QUB - Archaeology at Queen's

27/12/2025

Members of Belfast YAC enjoyed a session on Christmas traditions at their December meeting. Dr Dirk Brandherm gave a short talk about the origins and development of Christmas through time. Dr Linda Boutoille then taught the YAC members how to make traditional Victorian Christmas decorations - rag wreaths, orange pomanders and snowflakes. The session was greatly enjoyed by all and we also had a Christmas party. We have an exciting schedule lined up for our 20th anniversary in 2026 and welcome new members in the New Year. 😍🎄

24/12/2025

Here is some great information from Fin Dwyer about Christmas Eve rituals in Ireland in days gone by. 🎅 🎄

Join historian Fin Dwyer as he explores old Irish Christmas Eve rituals. These include superstitions and customs that have almost disappeared today. If you h...

23/12/2025

22/12/2025

🎄✨ Warm Christmas wishes to all our CAPNI volunteers and supporters! ✨🎄

As the year comes to a close, we want to say a heartfelt thank you for your wonderful support throughout 2025. Your enthusiasm, kindness, and commitment have been at the heart of everything we’ve achieved, and we’re truly grateful.

We’re looking ahead to a bright and busy 2026, with plenty of activities and events to come, and we hope you’ll continue the journey with us. We’ll be sharing more updates as our plans unfold!

Wishing you and your loved ones a happy, healthy Christmas and a fantastic New Year 🎅🎁

With our sincere thanks,
CAPNI & the CCA Team

The National Lottery Heritage Fund Northern Ireland

21/12/2025

Happy Winter Solstice 2025

You can watch a live stream of the sun rise at Newgrange starting at 8.40am at the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRgumO6vzu8

This rare phenomenon, which has captivated visitors for generations, marks the shortest day of the year

19/12/2025

It has been another incredibly busy year for the CAPNI team. Once again, we have been around all six counties of Northern Ireland engaging in archaeological heritage projects with lots of different community groups. These projects included community and student training archaeological excavations, school hubs, festivals, lectures, talks, walking tours, conferences and attendance at both the Balmoral Show and the Llamas Fair. We have continued to meet and engage with very large numbers (thousands) of people who have let us know how interested they are to participate in archaeological events with us.

As our second year of fieldwork comes to a close, we are now back in the office in Queen’s University Belfast writing reports, sorting our finds and archives, and preparing for our third year of exciting heritage events that will take place in 2026.

We would, again, like to thank everyone who took part in all of our heritage activities with us in 2025, and we hope that we will see you again. Archaeology is all about people and it is you who have made the CAPNI programme of events so enjoyable. We would also like to give a special thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund Northern Ireland for funding the CAPNI programme. Without that support, none of our projects would have been possible.

Happy Christmas to everyone and we look forward to an equally busy and exciting 2026!

The National Lottery Heritage Fund Northern Ireland
Queen's University Belfast Public Engagement

18/12/2025

We are delighted to report that the Archaeology Society Committee and our Postgraduate Research Students have come together to organise the next Association of Young Irish Archaeologists conference here in QUB. 😊👏

The conference is a fantastic opportunity for networking and also to hear about the work being undertaken by early career researchers across the island.

It will take place over the weekend of the 20th-22nd March 2026 and you can register your interest in attending at the QR code below. It is open to students and non-students alike and all are welcome to attend. 😊

17/12/2025

🎄✨ CAPNI Christmas Throwback Time! ✨🎄
We’ve been digging through the archives (well… family photo albums 👀) and uncovered some very special festive finds, old photos of the CAPNI team as kids at Christmas!🎄
Think 1970s (except for young Brody) Northern Ireland, visits to Santa at the Co-op and Crazy Prices (that's a blast from the past), festive jumpers, and all round wide-eyed excitement (and perhaps fear), these photos capture Christmases past in all their glorious, slightly chaotic charm.

But here’s the fun part…
👉 Can you guess who’s who?
Drop your guesses in the comments and let us know which photo you think belongs to which member of the CAPNI team. Bonus points for spotting the dodgy haircuts, questionable knitwear, and very serious Santa faces 😄
Christmas archaeology at its finest! 🎄📸

The National Lottery Heritage Fund Northern Ireland

16/12/2025

Looking for some light reading for the end of the year? Our PhD student David Anderson and his supervisor Maarten Blaauw wrote a chapter on Archaeology in this just-out book on Apocalypticism and Millennialism (edited by Tristan Sturm and Andrew Crome). Give us a shout if you want a pdf!

15/12/2025

Introducing Brody McAvoy, placement student with the Centre for Community Archaeology for 2025/26. Brody started his placement with us in September and has quickly become an integral cog in the CCA machine and is vitally important in the successful delivery of the CAPNI programme.

A long term student volunteer on CCA excavations, Brody chose to bolster his degree by undertaking a one year placement. Since commencing his placement Brody has lent a helping hand to our school hubs, festivals, excavations and surveys, as well as undertaking desk based projects in the office!

Very well done Brody and many thanks for all your hard work over the past few months - here's to an equally busy 2026!

The National Lottery Heritage Fund Northern Ireland
Queen's University Belfast Public Engagement

12/12/2025

Members of the Belfast YAC had a lot of fun in the November session when they visited the Ulster Museum and participated in a 'Museum Take Over' event. This meant that they became curators for the afternoon and had the chance to talk to museum visitors about different objects in the Discover Nature, Nature Classroom, Discover History and Discover Art rooms. They also had a lot of fun interacting with the guides and having the chance to handle special objects in each of these rooms. 😊

We are hugely grateful to Jacqui Barker, the Discovery Centre Coordinator, and her team for making us so welcome and for providing such a fantastic experience for the members. 😊 👏

Ulster Museum, Belfast

11/12/2025

Over the course of the last three months the CAPNI team have been delivering their second lecture series, comprising ten illustrated lectures exploring the ways in which archaeologists undertake their research and their fieldwork activities. Delivered on the QUB campus and also online, the course was organised through QUB Open Learning and was supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players, with lectures on subjects such as Recording the Past on Excavations, Artefact studies, Vernacular Architecture and Buildings Archaeology, Maps and Surveying, Science in Archaeology, Ancient DNA studies, Industrial Archaeology, Maritime Archaeology, and Health and Safety on Archaeological Excavations.

The team would like to thank Dr Duncan Berryman for all his assistance with the technological aspects of the lecture series, both during the recording of the lectures in the lecture theatre and with the uploading of the recorded lectures and pdfs onto the CAPNI CANVAS page. 😊👏

The National Lottery Heritage Fund Northern Ireland
Queen's University Belfast Public Engagement