Our first monthly meeting after the summer break take place on Wednesday, 13th September at 7:00 pm in the Observatory Library. Our speaker this month is Dr Patrick Gleeson, who will discuss:

‘Re-discovering Emain Macha: ritual, religion kingship in Later Prehistoric and Medieval Ireland’

This lecture will present new results from large-scale geophysical survey in the Navan Fort landscape and targeted excavation of new parts of the Navan Fort complex itself. The results of this work transform our understanding of the Navan Fort and its wider landscape and regional context. Discoveries to be discussed include new medieval activity,  Iron Age discoveries that transform our understanding of the Waterman excavations, and the identification and excavation of some of the largest and most complex monuments identified on the island of Ireland. Results will be contextualised in terms of how these discoveries illuminate the ‘royal sites’ as a group, and their wider Northern European comparanda.