Organising a dig

brianthebard

Is there any way for an ordinary lay person as it were to have an archeological dig organized? If the area is on another person's land what are the legal precautions/steps to be taken?
There's a site in the field next to my father's which I've often thought I'd like to dig/see dug but obviously I don't want to piss anyone off or do anything illegal...

boneless

Totally impossible without an excavation licence. You have to appear before a panel for an interview to get one of them...

What you can do though is (with the permission of the landowner) do a surface survey of any features in the field. I'd help you and I'm sure I could get a few more bodies too.

mdebets

boneless wrote:

I'd help you and I'm sure I could get a few more bodies too.

I'm sure, you can get loads of 'bodies', but will they be any help or are they just too lifeless?

boneless

mdebets wrote:

I'm sure, you can get loads of 'bodies', but will they be any help or are they just too lifeless?

Well, you'd help Mick!!!!:p

brianthebard

Lolz at the bodies...anyways thanks for the info I guess not very much will be happening at the moment at least. I will try to have a proper look at the site at xmas when I'm off from college.

abccormac

boneless wrote:

Totally impossible without an excavation licence. You have to appear before a panel for an interview to get one of them...

Just to clarify this, the interview is to get a directors licence. Once you have that, then you can apply for a licence to excavate an individual site, but you won't get permission unless you have a good reason to be digging the site up.

boneless

abccormac wrote:

Just to clarify this, the interview is to get a directors licence. Once you have that, then you can apply for a licence to excavate an individual site, but you won't get permission unless you have a good reason to be digging the site up.

Thank you... you put it better than I did.

OP... where is the field? PM me if you want to... Any obvious features on the surface?

brianthebard

Its just a ring fort at the top of the hill behind our house. I haven't been in it in years (cause its someone elses land and I wouldn't like to trespass) all I know is there is a fairly obvious raised ring. The area is called rathmore so I guess I presumed it may have been important at one stage. This type of thing is fairly common in this country though so there are plenty of other sites which could be or already have been excavated I'm sure.

boneless

I think there were 40,000 ringforts at the last count... but hey! It might be good to survey it for a good day out!!

Is it marked on the SMR? Or the OS map?

brianthebard

em, no I can't find it on megolithomania.com (is this site good?) But I did find this;
http://www.megalithomania.com/show/site/1369

Some of my family are buried there, I'll be up there at xmas and this is very very exciting for me, I can't wait to see it! I didn't realise there so many sites in Sligo worth seeing!

boneless

Not a great web site but there can be some interesting pics on it.

Is the ringfort in Sligo too?

brianthebard

Yeah it is. Couldn't find it on that website, google didn't provide any answers either. Don't suppose you could link me to the OS map?

boneless

PM me the townland it is in and I will have a look at the SMR in UCD. I don't have the link to the OS here.

patnor1011

anyone knows something about bog close to birdhill in tipperary? One local told me that people there used to burry loadz of thing into...

bawn79

patnor1011 wrote: »

anyone knows something about bog close to birdhill in tipperary? One local told me that people there used to burry loadz of thing into...

There are plenty of bogs near Birdhill but Id say the one would be close to Castleconnell which is just inside Limerick.

So what kind stuff were they burying? Rubbish and such!
Kidding I know the Bog of Cullen in South Tipp seemed to be an area of votic offerings. Perhaps this is the kind of stuff you are suggesting?

Meathlass

brianthebard wrote: »

Its just a ring fort at the top of the hill behind our house. I haven't been in it in years (cause its someone elses land and I wouldn't like to trespass) all I know is there is a fairly obvious raised ring. The area is called rathmore so I guess I presumed it may have been important at one stage. This type of thing is fairly common in this country though so there are plenty of other sites which could be or already have been excavated I'm sure.

Just finished digging a ringfort (amongst other stuff) in Kilkenny; the 2nd most boring site type in the world, running fulachts a close 2nd. I have a link to the smr database for you www.archaeology.ie/smrmapviewer/mapviewer.aspx I've been digging for years but only discovered this site recently. It's a database of all smr sites in the country. You can search by county and then townland and it will show you all sites within that query along with the 1820 ish map (can never remember the correct date) You've haven't a hope in getting the site excavated I'm afraid but with the landowners permission you could certainly do a surface survey.

boneless

Good link!! ^^ Thanks!

Meathlass

boneless wrote: »

Good link!! ^^ Thanks!

Your're welcome. I've been playing with it all day; anything to avoid editing the context register :eek:

boneless

Meathlass wrote: »

Your're welcome. I've been playing with it all day; anything to avoid editing the context register :eek:

Post ex sucks!!:p

smirkingmaurice

Myself and a neighbour of mine had a dispute a few years back over part of a fort he managed to build a shed on. I applied for one of those permits and was refused. Well one night i got the shovel out anyway and dug for 5 hours solid leaving a good sized trench beside his shed, I came across nothing, it was more out of spite than anything else, he shouldn't have been left build his shed on the fort!!!!