Several clay, doughnut-shaped loom weights in situ.

Loom weights at the 2nd millennium BC site of Cabezo Redondo, south-eastern Spain #FindsFriday 🏺 #Archaeology

Many different kinds of weights were found in multiple houses, suggesting Bronze Age textile production was complex and widespread amongst domestic groups.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Very excited to get up and running with this one: awarded £1.5m AHRC Standard Grant for Landscapes of Catastrophe, a project examining the context and impact of the Great Irish Famine www.qub.ac.uk/schools/NBE/...

🚨Call for Papers
#UISPPXXIWorldCongress2026
Our session on #protourbanism in #europeanarchaeology is open for abstract submissions. Join us 31 Aug - 4 Sep in Poznan, Poland. Abstracts due 20 March
@jodarchaeology.bsky.social

Brusselstown Ring: a nucleated settlement agglomeration in prehistoric Ireland | Antiquity | Cambridge Core Brusselstown Ring: a nucleated settlement agglomeration in prehistoric Ireland

The original publication can be read here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Targeted research generating more datasets means finally recognizing that a ‘one size fits all’ explanation for hillfort chronology, morphology, and use needs to be reconsidered; as does how we define ‘urban’ or ‘proto-urban’. Multiple sites can be used by the same community for different purposes.

This evening I will be talking about the development of densely populated Bronze Age hillforts in Ireland and Temperate Europe for @tuatha.ie @neiljackman.bsky.social, a topic which has recieved some press after our @antiquity.ac.uk paper on Brusselstown Ring, a massive 41ha site with 600+ houses!

Archaeologists have found new evidence that Irish urban traditions might be as old as 1200 B.C. One hillfort encircled 600 structures that may have been houses—potentially the largest prehistoric settlement known in Britain or Ireland!

archaeology.org/issues/march-april-2026/world/?location=ireland

🚨 Call for Papers!
XXI UISPP Word Congress, Poznán, Poland. 31 Aug - 4 Sept 2026.

Our ( @jodarchaeology.bsky.social ) session proposal focusing on #protourbanism in #prehistoric #europe has been accepted! Register and submit your paper topic for our session here: uispp2026.syskonf.pl

Palaeoecology Research Fellow (Ecologies of Governance) at Queen's University Belfast An opportunity for an academic position as a Palaeoecology Research Fellow (Ecologies of Governance) is available, as advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Apply now and explore other academic job openings.

Come join the Ecologies of Governance team, working with Andy Seaman, Duncan Wright, Rich Madgwick and me on our AHRC project. 30 month Palaeoecology postdoc to work on our five case study landscapes based at QUB - Archaeology at Queen's www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQJ146/p...

#uispp #archaeology #uispppoznan #uispp2026

🚨 Call for Papers!
XXI UISPP Word Congress, Poznán, Poland. 31 Aug - 4 Sept 2026.

Our ( @jodarchaeology.bsky.social ) session proposal focusing on #protourbanism in #prehistoric #europe has been accepted! Register and submit your paper topic for our session here: uispp2026.syskonf.pl

Wicklow hill fort identified as oldest prehistoric ‘proto-town’ in Ireland The ‘Baltinglass hill fort cluster’ predates the Viking towns once considered Ireland’s earliest urban settlements

Wicklow hill fort identified as oldest prehistoric ‘proto-town’ in Ireland

Wicklow hillfort designated Ireland's earliest proto-town A hillfort in Co Wicklow has been declared the "largest nucleated settlement in prehistoric Ireland and Britain".

A hillfort in Co Wicklow is believed to be Ireland's earliest proto-town, pre-dating Viking settlements, researchers at Queen's University Belfast have said.

Topographic map of two hills in the Baltinglass landscape. Overlaid annotations show the extents of the fort and enclosures surrounding it.

Brusselstown Ring is one of the largest hillforts in Ireland, enclosed by ramparts that encompass both the hill itself and the Neolithic enclosure of Spinans Hill 1 #HillfortsWednesday
Hillforts that span more than a single hilltop are incredibly rare.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

Our recent work at Burnswark hillfort was included in @digitscotland.bsky.social top archaeological discoveries in Scotland 2025!! We found a large settlement within the fort, and remodelling of the ramparts after a Roman attack @trimontiumtrust.bsky.social @glasgow.ac.uk #HillfortsWednesday

County Wicklow: Settlement find may challenge Vikings first towns theory - researcher Dr Dirk Brandherm and his colleagues have identified more than 600 suspected house platforms in the Brusselstown Ring.

More on the significance of our UKRI QUADRAT DTP funded excavations at Brusselstown Ring, Co. Wicklow (Ire.) @jodarchaeology.bsky.social @lindaboutoille.bsky.social @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social @irishstudiesqub.bsky.social @quadratdtp.bsky.social @ukri.org @antiquity.ac.uk

bbc.com/news/article...

Brusselstown Ring is Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age (1193-410BC). Tap o’ Noth dates to RIA -Early Medieval ( 3rd-7th century AD).

Scientists have uncovered evidence of Ireland's largest prehistoric hillfort settlement In a recent study published in Antiquity, Dr. Dirk Brandherm and his colleagues identified more than 600 suspected house platforms in the Brusselstown Ring hillfort, making it the largest nucleated settlement ever discovered in the entirety of prehistoric Britain and Ireland thus far.

Over 600 suspected house platforms have been identified at Brusselstown Ring hillfort in County Wicklow, marking it as the largest known prehistoric nucleated settlement in Britain and Ireland. doi.org/hbhgtd

Volunteers, students and archaeologists at the dig.

Archaeology work at Burnswark hillfort involving UofG staff & students led by @jodarchaeology.bsky.social, @trimontiumtrust.bsky.social and University of Manchester are included in @digitscotland.bsky.social top Scottish archaeological discoveries in 2025 . ⛏️

Read more: gla.ac/4p4BFHQ

Really excited that our book on Baltinglass and the Prehistoric Hillforts of Ireland has been nominated for Book of the Year in the 2026 Current Archaeology Awards! The only hillfort on show in this category, so please, all of you #HillfortsWednesday crew, get voting! www.archaeology.co.uk/vote

Excavation of T1, T2 and T3 (and subsequent radiocarbon dates) funded by @quadratdtp.bsky.social

@quadratdtp.bsky.social thank you for funding this amazing research!

Aerial photograph of a hill with a stone wall around its summit. Four annotated points mark the locations of test trenches, one on the summit and three around the slopes.

The hillfort of Brusselstown Ring, Co. Wicklow 🇮🇪 annotated with the locations of new test trenches #HillfortsWednesday
Excavation and aerial survey suggest the presence of hundreds of roundhouses, indicating a huge prehistoric settlement at the site.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

I LOVE the fact that these 'hillforts' are now starting to look more like citadels, with upper 'cities' and lower 'cities'. The old polis model!

Brusselstown Ring: a nucleated settlement agglomeration in prehistoric Ireland | Antiquity | Cambridge Core Brusselstown Ring: a nucleated settlement agglomeration in prehistoric Ireland

Hot off the press, our new paper on the incredible Late Bronze Age nucleated settlement at Brusselstown Ring hillfort, Co. Wicklow, Ireland is freely available to read (doi.org/10.15184/aqy...). @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social @uofglasgow.bsky.social @antiquity.ac.uk

Photogrammetry map of a round hill (Brusselstown Ring hillfort) annotated with potential roundhouse footprints, test trench locations and a potential cistern

NEW Have archaeologists identified the largest nucleated settlement in prehistoric Ireland and Britain? Survey at Brusselstown Ring, one of the largest hillforts in Ireland, found evidence for potentially hundreds of occupied roundhouses!

Learn more 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology