Archaeology Seminar

Early Neolithic settlement at the mouth of the River Foyle

Archaeological investigations over the past 30 years have resulted in the identification of approximately one hundred Early Neolithic rectangular structures across the island of Ireland. A cluster of these structures comprising over 10% of the total number have been uncovered in a small area close to the mouth of the River Foyle, immediately northeast of Derry City. Martin McGonigle will present a general discussion of these features and by examining their landscape setting will attempt to answer the question: why was this part of the Foyle a locus for Early Neolithic settlement?

Echoes of Battle: Exploring Napoleonic era conflict in the Western Pyrenees

Five years of excavations at Roncesvalles (Navarre, Spain) have produced an enormous number of human bones dating to between the 12th and the 19th centuries CE. Used throughout various phases as an ossuary, carnarium and local cemetery, the site represents one of the largest commingled assemblages to be studied in the Iberian Peninsula. This talk explores some of the facets of osteological research carried out at the site, including insights from taphonomy and trauma analysis. In the context of 18th and 19th century conflict in the Pyrenees, the talk centres around themes of surgery, epidemics and death during the period of the Napoleonic Wars as a means of reconstructing mortuary patterns at the site.

Open to: Guests, Members of Kellogg College, Oxford University members, the public,