Archaeology Actually

The following post is an interesting study that has recently come to my attention and continues a theme from my last post on the Archaeology of the Irish Diaspora . Increasingly, genetic studies are becoming an important source of potential information about the human past. As noted in my last post, a diaspora is a specific type of mass relocation of people, defined by Brighton and Orser (2006: 64) as "the forced dispersal or scattering of people from a homeland as the result of famine, war, enslavement, ethnic cleansing, conquest, and political repression." Such movements are permanent and multi-generational. To give one prominent example, between about 1500 and 1850 AD, more than 12 million enslaved Africans were shipped to the Americas as part of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Certainly there can be little doubt of the impact that this event has had on modern demographics. Captives being brought on board a slave ship on the West Coast of Africa (Slave Coast). Wood engrav...

With St. Patricks day (March 17) practically upon us, I thought this would be a good excuse to have a look at some Historical Archaeology associated with Ireland and the Irish diaspora! A diaspora is a specific type of mass relocation of people, defined by Brighton and Orser (2006: 64) as “the forced dispersal or scattering of people from a homeland as the result of famine, war, enslavement, ethnic cleansing, conquest, and political repression.” Such movements are permanent and multi-generational. Briefly, the beginnings of an Irish diaspora can be traced back to the beginning of the seventeenth century AD. Following the establishment of British rule in Ireland, Irish Catholics considered rebels by the Protestant ruling minority were forcibly transported as indentured servants to the West Indies (Brighton & Orser 2006). However, the watershed period for Irish dispersal occurred in the nineteenth century following a series of failures of the potato crop in Ireland, and the widesp...

Hi All, It has been a while since I last posted to this blog. Things have been all go - with research, writing, tutoring and also some "real-world" archaeological experience! For the last couple of years I have been on the executive committee of the University of Otago Anthropology Society, a student society which runs a number of social events during the year, as well as anthropology and archaeology related experiences. A particular goal of the society at present is to get out beyond the university environment and into the community, applying our developing skills where they may be of use. Recently, an opportunity arose to help out a charitable organisation, the Southern Heritage Trust . As noted on the linked website, the trust was established in 2002 and is devoted to the appreciation and protection of the social, cultural, architectural and industrial heritage of Dunedin and the Otago region of New Zealand. This involved assisting with cataloguing pieces of equipme...