National Roads Authority Archaeology Seminar

Stories of Ireland’s Past NRA Seminar Poster

A number of Rubicon staff attended the Nationals Road Authority’s Heritage Week Archaeology Seminar in Dublin’s Woodquay Venue last week. This year was a particularly notable, as a number of academic experts in different periods were asked to assess the contribution of Irish road scheme archaeology to their respective fields. It was quite clear that the hundreds of NRA excavations carried out over recent years has exponentially increased our understanding of the Irish past. Dozens of the sites that have contributed towards this new Irish archaeological landscape were excavated by Rubicon.

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The Seminar also featured an exhibition of three of the country’s leading archaeological illustrators, including Rubicon’s own Jonathan Millar. The day was capped off with the launch of the proceedings of last year’s Seminar, Fragments of Lives Past, which focused on archaeological objects from road schemes. The monograph was launched by Raghnall Ó Floinn, Director of the National Museum of Ireland, and included a paper from Rubicon’s Damian Shiels on a military assemblage from the 1691 Battle of Aughrim. One of the Seminar attendees has produced this You Tube video with some images of the day (replete with dramatic music!) which you can see here.