UCD Archaeologists’ books win European Association of Archaeologists awards!
UCD School of Archaeology scholars have been awarded the prestigious European Association of Archaeologists Book Prize for 2024, as announced today in Rome at the EAA Annual Conference.
Professor Gabriel Cooney’s Death in Irish Prehistory (Royal Irish Academy, 2023) is a book about life and death over 8,500 years in Ireland. It explores the richness of the mortuary record that we have for Irish prehistory (8000 BC to AD 500) as a highlight of the archaeological record for that long period of time. Because we are dealing with how people coped with death, this rich and diverse record of mortuary practice is also relevant to understanding how we deal with death today, which is just as central a social issue as it always was. Prof Sarah Tarlow, of University of Leicester has written;
Death in Irish Prehistory is a magnificent achievement. In taking on eight and a half thousand years of death in Ireland, Cooney celebrates life, and shows us how enriching a deep knowledge of the past can be, as our ancestors knew. His breadth of scholarship is evident not only in his thorough and detailed summaries of Irish evidence, but also in being able to contextualise that knowledge within a European perspective, and explain it with reference to the most important and sophisticated developments in archaeological theory. The book is evocatively illustrated by Conor McHale, and Cooney cites poetry and fiction, including using his own fictional vignettes, so that the human experience of dying and bereavement is never sacrificed in the quest for big patterns. Death in Irish Prehistory is a joy to read and offers riches both to archaeologists and to interested non-specialists. A strong recommend!'”
Professor Graeme Warren’s Hunter-Gatherer Ireland: Making Connections in an Island World (Oxbow Books) is a book-length synthesis of the Irish Mesolithic which makes significant use of data recovered from archaeological excavations in advance of infrastructural development. This data is transformative – often dismissed as being unimportant because it is not spectacular, it is actually the vast majority of our evidence. Taking it seriously provides a different vision of the Irish Mesolithic. The book aims to understand Ireland in European context, in contrast to numerous accounts that stress Irish insularity and isolation. British Archaeology describes it as ‘thoughtful and thought provoking’, ‘fantastic .. innovative .. genuinely transformative’, saying that it is ‘vital reading for those more familiar with early prehistory’. Archaeology Ireland calls it ‘refreshing … accessible’ and says that it ‘gently draws the people of the Irish Mesolithic out of the mists of time’.
UCD School of Archaeology’s Head of School Professor Aidan O’Sullivan says “We’re delighted today to see our UCD colleagues’ scholarship and craft recognised at such a prestigious international level with these EAA awards. Gabriel’s and Graeme’s highly original, evocative and creative books testify to their own expertise, as well as the work of generations of archaeologists in uncovering this island’s deep past, while also telling amazing stories of people’s lives thousands of years ago. We extend congratulations to everyone involved in making these two wonderful books, and especially well done to Gabriel and Graeme!