UCD Archaeological Sciences

23/02/2026

New research led by Barry Molloy from University College Dublin has uncovered evidence that women and children were deliberately targeted in one of the largest prehistoric mass killings discovered in Europe.

Archaeological investigations at Gomolava in northern Serbia revealed a grave containing more than 77 individuals, 87% of whom were female. Genetic and isotopic analyses indicate the victims were largely unrelated and likely came from different communities.

Published in Nature Human Behaviour, the findings shed new light on Iron Age conflict and the use of large-scale violence to assert power and control over land and resources.

Learn more 👉 https://link.europa.eu/JWnpmt

30/09/2025

ViMi 6 announced:

Dear friends and colleagues,

After a year without a Virtual Micromorphology Meeting (ViMi), we are happy to announce that the ViMi6 will take place online on February 5-6 (Thursday and Friday), 2026, between 13:00 – 16:00h (CET). ViMi6 is planned as a joint venture of the University of Cologne and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The conference will be held on Zoom and is completely free of charge.

While the focus of ViMi6 is on Archaeological Soil Micromorphology, related topics and complementary techniques are also welcome. The main goal of ViMi6 is to sustain an open international community that encourages discussions and active collaborations around our thin sections. The language of communication is English.

To register, please follow this Zoom-link: https://s.zoom.us/m/bZEE1gPIv.

We have prepared some questions about your interests and wishes to help us plan the event more effectively. If you would like to propose and moderate a breakout session (30 minutes), present thin sections via live microscopy (30 minutes), or prepare a keynote presentation (15 minutes), let us know through your registration or via email. The deadline for proposals is November 14, 2025.

Also, we are searching again for the best microphotograph of the year! To participate, please send your high-quality microphotograph, along with a description (maximum 300 words), your full name, and affiliation, by January 30, 2026, to [email protected]. The winner will receive a prize and a certificate. The victorious picture and other microphotographs from the participants may be also shared on our new Instagram-account .micro (with prior consent from the authors and acknowledgement, of course).

As this is a public workshop, please feel free to share this invitation with others.

07/03/2025

Call for papers still open for this

27/02/2025

Call for the spring AEA conference - in Sofia, Bulgaria

Registration of the Association for Environmental Archaeology Spring Conference in April 2025 is now open! Visit: https://envarch.net/conferences for registration details.

Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"

13/12/2024

https://www.facebook.com/100057634712157/posts/1048878107043337/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

02/12/2024

Hi all,

The School of Archaeology is happy to invite you to our upcoming Research Day at UCD campus, to which all are invited. The event is free and requires no reservation - please come along and join us! And please forward this information to anyone else you know who might be interested.

We are looking forward to seeing you on Dec 10!

12/07/2024

AEA conference in December has opened applications for student bursaries.

Trackways to the past In the latest post from our team at Hinxton, they start to find answers to some of the questions we have about a major trackway across the site.

07/03/2024

publication alert from the LAB and The Fall of 1200 BC team ✒️

Have you heard of ‘𝙜𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨’? No? Then you’re in for a treat because we have just published a new study spearheaded by the amazing Dr Caroline Bruyere, where we demonstrate that:

The frequent mixing of copper from different sources with varying lead concentrations to make objects resulted in the masking of the low-lead LIA signatures by the high-lead ones. This means that in 𝐦𝐢𝐱𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡-𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐰-𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐢𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐬, 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡-𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐝.

This has extremely important implications on how we interpret Lead Isotope Analyses in ancient copper-based alloys and on how we understand trade and craftsmanship in the past generally in the past and in the 𝘓𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘻𝘦 𝘈𝘨𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘉𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯 specifically

Read it all on our recent paper as part of The Fall of 1200 BC project:

𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙚, 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙮𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙞𝙭𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣 𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙡 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝘽𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙯𝙚 𝘼𝙜𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙝 𝘾𝙖𝙧𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝘽𝙖𝙨𝙞𝙣: 𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙩𝙤𝙥𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙮𝙨𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙝𝙤𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠

Open access, of course

DOI: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440324000232?via%3Dihub

18/02/2024

Interested in palaeoanthropology? Nothing to do on a Sat evening in Dublin in April? This free online event celebrating the discovery of Lucy from Arizona State University is for you!

This year, ASU's Institute of Human Origins is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the fossil skeleton “Lucy” — one of the most significant anthropological findings of our time. The discovery of Lucy's species—Australopithecus afarensis—had a major impact on the science of...

15/02/2024

Over the last 10,000 y, humans have manipulated fallow deer populations with varying outcomes. Persian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica) are now enda...