Testimonials

While this is a free-to-all resource, I do ask that anyone who has used the Catalogue (and found it to be of assistance in their own research) to consider writing a short testimonial for publication here. I would be grateful for a short paragraph outlining your research area and how the Catalogue was of use to you. I require such feedback so I am able to demonstrate the importance and usefulness of this resource to various funding bodies. Such grant-aided funding is especially necessary to allow the work of the IR&DD to continue. If you're feeling really generous & you make substantial use of this resource, I'd appreciate consideration as a co-author ... just throwing that out there!

Thank you,

Robert M Chapple

While it has become fashionable to invoke the idea of data-sharing, often there is an unwanted sting in the tail of such offerings and the data is neither as high quality nor as re-usable as you had initially hoped. In stark contrast is Robert Chapple’s "Irish Radiocarbon & Dendrochronological Dates‎” which avoids all these pitfalls. It offers a major resource for archaeological research that is impressively comprehensive, cleanly georeferenced, openly licensed, copiously annotated, straightforward-to-access dataset. A real boon!

Professor Andrew Bevan

Professor of Spatial and Comparative Archaeology, University College London, Institute of Archaeology. September 2015

I am currently conducting post-doctoral research on the Irish Late Neolithic at the School of Archaeology UCD. Robert Chapple's radiocarbon and dendrochronological catalogue is a very valuable resource to anyone researching Irish Prehistory. The collation of so many dates in a highly searchable standardised form has aided me greatly in the identification of sites with evidence for Late Neolithic activity. Hats off to Robert for doing this and then making it freely available!

Dr Neil Carlin

IRC Postdoctoral Fellow, UCD School of Archaeology. November 2013

I am currently a post-doctoral researcher at UCD School of Archaeology. My research interests are focused on ancient agriculture, paying particular attention to changing agricultural choices and strategies over time. I have found Robert Chapple's radiocarbon and dendrochronological catalogue to be of enormous value in my research. His careful collation and publication of dates from excavations across Ireland provide a very useful resource, which I regularly access to clarify the chronology of sites and to find out if long- or short-lived material has been used for dating.

Dr Meriel McClatchie

February 2013

As an independent archaeological researcher I find the Irish Radiocarbon & Dendrochronological Dates Database an invaluable tool. I am currently using it for two publication projects; one on Bronze Age settlement sites in Ireland relating to my PhD research and the other on a variety of sites excavated along three gas pipelines in County Cork. The search-able database allows me to 'chase-up' sites of comparable date, it facilitates cross-checking with published and unpublished sources and ensures that I use the correct referencing system when publishing dates. All-in-all a very important resource for archaeologists.

Dr Kerri Cleary, MIAI.

January 2013

The radiocarbon database has been of great value in obtaining data and dates as a background to my doctoral research on late medieval ironworking in Ireland. I plan to use Robert's initiative as an example of how to distribute my raw data on metallurgy and hope others will be similarly motivated.

Paul Rondelez

Doctoral researcher, University College Cork. April 2012

We found the Irish radiocarbon catalogue invaluable for our long-term multi-region approach to prehistoric demography using summed calibrated dates as a proxy for population. Without it we have found it more or less impossible to include Ireland in our study.

Prof Stephen Shennan

Director of the UCL Institute of Archaeology, Professor of Theoretical Archaeology. February 2012.

I found the radiocarbon database especially useful whilst checking my own early medieval Irish house dates for my doctoral research. In the same tradition as other exciting projects such as EMAP, this is significant for non-Irish students as it enables the data to be analysed more readily in a wider European context. This sort of work can only benefit archaeological research. Long may it continue to be funded and updated.

Dr Iestyn Jones

Visiting Lecturer at University of Wales, Newport. January 2012.

I used the C14 and dendro database when searching for enclosed early medieval settlement sites containing burials for my ongoing doctoral research. Accurate dates are a vital part of comparing site narratives and the ability to go back to the primary data makes it possible to cross check against publications. The standardised way the data is presented makes it easy to model dates and calibrate them within the one software package. It makes dates form widely disparate sources readily available and is a very useful facility.

Matthew Seaver

IRCHSS and EMAP Doctoral scholar, School of Archaeology, University College Dublin. January 2012.

The INSTAR project People of Prehistoric Ireland: Health and Demography, made use of a radiocarbon database, kindly made available by Robert M Chapple. One of the difficulties encountered by the research team during the project was the availability of reliable radiocarbon dates and this database provided these in an accessible and meaningful format. It was found that the availability of such an extensive database meant that valuable research time could be more effectively employed in capturing and processing other data relevant to the project. Robert is to be commended for his work in compiling his database and making it available to the wider archaeological community.

Dr E Murphy and Dr H Welsh

School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University, Belfast. January 2012

Robert M Chapple's Catalogue of Radiocarbon Determinations & Dendrochronology Dates is an extremely valuable archaeological resource to anyone involved in research in Irish archaeology. Robert has read through hundreds of reports and databases and extracted the scientific dates along with relevant details of the site and context and presented them in a spreadsheet that can be easily searched or sorted. The result is an important primary source for the study of archaeology.

Dr. Charles Mount

2 Carrig Glen, Calverstown, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare. January 2012

As second year students of Archaeology/Paleoecology in QUB, one of the disciplines taught is dendrochronology. While obviously the university has extensive chronologies, they are not always easy to obtain. The Irish Radiocarbon and Dendrochronological Database has proved invaluable as an independent and easily accessed reference source, and one for which I know myself and many other students are heartily grateful for. It must also be said that Mr Chapple’s knowledgeable helpfulness goes beyond anything expected of someone already providing a service as useful as this.

B. R. Maguire

Second year BSc ArcPal, QUB Belfast. December 2011