Rock art in Ireland and Scotland
Principal Investigators
- Dr Blaze O’Connor
- Dr Andy Jones (University of Southampton)
- Dr Aaron Watson
- Kilmartin House Museum
Funding
UCD Humanities Institute of Ireland
Society of Antiquaries of London
British Academy
The Humanities Institute is funded by the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI), administered by the HEA
Abstract
August 2006 saw the second successful field season take place at the
rock art site of Torbhlaren, one of over 350 prehistoric sites in and
around Kilmartin Glen, Argyll, West Scotland. This season marks the
beginning of a long-term collaborative research project between the UCD
Humanities Institute of Ireland / UCD School of Archaeology and the
Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton. This year the
project brought together an international team of staff, post-doctoral
and postgraduate researchers from UCD, Southampton and Reading
Universities, independent consultants, artists and local volunteers.
The work builds on previous excavation seasons at Torbhlaren and at
Drumirril, County Monaghan, which have investigated the immediate and
wider archaeological context of prehistoric carving practices, and will
allow the relationships between Scottish and Irish rock art to be
explored. The excavation work this season investigated a stone platform
surrounding one of the massive carved outcrops at Torbhlaren, revealing
an associated stake hole structure and an extensive worked quartz
assemblage. The excavation of the large fissures in the outcrops also
proved fruitful, yielding archaeological deposits and lithic material
as well as new motifs. A third season at a series of sites in Scotland
and Ireland is in the planning stages for summer 2007.