John Ó Néill

Page 29 from 2023 volume of Journal of Irish Archaeology.

I think UCD had a Chair of Archaeology created in 1854 as well (although in Ireland, obviously). But Liverpool had a rich history of public museums, including one for Egyptology going back to mid-19th century (a lot of it funded by Joseph Mayer). Museums clearly had non-classical collections too.

At Swim Two Birds

Open letter to EAA calling for a boycott of Israel Please fill out the form below and add your name to over 1100 others on this open letter*, calling on the European Association of Archaeologists to respond to ICOMOS Palestine's appeal for cultural he...

In response to ICOMOS Palestine's February 2025 appeal, archaeologists of conscience everywhere are mobilising. We are calling on our representative bodies to boycott Israel now!
forms.gle/m8De7pW2oG4K... #archaeology #🏺 #eaa2025

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Restores Truth and Sanity to American History RESTORING TRUTH IN AMERICAN HISTORY: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order restoring truth and sanity to American history by

Given the innately political nature of #history and #archaeology and its collection, curation, interpretation and display, this was always going to be an action point at the #Smithsonian.

But the National Zoo??

www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/...

Map showing ANT056:016 from Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Record.

Only saw it this weekend. Yep (stone is in SW quadrant of cairn as shown, just to SW of the hole in top of mound that is filled with stones). Looks like just one stone was rolled out of the group filling the hole. Other stone with marks in the hole.

Rock with my foot for score. Two visible circular depressions, possibly cup marks.

Another boulder from a group that may be remnants of a destroyed megalithic chamber. Two circular depressions, possibly cup marks, are visible. Moss growing inside one.

Someone appears to have moved a couple of stones on an overgrown mound just behind McArts Fort on Cavehill (above Belfast) exposing a couple of possible cup-marked stones.
#rockart #megalith #archaeology

This is a significant humiliation for the Irish govt as it got bumped from a White House event today.

A search of newspaper archives finds the names McMurphy, O'Banion, McGraw and even the odd O'Day. The various registration acts (alongside anglicisation) seems to have standardized form/spelling of Irish surnames and squeezed out some eclectic variants.

Musk...

This is also compressing centuries of human endeavour into a single narrative episode. For 2300-2000 BC, distribution of lunulae/sun discs/neck rings etc suggests one scope of analysis needs to be Europe-wide. And it's by no means Wessex-centric, either.

On the 'planes of Ballynahatne', near Dundalk. Presumably close to Ballynahattin townland, but now gone. Was already being destroyed ('stones broken up and removed') in 1748.

Pictures are Plate 3 from Louthiana and caption, describing a stone circle in Louth, Ireland. https://books.google.ie/books?id=kEC_oJuE4kgC&pg=PA9&dq=louth+stone+circle+louthiana&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiVgc3R67iKAxWEQEEAHRm4NCAQ6AF6BAgLEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false

Pictures are Plate 3 from Louthiana and caption, describing a stone circle in Louth, Ireland. https://books.google.ie/books?id=kEC_oJuE4kgC&pg=PA9&dq=louth+stone+circle+louthiana&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiVgc3R67iKAxWEQEEAHRm4NCAQ6AF6BAgLEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false

What if Stonehenge just turned out to be a microcosm of other Stonehenges?

Black and white photo of a bracelet terminal with letters SCBONS:MB written in dots on the bracelet. Object was found at Newgrange.

Black and white photo of the bracelet terminal. It expands towards the end in a thick cone. It also has visible cut mark where it has been removed from the rest of the object. Often been described as the terminal of a Middle Bronze Age torc, the form is not similar as the twisted body of the torc usually begins immediately after the bend at the terminal. In this example the surviving body is untwisted. There are also much better Roman parallels elsewhere see. http://journals.socantscot.org/index.php/psas/article/download/9783/9750/

This is a lesser known find from #Newgrange (since it’s the #Solstice) - a gold Roman bracelet terminal inscribed with SCBONS:MB, one of the 4th century AD votive offerings at the site. The MB is 'manibus', 'to the spirits' while 'SCBONS' could be an abbreviated name.

Stonehenge may have been erected to unite early British farming communities, research finds The altar stone, which we now know is from Scotland, may have been a gift or marker of political alliance

Despite - or probably because of - the long history of research and attention, Stonehenge is now just a kitsch divination pool. Gaze into it and say out loud what you see.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024...

Thinking tonight about all those people who, for whatever reason, are absolutely dreading Christmas.

It can be a really sad & triggering time for so many.

Take it a day at a time.

You’re not alone x

About 20 years ago archaeologists found what appeared to be evidence of Bronze age (steam) bathing in the Netherlands.
The analysis of what was found was finished last year and you can read the paper here:
www.academia.edu/112022865/A_...
A thread.

Mangerton lunula, now in British Museum. A crescent shaped ornament in sheet gold dating 2300-2100 BC. For more see: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1871-0401-1

'Torc' Hotel is a bit of sublime convergence: the name comes from Torc Waterfall ('Easach Toirc' in Irish, which means 'falls of the wild boar'). The waterfall drains a corrie lake on Mangerton Mt close to where a lunula - in BM - was found (that is the hotel logo).

But is that congruency in ethics illusory if policy/practice/legislation are so different?

An obvious example of divergence is metal-detecting (RoI & NI v GB).

Is state policy/practice largely a nod to scope/sources of collections in national institutions (eg comparing NMI and BM). Potential contradiction in arguing for and legislating for compulsory state ownership of archaeological objects etc but *just in this state* (not yours).

The object itself needs more work (maybe XRF, micro-analysis of object surface where ogham was added, etc). Post 100 AD material culture is generally understudied - by archaeologists anyway - as it's mistaken as 'just Roman imports' (when that IS the material culture).

Michael J O'Kelly published on ogham inscriptions, their transcription and translation (eg corkhist.ie/wp-content/u...). So the lack of fanfare hints that he doubted its antiquity. The Dunraven lunula had ogham added around 1850, so it wouldn't be the only such object with a more recent ogham added.

O'Kelly is disproportionately tight-lipped about the bronze plaque (E56.1715), eg in Carson & O'Kelly (JRSAI 1977) given its obvious/potential significance. Not clear how secure the context is, either. May even have arrived later as a (scholastic) curiosity rather than 4th-5th century.

Drawings of the three lunulae mentioned in the post. Each is a black and white line drawing of a crescent shaped ornament with cross hatched decorative elements.

And another group of three lunulae. One from Cavan (Lissanover), Tyrone (Tullanafoile) and a lunulae that survives as a drawing only but is likely from Co. Antrim. Only variation in layout and motifs is in the number of certain motifs.

is also lost but was found near Aughnacloy. The third is in
NMI and from Athlone. It is hard to see any of the three as being made without sight of the others. So the minor variations shown in the motif numbers looks intentional.

Three lunulae - early Bronze Age ornaments, made from hammered gold, in the shape of a crescent moon. Each is similarly decorated but with minor variations in the number of motifs.

Early Bronze Age lunulae. These three are so similar they have been repeatedly mistaken for each other. The top one is a roller press image of a lunula owned by Richard Pococke, current whereabouts unknown. Likely provenance is in 'Ossory' (Laois/Kilkenny) where he was bishop 1756-65. The second...

YouTube video by The Ulster Archaeological Society The Valley of Dry Bones: Belfast's forgotten burial grounds

This is a lecture I gave to the Ulster Archaeology Society earlier this year looking at undocumented burials around Belfast: such as coffins in estuarine mud, a cemetery below a cross roads, a lost plot for executed prisoners.
And Samuel L Jackson...
m.youtube.com/watch?v=MbFa...

Luanlaí den Chré-umhaois Luath i n-Eorpa an Atlantaigh - Lunulae from the Early Bronze Age in Atlantic EuropeA captivating talk by John Ó Néill delving into ... Luanlaí den Chré-umhaois Luath i n-Eorpa an Atlantaigh Seachtain na Gaeilge 2024

De bharr brú ama, thaifead mé an léacht seo 👇🏼 do #SnaG24
[If you don't speak Irish you can mute the sound and just follow the slides!]
#seandalaiocht #archaeology #gaeilge
youtu.be/pnxNyJ7p5Z0?...

If you check the previous post on the Gibraltar, the reformatory ship for young boys, this also sat just off the twin islands.

A line of low buildings which formed the Intercepting Hospital.

...offending their sensibilities.
As the Bathing Place was beside a major shipping lane, fatalities were frequent, with victims as young as six.
It, like the Intercepting Hospital, was also beside the main sewage plant outflows.
This is the hospital (in the photo).

...public bathing place was added so the great unwashed could get washed away from the genteel eyes of the great and good.
Except when they great and good were on the steamers that passed in and out past the Bathing Place, since it lay on the shipping lane.
So they prosecuted some bathers for...