Barry Raftery, former professor of Celtic archaeology in the UCD school of archaeology, the fifth man to hold the post since it was established in 1909, and one of Europe’s most innovative archaeologists, began his seminal work, Pagan Celtic Ireland (1994) with characteristic flourish.
“July the 18th in the year 387 BC was not a good day for Rome. On the left bank of the Tiber on that date Roman forces were disastrously defeated at the battle of Allia by hordes of fearsome barbarian invaders pouring southwards across the Alps from central Europe. The marauders advanced rapidly on Rome and found, to their astonishment, the gates open and unguarded . . . There followed widespread massacre and pillage and most of Rome was reduced to a smouldering ruin. After a lengthy siege of the Capitol the invaders were finally bought off and Rome, though humiliated, survived to rise again.” The barbarians were none other than the Celts.
An internationally acknowledged authority on the archaeology of later prehistoric societies, Raftery is duly celebrated in a magnificent Festschrift, Relics of Old Decency: Archaeological Studies in Later Prehistory , published by the ever-excellent Wordwell. Irish archaeologists and colleagues from throughout the world have come together in this wonderful book to honour Raftery who has dedicated his life’s work to placing Irish archaeology within a European context.
More at
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0426/1224269090703.html
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road