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So two months have come and gone now.  Which means I only have 10 months to figure out my Master's project, do said project, and then write a small book about it!  Doesn't seem that far off when I think about it.  In fact, it's a little bit scary to think that it is that close.  Speaking of my Master's project, I will be writing a separate post that will be uploaded shortly explaining everything.  Sorry about all the secrecy.  Trust me, I want to talk about it.  I am just getting a lot of pressure from some very powerful people to keep it very quiet at the moment.  I don't want to get on their bad side as it could jeopardize my chance at doing the project.  It wouldn't be me if there wasn't some element of controversy involved.

This week was pretty calm.  Readings were lighter than usual and lectures were easier.  The topics are no longer in the realm of theory and thus the material is much easier to engage with.  Topics we are currently discussing include: age and sex, childhood (and its relationship to mortuary practices), and determining the biological sex of a skeleton using various bones of the body. I like the hands on element; I'm good at it.

Friday was our first class field trip!  We took a tour around West Cork and viewed several cemeteries that dated from the medieval period to the late 19th century.  The weather was less then ideal starting out.  It had poured the entire night before and the forecast suggested that it wouldn't let up for the entire day.  Luckily, the rain did stop as soon as we left the city center.  The wind, however, did not.  The wind had the ability to cut through just about everything.  Need to invest in a serious wind breaker style jacket.  Our locations during the tour were not helping the poor weather.  All of the places we visited were right along the southwest coast of Ireland.  The wind would pick up the sea water, so even though it wasn't raining, we were still getting wet.  It was amazing to see how the cemeteries changed over time.  Some burials were very Pagan while others displayed highly Christian themes.  Many of these graveyards had the ruins of an old medieval church still partially standing.   We also visited the ruins of a late medieval star-shaped fort.  It was a little bit of an adventure getting to it which involved a slight bit of trespassing, a fair amount of mud, cattle, and an electric fence.  The latter was slightly terrifying.  I'm ok with barbed wire but electric fences, in the rain, are a different story.

Medieval cemetery and church in Castlehaven Harbour, Co. Cork, Ireland

Ruined fort in Castletownsend, Co. Cork, Ireland

Towards the end of our trip we stopped for lunch at a cafe/restaurant in a small town.  The food was amazing, the dessert even better!  The dessert special for the day was Jamesson and Bailey's Creme Burlee and it was one of the best things I have ever had!  Our professor surprised us all and picked up the tab for all of our lunches. We are going to have to get him a nice Christmas gift from the class.  After lunch we stopped at one last cemetery.  This one was just outside of the town where we ate. It was most known for its mass grave dating to the years of the great Irish famine from 1845-1850.  It just looked like a large field, but you could see slight depressions where the pits were (top left of picture below).  It is unknown exactly how many bodies were buried there, but it is in the order of several hundred.  There is a modern memorial erected dedicated to those who lost their lives in the famine (approx 1 million people).  You can see the ruins of a church in the upper right of the picture below.  It looks like a triangular tree as the remaining structure is fully covered in plant growth.

Abbeystrewry cemetery and famine memorial, Skibbereen, Co. Cork, Ireland

Well That's it for this week's update.  Hopefully I will have good news to share with you all by mid next week and I can stop being so secretive.