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UCD School of Archaeology, Dublin

@ucdarchaeology.bsky.social

Our Bluesky account - University College Dublin, Ireland - posts by Aidan O'Sullivan and Conor McDermott

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UCD School of Archaeology, Dublin@ucdarchaeology.bsky.social · 2w ago

‘Home of hurling: Has the oldest ever hurley been unearthed in Limerick?’ Prof Aidan O’Sullivan and Cathy Moore discuss the Skehacreggaun hurley find in the Limerick Leader. “we can only say that if we were to find an early medieval cammán... we would expect it to look exactly like this”

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UCD School of Archaeology, Dublin@ucdarchaeology.bsky.social · last mo.

Congratulations to Meaghan Mackie on her contribution to this major Open Access paper in Cell examining skeletal remains of multiple Homo naledi individuals from the Rising Star cave system Meaghan’s contribution was made while at the University of Copenhagen before joining UCD to undertake her PhD

Proteomic analysis of dental enamel from 20 Homo naledi individuals shows no male markers

The morphological homogeneity of the middle Pleistocene hominin Homo naledi is reflected in its dental proteome, with no evidence supporting confident identification of male individuals, and the detec...

cell.com

The Discovery Programme@discoveryprogramme.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Thanks to @ucdarchaeology.bsky.social for partnering with @discoveryprogramme.bsky.social for this 3D training event supported by the EU #3D4CH project

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Graeme Warren@graemewarren.bsky.social · 2mo ago

We collaborate with @discoveryprogramme.bsky.social for our @ucdarchaeology.bsky.social student training - the DP lead sessions on digital recording. Many thanks to Rebecca, Shiva and Rob today. Rebecca captured wonderful images of our excavations and landscape context. See 2/2 for video! (1/2)

UCD School of Archaeology, Dublin@ucdarchaeology.bsky.social · 3mo ago

‘Dietary practices in Iron Age Northern and Central Botswana: microbotanical evidence from dental calculus’ Congratulation to Dr Robert Power and co-authors on this major new Open Access paper in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences doi.org/10.1007/s125... @researchireland.ie @maxplanck.de

Dietary practices in Iron Age Northern and Central Botswana: microbotanical evidence from dental calculus - Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences

The tempo of crop adoption in the Kalahari Basin Area remains imperfectly understood, with most inferences drawn from sparse macrobotanical finds and stable isotope baselines rather than direct evidence of plant use at the individual level. A long-standing question — the ‘Kalahari Debate’ — concerns whether forager communities in southern Africa were isolated from, or progressively integrated with, neighbouring food-producing societies. The more recent three-layer approach suggests a drawn-out process of complex Holocene interactions among Wilton-producing foragers, Late Stone Age Khoe-Kwadi sheep herders, and later Bantu farmers. This study assesses whether cereals became dietary staples in northern and central Botswana during the early part of the Late Iron Age. We analysed microbotanical remains in dental calculus from four individuals from Nǃoma, Taukome and Xaro. Short-cell phytolith morphotypes consistent with Panicoideae were common at Nǃoma and Taukome, with rare dendritic long-cells suggestive of husk tissue; while starches were scarce. Xaro produced very low counts dominated by Pooideae short-cells. Proteomic analysis of the three dental calculus samples yielded no dietary proteins but did identify oral bacteria, including those associated with periodontal disease. Dietary findings align with published stable carbon isotope evidence: Nǃoma and Taukome show values consistent with diets rich in C4 crops (for example sorghum and pearl millet). At Nǃoma, differences between childhood tooth enamel (records childhood diet) and adult bone collagen (records primarily adult diet) point to a shift from C3 foraging/fishing in youth to C4 crop consumption in adulthood. These results provide the first direct microbotanical evidence of cereal consumption in Iron Age Botswana, consistent with the KBA framework in which crops became embedded through sustained forager, herder, and farmer interaction.

doi.org

UCD School of Archaeology, Dublin@ucdarchaeology.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Medieval Mile Museum in Kilkenny is hosting Dr Robert Power on 29 May, 6.00pm, talking on his work FoodCult project work. "What did people living in Kilkenny during the 1500s and 1600s really eat? What can centuries old teeth reveal about daily life, health and environment from medieval Kilkenny?"

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UCD School of Archaeology, Dublin@ucdarchaeology.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Congratulations to Dr Claire Cave and Conor McDermott on receiving College of Social Sciences and Law College Principal Awards 2026. We are delighted that our colleagues Assoc. Prof. Meriel McClatchie, School Manager Belinda Whitby and Student Administrator Lisa Rogers also received nominations.

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UCD School of Archaeology, Dublin@ucdarchaeology.bsky.social · 4mo ago

We bade farewell to our Student Administrator Lisa Rogers today. We are bereft at her leaving, but delighted for her, with her new position as a Senior Executive Assistant elsewhere in UCD. Thank you Lisa, from the bottom of our hearts for all you’ve done for our community over the last three years💐

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