Early Medieval People and Things (EMPAT)

The Early Medieval People and Things (EMPAT) project seeks to create knowledge on how people in early medieval Ireland, AD 400-1100, made, used and discarded things, from the things of the body to the tools and equipment of the household, to the things used in the land beyond, and the role and character of material culture in early medieval Ireland in its northwest European contexts.

The project is co-directed by (opens in a new window)Prof Aidan O’Sullivan and (opens in a new window)Dr Brendan O’Neill, and will be primarily based at UCD School of Archaeology’s Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture (CEAMC), in close collaboration with Dept of Antiquities, National Museum of Ireland (NMI), Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and one of Ireland’s leading and leading commercial archaeological companies, Archaeological Management Solutions (AMS), as well as archaeologists, early Irish historians, linguists, scientists, and international scholars.

EMPAT will create knowledge from large amounts of data from existing Irish archaeological excavation reports, museum catalogues, and scientific literature. The project’s outputs will include a selective inventory of early medieval finds; a narrative monograph; academic papers; professional guidelines on best practices on object studies; an international conference/workshop on early medieval object studies in the 21st century, and a multi-year programme of public community engagements using museum quality replicas, online lectures and videos and public open days through the National Museum of Ireland, and through UCD’s unique Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture (CEAMC).

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