NRA Archaeology – National Heritage Week
The Archaeology Section of the National Roads Authority (NRA) is to hold its annual one-day National Archaeology Seminar on Thursday 28th August at The Gresham Hotel, Dublin, as part of National Heritage Week 2008. This popular seminar series, specifically catering for a non-specialist audience, showcases a range of archaeological discoveries made on national road schemes throughout Ireland in recent years.
The theme of this year’s seminar is ‘Dining & Dwelling’, addressing the archaeological evidence for food production, processing and consumption and settlement in Ireland from the earliest farmers through to the 19th century. Speakers from a range of disciplines will describe a wealth of previously unknown archaeological remains uncovered in counties Carlow, Cork, Galway, Kildare, Kilkenny, Roscommon and Tipperary on new sections of the N6, N7, N8, N9/N10 and N17 routes.
As with previous years, places at the seminar have already been fully booked well in advance of the event, but interested members of the public can access information about the seminar papers by visiting the NRA website: http://www.nra.ie/Archaeology/ArchaeologySeminar2008/. All of the papers given at the seminar will be published in the Archaeology and the National Roads Authority Monograph Series. The launch will also take place of the fifth book in this series—Roads, Rediscovery and Research—containing the proceedings of the 2007 seminar.
The NRA is also delighted to announce the launch of a second book, The Archaeology of Life and Death in the Boyne Floodplain: the linear landscape of the M4 by Neil Carlin, Linda Clarke and Fintan Walsh. This new publication, the second in the NRA scheme-specific monograph series, describes the results of archaeological excavations undertaken in advance of the construction of the M4 Kinnegad–Enfield–Kilcock motorway scheme. The book is accompanied by a CD-ROM containing the final excavation reports for each of the sites discovered, in addition to a range of specialist reports.
To round off a busy schedule of events, the NRA will also be celebrating the launch of its new Archaeological Sites Database. Over the past 13 years, hundreds of sites spanning the Mesolithic period to early modern times have been excavated and recorded throughout the country as part of the national roads-building programme. This work has expanded, challenged and often redefined our view of Irish archaeology and our past.
The online database, containing almost 500 entries, will be accessible on the NRA website at http://www.nra.ie/Archaeology/NRAArchaeologicalDatabase
The aim of the project is to generate a database of all archaeological sites uncovered as part of the roads programme since the establishment of the NRA in 1994. It is envisaged that the database will become a valuable resource and reference for archaeologists working in the commercial sector, researchers and students working in the academic sector, as well as for the general public. The data base will be updated on a regular basis as new discoveries are made.
Further Information Contact:
Ronan Swan 087 919 47 28