Refresher's Day ! Wednesday 29th January

Hello everyone, 

The Society will have a stall at Refreshers Day tomorrow! It is your chance to join the Society if you still haven't, or to invite your friends to join.  Refresher's Day will take place Wednesday 29th January 10 am - 4 pm  Astra Hall (Old Student Centre) More information here: http://ucdsocieties.com/events/refreshers-day/

Seminar report: "Roman bathing and its legacy on Crete" by Dr A. Kelly

Our 2014 seminar series began with Dr Amanda Kelly (UCD school of Classics) who gave a talk on “Roman bathing and its legacy on Crete”. This talk focused on the early Byzantine period (5-6^th century) of the Island and how the tradition of public baths had survived from roman times into later periods. Dr Kelly is a former student of the college, having completed both her undergraduate degree and her masters here.

The talk was based off of Dr Kelly’s 2004 PHD work surveying the island, during which she managed to locate at least 55 roman bath sites on the island of Crete. It is a testament to the results of Dr Kelly’s research that no bathhouses had been identified prior to her work and goes to show that Crete has a vast archaeological heritage beyond the Minoan culture it is so famed for.

Of great interest was the relationship between the topography of the land and the location of roman bathhouses. The Cretan terrain was well suited to building of Roman aqueducts, the sloping terrain providing the gravity necessary to provide water to settlements and their bathhouses.

Dr Kelly’s work is highly inspired by the work of Italian Giuseppe Gerola’s work surveying the island in 1904, who although he was focused on surveying the Venetian impact on the island, provided extensive information on repurposed sites.

Of interest was what Dr Kelly described as the symbiosis of Roman bath and Early Byzantine church architecture – with the ecclesiastical community having baths named after saints and overall showing a tolerance of the bathing tradition, even into later periods.

Dr Kelly’s lecture was an interesting look into a period of Cretan archaeology that is often overshadowed by the legacy of Minoan archaeology on the island. The UCD archaeology society and the department of Archaeology would like to thank Dr Kelly for taking the time to present her work and wish her the best of luck in future research. 

By Stephen Domican

Welcome back to UCD: drinks in the Clubhouse bar

Hello everyone,

Welcome back to UCD after the Christmas break, and welcome to UCD full stop if you are joining us for the semester! The Archaeology Society has organised a get-together in the UCD bar next week (between the Old and the New Student Centre) from ca. 6 to 7pm.

Source

Thursday 30th January

6-7pm

UCD Clubhouse Bar

It will be a great opportunity to catch up and if you're new to the society, a great way to meet people! We don't bite, promise! The Clubhouse has a great range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks for very decent prices and it also has warm food and snacks.

So what are you waiting for? Join us for a relaxed evening on campus!

Team Archaeology on its way !

Dear everyone,

A huge thank you to all who came today to our coffee morning today, and to the Relay for Life information and recruitment session we held ! We are very happy to announce that we have a team of 15 motivated members ready to take the floor on the day of the event! (Date TBC, somewhere in early April).
So a big thank you to everyone who joined the team today !

Relay for Life information and recruitment session, 22/01/2014

If you could not sign up today and would still like to take part, here are the options available to you:

1. There are still some places on the team! Come to our next coffee morning (Wednesday 29th January) for a chance to sign up: it's only a fiver and it's such a good deed. 
2. Join us as one of our bakers or fancy-dressers/reenactors on the day! We will need volunteers to bake for a bake sale, and to dress up in historical costumes to promote our fundraising stall
3. Can't bake or don't have a costume? You can still join us on the day and give us a hand in setting up, decorating the stall and manning the stall throughout the day. Any help will be appreciated!

If you have any queries, please just drop me an email and I'll be glad to answer them. Relay for Life 2014 promises to be just as fantastic as last year, and we are looking forward to seeing you on the day !
You can read more about Relay for Life on the Irish Cancer Society website.  Find out more about what we did last year by watching the video we made with all the pictures from the day ! And why not follow the UCD Relay for Life page on Facebook?

Thanks again,

Alexandra Guglielmi
Social Media Coordinator

PS: We apologise for the size of the only room we could secure for the day and hope that you had a good time. It was good to see so many of you back after the Christmas break.

Coffee morning in the Old Student Centre , 22/01/2014

Coffee morning in the Old Student Centre , 22/01/2014

Coffee morning in the Old Student Centre , 22/01/2014

Coffee morning in the Old Student Centre , 22/01/2014

Our next coffee morning will be Wednesday 29th of January and will take place in rooms 1-3 of the Old Student centre, from 12-2pm.

The Societies goes to Portugal !

This year, the Society went to Portugal for its annual trip. And here is what happened...

See all the photographs of the trip on our Flickr gallery

"We arrived in Lisbon on Monday the 13th of January, it was late when we got in so we immediately travelled via the metro to our accommodation at a hotel called Residencial Joao XXI in Lisbon city centre. The rooms were really nice for the given price and wonderfully located near all public transport and shops.

Tower of Belem - E. Fennelly 2013

The following day we began our tour around the Belem region, one of the most important regions in Lisbon. Our tour guide, Cristina showed us around Jeronimos Monastery, a huge 15th century Manueline-style complex including a cathedral, a museum and a cloister. We then visited the Discoverer's Monument across the road and on to the Tower of Belem which is probably the most recognisable structure in Lisbon, a fortified tower built in the 16th century and used during the age of discoveries. We wrapped it all up by visiting the Archaeological museum of Lisbon which had a great exhibition on Roman sculptures.

Jeronimos monastery - E. Fennelly 2013

On Wednesday we payed a visit to the Alfama region which is the oldest region in Lisbon it's most prominent landmark being the Castle of St. George, a Moorish castle dating to the Medieval period. Given the huge size of the castle we spent most of the day there while also visiting Lisbon Cathedral and taking a ride on the cities oldest tram line which was an experience in itself.

Cloisters - E. Fennelly 2013

On Thursday we took a day trip to Conimbriga, a Roman city which is the largest and probably most important archaeological site in Portugal. We took a two hour bus journey to the site which is still being excavated today and not even close to being completely unearthed. Notable features of this city included the large walls, a fountain complex, the baths and a re-constructed forum. The sewer system was also easily seen. Once we were done with our tour around the city we took time to visit the associated museum which included many of the finds of the site. Finally we payed a quick visit to the University of Conimbra near the Roman ruins. This University, one of the oldest in Europe included a fantastic chapel and unique library.

Roman villa - E. Fennelly 2013

On Friday, the day of our departure we split up to pursue our own interests. I myself went to see even more Roman ruins unusually located beneath a bank in Lisbon city center a long with a few others. I was amazed by the size of the complex given it's location. The ruins were of a Roman factory used for the manufacture of garum (a sort of paste made from fish, salt and spices) which was what made the city wealthy during the Roman period.

Discoverer's monument - E. Fennelly 2013

We returned later that day exhausted but fulfilled at the same time.

I'd like to thank all who came on this trip with me and I hope you had a good time lie I did."

By Emmet Fennelly
Trip Officer 2013-2014

Masquerade Ball postponed

Dear everyone,

I am sorry to announce that our coming Masquerade Ball had to be postponed due to organisation issues.
The new date for the event will be

Thursday 6th of March 2014.

Source

Seminar series 2013, lecture 1 of semester 2: "Roman bathing and its legacy on Crete"

Next week is the first seminar of the semester: Dr Amanda Kelly who has stepped in at short notice to talk to us about Roman bathing and its legacy on Crete. Hope to see some of you there!

Steve Davis

This seminar will take place next Thursday at 5.30pm in room A109 of the Newman building. To read about the rest of the seminar programme for this semester, please click here.