarticulated bone’ refers to skeletal elements that over time become disassociated from their primary context as a result of a variety of factors, including animal activity, erosion and, not least, human behaviour—such as grave-digging. In the case of the di

archaeology | analysis and testing techniques | osteology

  Text

People were being buried at Ballyhanna, in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, from at least the 12th century (Illus. 1).They were laid to rest to the east and south of a small, mortared stone church, which, at the time, stood on the banks of the Erne River, close to the strategic fording

archaeology | analysis and testing techniques | burials

  Text

The archaeological heritage is a non-renewable resource. An archaeological excavation is by definition destructive and irreversible. Therefore, the recording of all archaeological data (or preservation by record) is a fundamental duty that will permit the interpretation of what

archaeology | analysis and testing techniques | post-excavation analysis

  Text