FRIENDS OF MEDIEVAL DUBLIN
 
EVENTS

STORIES OF OUR PAST: CONFERENCE CELEBRATES
ARCHAEOLOGY IRELAND'S 20TH BIRTHDAY

Archaeology Ireland has grown in its 20 years of existence and shifted in style and format. Through years of extraordinary and challenging change in Irish archaeology, it has successfully communicated the excitement of discovery to a wide audience, in Ireland and beyond. To celebrate Archaeology Ireland’s 20th birthday, our annual conference will focus on the the topic of communication in archaeology. This will take place on Saturday 17 November 2007 in the Astra Hall, UCD, Belfield, Dublin 4. The fee for attendance is 60 euro. For booking call Helen or Carol at 01-2947860.

As Irish archaeology booms, the traditional method of communication seems unable to cope with the vast amounts of new information being uncovered. Increasingly, those interested in communicating archaeology are employing a range of media and methods—fiction writing, heritage parks, museum and art exhibitions, experimental archaeology and innovative interactive websites—while TV and radio programmes continue to feed the extraordinary popular interest. This Archaeology Ireland conference, exploring all these media, will investigate both old and new ways of telling the stories of our past.

Editor Tom Condit will reflect magazine, in its 20-year life, has reflected the changing face of archaeological discovery. Margaret Gowen will look at how Irish archaeology itself has changed in those two decades. A series of papers will explore aspects of the transmission of knowledge, including Gabriel Cooney (former editor) on prehistoric archaeology, John Bradley on medieval Ireland, and Elizabeth Fitzpatrick on the transmission of legal knowledge in medieval Ireland.

Throughout the day, Viking Age re-enactors will exhibit aspects of craft and technology from tenth-century Ireland. Continuing the theme of exhibition and display, Andrew Halpin will bring us behind the scenes in the National Museum of Ireland to explore how a contemporary medieval exhibition is designed and presented. Triona Nicholl, crew member on recent voyage from Denmark to Ireland of the Sea Stallion from Glendalough and Preben Sørensen, project manager from the Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, will give us an account of the voyage. Finally, Mark Edmonds of the University of York will present a paper on narratives in archaeology. Nick Maxwell, publisher of Archaeology Ireland, will close the conference with a public forum on the future of communication in archaeology.

Anyone interested in how we communicate the excitement and intrigue of archaeology will enjoy the conference, and we hope that all of Archaeology Ireland’s many friends will be there to celebrate our 20th birthday!

Stories of our past: Celebrating Archaeology Ireland’s 20th birthday
Saturday 17 November 2007 Astra Hall, UCD, Belfield, Dublin 4

08.30–09.15 Registration
09.20–09.30 Opening Address
09.30–10.05 Archaeology Ireland: twenty years, eighty issues, hundreds of stories? Tom Condit, Editor, Archaeology Ireland
10.10–10.45 Irish archaeology, 1987–2007: all changed utterly? Margaret Gowen, Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland
10.50–11.15 Tea/Coffee
11.20–11.55 Stories from prehistoric Ireland — stranger than fiction? Gabriel Cooney, UCD School of Archaeology
12.00–12.35 A day in the life of a medieval town in Ireland John Bradley, Dept. of Modern History, NUI Maynooth
12.40–13.15 Transmitting knowledge and tradition in late medieval/early modern Gaelic Ireland: the O’Davoren legal family in a Burren landscape Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, Dept. of Archaeology, NUI Galway
13.20–14.15 Lunch, Birthday Cake — and encounters with Viking Age re-enactors Co-ordinated by John Nicholl, UCD School of Archaeology
14.20–14.55 Behind the scenes in the museum: exhibiting medieval Ireland Andrew Halpin, Irish Antiquities Division, National Museum of Ireland
15.00–15.35 Experimental archaeology and the voyage of the Sea Stallion from Glendalough Triona Nicholl and Preben Sørensen, Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, Denmark
15.40–16.05 Tea/Coffee
16.10–16.50 Creating narratives in archaeology: exploring new spaces in sight and sound Mark Edmonds, Dept. of Archaeology, University of York
16.55–17.25 Communicating archaeology! — a public forum Chaired by Nick Maxwell, Archaeology Ireland