Mapping Death

Dr Michael Potterton

Michael was educated at University College Dublin, L’Université de Lumière (Lyon, France) and at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, where he completed a PhD on the subject of ‘The archaeology and history of medieval Trim, County Meath’. He started work with the Discovery Programme in February 2003. Michael’s primary academic interest is the middle ages; especially settlement, society and daily life. He enjoys research and the opportunity to convey his enthusiasm for the subject through teaching and conference presentations. Before he came to work for the Discovery Programme, Michael’s research experience included a season of surveying and mapping at the Céide Fields (Co. Mayo), and 18 months as Assistant Director of the multi-period crannog excavations at Moynagh Lough (Co. Meath). Over the years, Michael has lectured widely in Ireland and abroad, at conferences, universities, local societies and schools. In 1996-7 he held a one-year lectureship in the Department of English at the Université de Paris-IV (La Sorbonne); in 2003 he was Visiting Professor at the Department of Celtic Studies, St Michael’s College, University of Toronto; and in 2005 he was a Guest Lecturer at Appalachian State University and East Carolina University in the USA. Since 1998 he has been an Occasional Lecturer at the Department of Modern History, NUI Maynooth, where he has designed, co-ordinated and taught courses on a range of subjects (see details below). In 2006-7 he fulfilled a one-year lectureship at the Department of Archaeology at NUI Galway, and he is currently (2008-9) a Lecturer in the School of Archaeology at University College Dublin. He has been a guest speaker at Trinity College Dublin and Queen's University Belfast. He will return to work at the Discovery Programme in August 2009.

Michael's first book, Medieval Trim: history and archaeology, was published by Four Courts Press in October 2005 and was launched by Minister Noel Dempsey at Trim Castle. Ireland in the Renaissance, c.1540-1660, co-edited with Thomas Herron, was published in 2007. Michael is currently editing (with Christiaan Corlett) a series of publications on aspects of the archaeology of Early and Later Medieval Ireland. The first of these are due to be published in 2009. Michael is the editor of TEA: The European Archaeologist, which is the web-based newsletter of the European Association of Archaeologists. Since spring 2008 he has been assisting with the Mapping Death Project, which is funded by the Heritage Council under the INSTAR programme.

Education

1999–2002: PhD, NUI Maynooth, ‘The archaeology and history of medieval Trim, Co. Meath’

1998–1999: MA Mode I programme, National University of Ireland (NUI), Maynooth

1994–1995: L’Université de Lumière, Lyon II, France

1992–1996: BA International, University College Dublin

1992: Irish Leaving Certificate

Scholarships and awards

2007: Heritage Council Publication Grant for Ireland in the Renaissance, c.1540–1660

2005: Heritage Council Publication Grant for Medieval Trim: history and archaeology

1999–2002: Government of Ireland Scholarship, Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences

1998–1999: Postgraduate Studentship, National University of Ireland

1994–1995: Erasmus Scholarship, L’Université de Lumière, Lyon II, France

Employment record

2008–present: Lecturer, School of Archaeology, University College Dublin

2003–2008: Senior Research Archaeologist, The Discovery Programme, Dublin, Ireland

2006–2007: Temporary Lecturer, National University of Ireland, Galway

2003: Visiting Professor, University of Toronto, Canada

1998–2003: Occasional Lecturer, National University of Ireland, Maynooth

1996–1997: Temporary Lecturer, Université de Paris–IV (La Sorbonne)

Summary of teaching experience

2008–present: Lecturer, School of Archaeology, UCD. Teaching courses on ‘Expanding horizons: Ireland, Europe and the Atlantic world, AD800–1800’ (1st yr); ‘The archaeology of identity’ (3rd yr); ‘Historical Archaeology’ (MA)

2006–2007: Temporary Lecturer, Department of Archaeology, NUI Galway. Contributed series of lectures to Post-graduate courses, first- and second-year courses, and taught complete third-year courses on: ‘Ireland from the Viking Age to the coming of the Anglo-Normans’ and ‘Gaelic and Plantation Settlement and Society’

2003: Visiting Professor, Department of Celtic Studies, St Michael’s College, University of Toronto (one semester)

1996–1997: Temporary Lecturer, Department of English, Université de Paris–IV (La Sorbonne)

2000–2005: Regular contributor to medieval courses in Department of Archaeology, NUI Galway

1998–2005: Occasional Lecturer, Department of History, NUI Maynooth:

2005: Contributed to BA in Local and Community Studies Modular Degree Programme

2004: Contributed to BA in Local and Community Studies

2003: Designed, co-ordinated and taught 24-lecture course on ‘Ireland 1014–1400’ to BA (Local and Community Studies) degree students

2002: Designed, co-ordinated and taught 24-lecture course on ‘Research Methods for Historians’ to BA (Local and Community Studies) degree students

2002: Designed, co-ordinated and taught 24-lecture course on ‘Irish Historic Settlement’ to second-year degree students

2001: Designed, co-ordinated and taught 24-lecture course on ‘The Medieval Irish Town’ to third-year degree students. Lectures included: Early evidence for urbanisation; Early towns in Britain and Europe

2000: Contributed to BA in Local and Community Studies (Summer School in University of Wales, Lampeter)

1999: Contributed to Landscape and settlement in Early Historic Ireland

1999: Contributed to BA in Local and Community Studies

1999: Contributed to Modular Degree Programme, Outreach Campus, Kilkenny

1998 and 1999: Contributed 30 hours of lectures to ‘Irish Civilisation’ component of Diploma in Cultural Tourism [course run jointly with Department of Geography]

Publications

In Press: Spring 2009: (ed. with Christiaan Corlett), Rural settlement in medieval Ireland. Wordwell, Bray. 200pp.

Forthcoming: 2009 (with Margaret Murphy), The Dublin region in the middle ages: settlement, land-use and economy. The Discovery Programme, Dublin. 500pp.

Forthcoming: 2009 (ed. with Christiaan Corlett), Death and burial in early Medieval Ireland. Wordwell, Bray. 200pp.

In Press: Spring 2009: (with Margaret Murphy), ‘Mapping a medieval landscape? The Civil Survey and land-use in medieval Dublin’ in John Bradley, Alan Fletcher and Anngret Simms (eds), [for inclusion in a forthcoming festschrift]. Four Courts Press, Dublin (12,000–word paper).

In Press: Spring 2009: Review of An archaeology of southwest Ireland (by Colin Breen). In Landscape History.

2008: Review of Irish walled towns (by John Givens). In Irish Arts Review (vol. xxv, no. 3, autumn 2008), pp 144–5.

2007: (ed. with Thomas Herron), Ireland in the Renaissance, c.1540–1660. Four Courts Press, Dublin. 384pp.

2006: Review of Cambridge and its economic region, 1450–1560 (by John S. Lee). In The Journal of Economic History (vol. lxvi, issue 3, September 2006, pp 829–30).

2006: Review article on Trim: Irish Historic Towns Atlas, no. 14 (by Mark Hennessy). In Ríocht na Midhe: records of Meath Archaeological and Historical Society (vol. xvii, pp 332–7).

2005: Medieval Trim: history and archaeology. Four Courts Press, Dublin. 464pp.

2005: (with Margaret Murphy) ‘Investigating living standards in the medieval Dublin region’. In Seán Duffy (ed.), Medieval Dublin VI: Proceedings of the Friends of Medieval Dublin Symposium, 2004. Dublin (pp 224–56).

2005: (with Margaret Murphy) ‘Feeding Dublin: investigating the hinterland of Dublin in the medieval period’. In Juanita Browne (ed.), Heritage Outlook. Kilkenny, winter 2005/spring 2006 (p. 13).

2005–present: TEA: The European Archaeologist. The newsletter of the European Association of Archaeologists. Editor, Issue 23: Summer 2005 (June 2005); Issue 24: Winter 2005–2006 (November 2005); Issue 25: Summer 2006 (June 2006); Issue 26: Winter 2006–2007 (November 2006); Issue 27: Summer 2007 (June 2007); Issue 28: Winter 2007–2008 (November 2007); Issue 29: Summer 2008 (June 2008); Issue 30: Winter 2008–2009 (November 2008).

2002: ‘The lordship of Meath and the liberty of Trim, Ireland, 1172–1425’. In Guido Helmig, Barbara Scholkmann and Matthias Untermann (eds), Medieval Europe, centre, region, periphery: proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of Medieval and Later Archaeology, Basel 2002 (3 vols, Hertingen), vol. i, pp 533–7.

2002: Reviews of John Bradley, Kilkenny: Irish Historic Town Atlas, no. 10 (Dublin, 2000) and John Bradley, Discover Kilkenny (Dublin, 2000), in Irish Arts Review Yearbook 2002 (Dublin), pp 192–3.

1998–2004: Annual directory of information on archaeology in the Irish parliament (Oireachtas Éireann) [1997–2003]. In British and Irish archaeological bibliography, vol. ii, no. 1 (April 1998), pp 218–21 (with John Bradley), vol. iii, no. 1 (April 1999), pp 225–9; vol. iv, no. 1 (April 2000), pp 224–30; vol. v, no. 1 (April 2001), pp 208–15; vol. vi, no. 1 (April 2002), pp 203–10; vol. vii, no. 1 (April 2003), pp 227–31; vol. viii, no. 1 (April 2004).

Conferences and seminars

Some recent conference and seminar presentations in Ireland

November 2008: ‘The Mapping Death Project: summary and future directions’. At the Mapping Death symposium, University College Dublin

November 2008: ‘Medieval Trim: the known and the unknown’. At the Uncovering Trim Town seminar, Trim, Co. Meath

June 2008: ‘Brú na Bóinne in the medieval and post-medieval periods (to c.1700): a research agenda’. At a public seminar on developing a research strategy for Brú na Bóinne, Slane, Co. Meath

February 2008: ‘Geoffrey de Geneville (c.1226–1314) and his career in Ireland’. For the Dublin Medieval Society, Trinity College Dublin

October 2006: ‘Standards of living in medieval Dublin and its hinterland’. For the Cork Archaeological and Historical Society, Crawford Gallery, Cork

August 2006: ‘Town development under the Anglo-Normans’. At the Kilmallock Walled Towns Conference, Kilmallock, Co. Limerick

April 2006: (with Dr Margaret Murphy) ‘Settlement and society in the hinterland of medieval Dublin’. At the Annual Conference of the Society for Medieval Archaeology, Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo

November 2005: (with Dr Margaret Murphy) ‘Feeding the city: reconstructing diet, lifestyle and health in medieval Dublin’. At the Archaeology Ireland conference on ‘Food, culture and identity’, University College Dublin

September 2005: ‘The Dublin Module of the Discovery Programme’s Medieval Rural Settlement Project’. At the European Association of Archaeologists’ 11th Annual Meeting, Cork

September 2005: ‘Talking heads: learning from dead bodies’. At the British Association for the Advancement of Science annual Festival of Science, Trinity College Dublin

November 2004: (with Dr Margaret Murphy) ‘Rural settlement in the medieval Dublin region: interdisciplinary approaches’. At the Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute for the Study of Irish History and Civilisation, University College Dublin

November 2004: ‘The medieval town and liberty of Trim, County Meath’. At the Trinity College Dublin History Postgraduate Seminar, Dublin

May 2004: (with Dr Margaret Murphy) ‘Standards of Living in the medieval Dublin region: documentary and archaeological approaches’. At the Friends of Medieval Dublin Symposium, Trinity College Dublin

Some recent international conference and seminar presentations

October 2008, USA: ‘‘Fensible in fastness of ditches and castles’: the archaeology of the English Pale’. At the Sixteenth Century Society Conference, St Louis, Missouri

July 2007, England: ‘Commercial intercourse between medieval Dublin and its hinterland’. At the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds

May 2007, USA: ‘Champagne Crusaders: French connections in thirteenth-century Meath’. At the 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan

July 2006, England: ‘Trim and the medieval lordship of Meath’. At the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds

November 2005, USA: ‘Trim Castle and early castle building in Medieval Ireland’. At ‘East Carolina University Medieval Irish History and Archaeology Lecture Series, 2005–7’, Greenville, North Carolina

November 2005, USA: ‘Trim Castle, County Meath: The Historical Archaeology of an Irish Castle’. At Appalachian State University—Boone, North Carolina

September 2005, Hungary: ‘Bone and antler as raw materials in medieval Ireland’. At ‘Ruralia VI: Arts and Crafts in Medieval Rural Environments’, Szentendre-Dobogókő

July 2004, England: ‘Pottery as evidence for interaction and trade in medieval Ireland’. At the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds

November 2003, Canada: ‘Feeding Dublin: recent research on the hinterland of the medieval city’. At a conference entitled ‘New Perspectives in Celtic Archaeology’, at the University of Toronto, Ontario

May 2003, USA: ‘The castle and town of Trim, County Meath, Ireland’. At the 38th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan

September 2002, Switzerland: ‘The lordship of Meath and the liberty of Trim, Ireland, 1172–1425’. At the 3rd International Conference of Medieval and Later Archaeology, Basel

Conferences and seminars organized

November 2008: (with Matthew Seaver) ‘Uncovering Trim Town: a conference outlining the results of a series of excavations, 1990–2008’. At the Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim, Co. Meath [10 speakers]

November 2008: (with Edel Bhreathnach) ‘Mapping Death: people, boundaries and territories in Ireland, 1st to 8th centuries AD’. At University College Dublin [12 speakers]

February 2007: (with Christiaan Corlett) ‘The Iron Age in Ireland, in light of recent excavations’. At the Helen Roe Theatre, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Dublin [20 speakers]

March 2006: (with Christiaan Corlett) ‘Settlement in Early Christian Ireland, in light of recent excavations’. At the Helen Roe Theatre, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Dublin [16 speakers]

October 2005: (with Christiaan Corlett) ‘Death and burial in Early Christian Ireland, in light of recent excavations’. At the Helen Roe Theatre, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Dublin [20 speakers]

April 2005: (with Thomas Herron) ‘Ireland in the Renaissance’. Four panels presenting on a range of topics at the Renaissance Society of America’s annual conference, Cambridge [20 speakers]

April 2005: (with Christiaan Corlett) ‘Medieval rural settlement in Ireland, in light of recent excavations’. At the Helen Roe Theatre, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Dublin [17 speakers]

January 2005: (with Thomas Herron) ‘Ireland in the Renaissance: an interdisciplinary conference’. At the Helen Roe Theatre, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Dublin [25 speakers]

Archaeological field experience

2005–present: Research Excavations at Tulsk, Co. Roscommon (Supervisor 8 months)

2003–2008: The Discovery Programme (Senior Research Archaeologist)

1998–2002: Trim, Co. Meath (Survey work for PhD)

1996–1998: Moynagh Lough, Co. Meath (Supervisor 3 months; Assistant Director 17 months)

1994: Céide Fields, Co. Mayo (2 months; surveying and mapping)

Membership of professional associations, institutions, committees, etc

Board member of the European Association of Archaeologists

Council member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland

Editor of TEA: The European Archaeologist newsletter

Member of the editorial committee of the Journal of Irish Archaeology

Reviews Editor of Eolas: The Journal of the American Society for Irish Medieval Studies

Member of the Renaissance Society of America

Member of the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland

Member of the Irish Post-Medieval Archaeology Group

Member of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society

Member of the Meath Archaeological and Historical Society

Member of the Rathmichael Historical Society

Member of the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site Research Committee