Now, to save time and effort (since I'm extremely jet-lagged now), The bits in quotes from here on out are directly from the placards in the museum(s). There will be some walls of text, so feel free to just skim. I only included segments that I thought were especially interesting.
"In 2006, at the edge of a raised bog in Clowanstown Co. Meath, four conical fish traps were excavated. Organic Mesolithic artifacts like these are exceptionally rare in Ireland and, due to their fragility a large-scale conservation project was undertaken. Although flattened when found, the traps retained a distinctive V-shape with evidence for constrictions at the open ends. Slender rods and twisted wefts of alder, birch, and rosewood were woven together using an open-twined technique. The traps would originally have been positioned on the bed of a small lake adjacent to a mooring or walkway. Also found at the site was a possible model boat made from a pomaceous fruitwood such as apple, pear, or hawthorn, dating between c.5300 – 5050 BC, and a number of lithics."
"The domestication of animals and the cultivation of crops started first in southwest Asia and north Africa around 9000 BCE. Gradually farming, together with permanent settlements, pottery making, and new tools for harvesting and processing grain spread across Europe, reaching Ireland nearly five thousand years later. In Ireland, by around 3700 BCE the hunting and gathering economy of earlier times had been replaced by farming. Neither the animals (cattle, sheep, and goats) nor the cereals (wheat and barley) upon which farming was based were native to Ireland and had to be imported. Farming had a lasting impact on the Irish landscape. Open spaces had to be cleared for cultivation and the establishment of permanent settlements. The large numbers of polished stone axes bear witness to the extensive woodland clearance that began at this time."
Stone Axes
"The earliest stone axes date to the Mesolithic period and were fashioned by grinding the ends of suitably shaped pebbles. During the Neolithic period, a variety of stone axes were produced which were polished overall. Some of the highly polished examples may have had a ceremonial function but the majority of axes appear to have been used for felling trees, wood-working, and general agricultural work. Together with chisels and adzes they form the most characteristic polished tools of the Stone Age in Ireland. Any relatively hard stone could be used, but particularly suitable fine-grained rock was sometimes quarried and exchanged over long distances. Quarries and axe factories existed at Rathlin Island and Tievebulliagh Mountain, Co. Antrim, where porcellanite was utilized, while at Lambay Island, Co. Dublin a deposit of porphyritic andesite was exploited. Flint was collected from flint-bearing chalk outcrops around the Antrim Plateau and from glacial and coastal deposits. Axes were first shaped roughly by chipping, flaking, or pecking and then ground and polished on a grinding stone using a mixture of sand and water."
"This unfinished vessel was found in Lurgan townland, Addergoole Bog, near Tuam Co. Galway in 1902. It measures 15.25m in length and is one of the longest in Europe. It is made of a hollowed oak tree and is wider at the stern than at the bow. It has a central ridge running along the floor, probably an internal keel. Dugout canoes were used over a long period of time in Ireland from the Bronze Age to the later middle Ages. This example has been dated to around 2500 BCE."
We speculated that much of the, for lack of a better qualifier, "American republican" distrust of scientific fact as well as stubbornness not to believe authority figures came from a lack of resources. There are very few free scientific museums in Oklahoma and in other red states, whereas where I grew up, almost every museum is free (thank you, Smithsonian). The republican inability to grasp the scientific facts of climate change and evolution may in fact come from childhoods devoid of museum visits and scientific radio and television programming.
And no, the creationism "museum" does not count.
The Irish National Archaeology Museum is free to visit and is well stocked with objects, evidence, and information. I wish we had more institutions like it here.
"Various types of objects made from cast ingots or bars of gold are known.
Bracelets are the most numerous type. They are made from bars of different thicknesses with simple ends which may be solid or hollow. Occasionally the bracelet may be decorated with simple incised patterns using motifs such as hatched triangles, zig-zags, and lozenges.
Dress-fasteners are thought to have been used to close a garment opening by using double button holes or loops. They were made in a range of sizes including some very heavy ones such as that from Clones, Co. Monaghan which weighs over 1kg. The terminals are deeply hollowed and may also be decorated with grooved lines and incised designs. While most are made in one piece, the terminals of the larger, heavier examples are usually made separately and soldered on. Sometimes the ‘bow’ or handle may be hollow, perhaps to economize on the amount of gold used.
Sleeve-fasteners are smaller versions of dress-fasteners but differ from them in that the bows are deeply grooved. The terminals are flat circular expansions of the bow. Similar small rings are also known but their function is not understood."
"The hoard of gold objects from Broighter, Co. Derry, is the most exceptional find of Iron Age metalwork in Ireland. The tubular collar, miniature boat and cauldron, two neck chains and pair of twisted collars (torcs), which date to the 1st century BCE, were found on the ancient shore of Lough Foyle in Co. Derry. The sea god Manannán mac Lir was associated with Lough Foyle and the place name Broighter (from the Irish Brú Íochtair) may be a reference to his underwater residence.
Most notable is the model gold boat with its mast, rowing benches, oars, and other fittings that can be regarded as an appropriate offering to a sea god. The decoration on the tubular collar appears to include a highly stylized horse, an animal that is especially associated with Manannán mac Lir.”
A bog body is a human cadaver that has been naturally mummified in a peat bog. Such bodies, sometimes known as bog people, are both geographically and chronologically widespread, having been dated to between 8000 BCE and the Second World War. The unifying factor of the bog bodies is that they have been found in peat and are partially preserved; however, the actual levels of preservation vary widely from perfectly preserved to mere skeletons.
Unlike most ancient human remains, bog bodies have retained their skin and internal organs due to the unusual conditions of the surrounding area. These conditions include highly acidic water, low temperature, and a lack of oxygen, and combine to preserve but severely tan their skin. While the skin is well-preserved, the bones are generally not, due to the acid in the peat having dissolved the calcium phosphate of bone.
Sovereignty and Fertility
"What few references we have to human sacrifice in early Irish written sources link the practice to the god Crom Dubh who is associated with Lughnasa, the harvest festival. At a practical level, human sacrifice may represent either the execution of royal hostages to ensure the compliance of subordinate lords, the elimination of opposing candidates for kingship, or even the killing of deposed kings. However, this seems to have occurred within the context of offering the victims as sacrifices to territorial fertility deities. These deities may be the figures represented on wooden boundary markers of Bronze Age and Iron Age date found in bogs at Rafaghan, Co. Cavan, Cloncreen, Co. Offaly, and Corlea, Co. Longford.
The symbolic marriage of the king to the earth goddess was to ensure the well-being of the people through the fertility of the land and abundant yields of corn, milk, and milk products. Votive finds of butter and quern stones may therefore provide an important context for the final meal of Oldcroghan Man that consisted of cereals and buttermilk. Ancient kingship was a sacred office guarded by an elaborate complex of ritual and taboo in which it was the king’s role to keep nature and society in equilibrium. If the king proved himself a just ruler then the land would respond with an increase in its fertility leading to an abundance of corn, cattle, milk, and acorns, and the rivers would abound in fish. The weather would prove mild and clement and there would be general prosperity and security. Conversely, the reign of an untrue king would be characterized by famine, storm, pestilence, and war. The perceived connection of the king with the land is further underlined by early annals entries that attribute the rising of the rivers and lakes to the reigns of particular kings.”
"In February 2003 workers at a peat extraction works in Ballivor, Co. Meath, discovered the preserved body of a man in a peat-screening machine. Investigation indicated that he had lain originally in a deep bog at Clonycavan on the Meath county border with Westmeath. Although damaged from the waist down due to the action of a peat-harvesting machine, the internal organs were preserved partially and the head was intact with a clearly distinguishable face. Hair on the chin and upper lip suggested the former presence of a moustache and goatee beard. Clonycavan Man had a very distinctive hairstyle. On the back of the head the hair was cut to about 2.5cm long with the rest of the hair, which was about 20cm long, gathered into a bundle on the top of his head. Clonycavan Man, who was over 25 years of age at the time of his death, was of slight build and was estimated to be no more than about 5’ 9” (1.76m) tall.
A scientific technique involving analysis of his hair indicated that for four months prior to his death, Clonycavan Man had a plant-based diet suggesting that he may have died in the autumn before the onset of a meat-rich winter diet. He was killed by a series of blows to his head, probably from an axe. He also suffered a 40cm long cut to his abdomen, suggesting disembowelment. The body was naked when found.
The extraordinary hairstyle of Clonycavan Man was held in place by the application of a sort of hair gel made from resin imported from France or Spain. This suggests that he was a high status person who commanded the resources necessary to obtain exotic foreign imports. The bog where the body was found lies on the boundary between the ancient kingdoms of Brega and Míde."
"Oldcroghan Man was over 25 years of age at the time of his death. He was a tall, powerfully-built man whose height is estimated at about 6’ 3½” (1.91m). Uncovered in May 2003 during the digging of a bog drain along a parish boundary, the remains consist of a severed torso that had been decapitated. However, the surviving part of the body is in remarkable condition with superbly preserved hands and intact internal organs. On the upper left arm is a plaited leather armband with metal mounts bearing Celtic ornament. A scientific technique involving analysis of his fingernails indicates that Oldcroghan Man ate a diet with a substantial meat component during the four months prior to his death, which may suggest that he died early in the year before plant-based foods became plentiful. Analysis of the stomach contents revealed that he had eaten a final meal of cereals and buttermilk, in contrast to his regular meat-rich diet.
A stab wound to his chest killed Oldcroghan Man. However, a defence-wound on one arm indicates that he tried to fend off the fatal assault. Although the precise sequence cannot be determined, the deceased was decapitated, had his nipples, and his thorax severed from his abdomen. The cutting of the nipples is highly significant. Sucking a king’s nipples was an ancient Irish form of submission and the mutilation perpetrated on Oldcroghan Man would have rendered him ineligible for kingship. Carefully manicured fingernails and an absence of wear to his hands indicating that he did not engage in heavy manual work, demonstrate that Oldcroghan Man was a person of high social rank. Twisted hazel ropes known as withies were inserted through cuts made in the upper arm and may have been employed to fasten down the body to the bottom of a bog pool. However, the use of withies may also have invoked a protective taboo safeguarding the boundary.”
"Before banks existed, coins were often hidden for safekeeping. These three hoards of Anglo-Saxon pennies were all excavated in Dublin in the 1990s. The largest and smallest hoards (242 and 79 coins respectively) were found at Castle Street and the third (125 coins) at nearby Werburgh Street.
The smallest hoard was hidden around 990 CE and the other two hoards a little later, around 995 CE. They tell us that business was booming in Dublin at this time and a lot of money was circulating, most of it probably from trade with England.”
"Several 11th/12th century sketches on wood of ships have been excavated in Dublin. The ships are typically Viking, double-ended vessels with low sides and high stem- and stern-posts. Importantly, they show details of masts, sails, and rigging which otherwise rarely survive. One sketch shows a large ship with mast, yard, furled sails, and rigging, along with a small dinghy. The arrow at the mast head is possibly a weather vane. Another depicts the mast and furled sails of a ship, with a human figure on the lookout at the top of the mast.”
"From an eleventh century level, the antler has been cut and polished to take a runic inscription which reads: hurn:hiartR.., which means, 'deer antler.'"
"Challenge: Do expressions of our digital personae have to begin and end in a series of ones and zeros or can they be articulated as tangible manifestations in the physical world? Every day, 500 million tweets are sent. But what happens when these digital ephemera become sensorial manifestations in the physical world?” i.e. lots of stuff is going on online all the time. What if we were physically aware of it all?
Impact: In this installation, an auditory link is created between our digital personae and the ‘real’ world. The custom-built VIBE machine mines Twitter’s Application Programming Interface (API) to reconfigure the emotional state of its community of anonymous users and amalgamate them in sound. The VIBE gathers individual emotional expressions to create unique soundscapes reflective of the ‘collective’ emotional state of the Twitter community at any given time. In a spirit of playfulness, the VIBE can be played by Twitter followers and seeks out interaction with them, mimicking characteristics by posting Tweets to its own account. To interact with this piece tweet: @vibe126.”
It was an interesting object, with resonator tubes, metal keys, and solenoids striking the keys, all linked to a macbook. I am a sucker for sound sculptures, but this one got old after a while. It's constantly going, striking notes seemingly at random (though apparently hooked up to twitter). I asked the security guard how he hadn't gone crazy with the sound, and he replied "I nearly have." Perhaps that is what the creator is getting at--that having a sense for what is happening on the internet in real time is disorienting. Perhaps with time and patience, someone could become well-versed in the sounds and be able to interpret what is being said on Twitter simply from hearing a chime.
Vibe struck a chord with me (pun intended) also because one of my professors recently took part in an exhibition with a similar project. John Marshall and Cézanne Charles' "Whithervanes" are headless chickens that perch on top of buildings and are also controlled by twitter. They pick up on and gauge the public's fear and act accordingly, spinning around and lighting up, depending on the threat.
"Challenge: Orchestral musicians often perform while engaged with complex instruments in tense performance conditions and in constrained seated postures, unnecessarily accepting that they must suffer strain and even injury for their art.
The challenge was to design a chair that enhanced performance and provided a real benefit to the wellbeing of the musician. This required an aesthetically well resolved design that could accommodate the five main instrument groupings of the seated members of the orchestra: violin, viola, cello, woodwind, and brass, and be compatible with the practical handling and staging conditions of the auditorium.
Impact: The earó chair sets a new standard in seating for musicians and provides the optimum conditions for excellent performance. The design promotes a balanced seated posture, reducing the potential for injuries and so improving the wellbeing of the musician.”
"Challenge: studying the shape of the skull and the position of the external nerves and veins made it obvious that much of traditional equine bridleware was not fit for purpose and was in many cases the cause of discomfort, numbness and sometimes, even pain. The challenge was to start afresh and design a bridle and noseband that overcame all these problems as well as providing improved flexibility to suit a wide range of equestrian activities.
Impact: the Micklem bridle is now the best selling bridle in the world and has fundamentally changed the way we look at fitting and using bridles and noseband. After just six years, almost half a million horses are now fitted with the Micklem bridle and are as a result more comfortable, which in turn increases their quality and level of performance and allows their riders to be more successful in their chosen area of equestrian endeavour, with all types of horses and ponies."
Anywho, after that exhibition, we got to our apartments, got dinner, and then slept. The next day we got up, got to the airport, and then spent the day on planes before landing in Chicago, where we spent the night. Then, today, we woke up, got on a plane, and made it back to Phoenix. And that's the trip. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.