The PRISM Project (Preservation by Record of Ireland’s Shell Middens) is a citizen science participatory mapping scheme initiated by researchers from UCD and UCC.

Citizen Science

Led by Dr Rory Connolly, Post-doctoral Fellow at UCD School of Archaeology, with Dr Jessica Smyth, Associate Professor at UCD School of Archaeology (both members of the UCD Earth Institute), PRISM uses a citizen science approach to help map the impacts of climate change and human activities on coastal shell middens in coastal communities. This approach will allow researchers to work together with coastal communities to better understand and develop new approaches to build resilience.

Project

Shell middens are heaps of mollusk shells containing past debris of human activity. These middens can be of great archaeological value, as they contain a detailed record of past human-coastal interactions. In Ireland, there are shell middens dating from the Mesolithic to the modern era. However, these shell middens are being lost due to a combination of natural and human factors. 

The PRISM project is developing digital mapping tools which will help volunteer citizen scientists to record observations about the impacts of climate change and human activities on coastal shell middens in their community.

The project is an off-shoot of NeoMarE and is funded through the same Irish Research Council (IRC) grant. The project also receives substantial logistical support from UCD's Earth Institute.

Find out more about the project here.