Ballot Archive

11 May 2017

Candidate Details

Candidate Name

William O'Brien

Academic degrees, honours etc.

Prof & Chair of Archaeology, University College Cork. PhD (1987) Elected Member of the Royal Irish Academy (2008)

Profession or occupation

Archaeologist

Grounds for election

Professor William O'Brien is Professor and Chair of Archaeology, University College Cork (prior to his appointment there in 2006, he lectured for 16 years in the National University of Ireland, Galway). He was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2008. He is a leading scholar on Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Ireland. His research interests focus on early mining and metallurgy in Atlantic Europe; hillforts and upland archaeology; and monumentality in late prehistoric Ireland. He has published widely, including books on the Bronze Age copper mines of Mount Gabriel; the Irish wedge tomb; the Beaker culture copper mine at Ross Island; early settlement landscapes and upland farming in south-west Ireland, and a overview of the prehistory of the Cork region. His 2015 book ‘Prehistoric Copper Mining in Europe, 5500 - 500 BC’, published by Oxford University Press is the first general synthesis. He is currently working on a study of hillforts, warfare and society in Bronze Age Ireland.

Signatories

The following Fellows have signed this Blue Paper