Cultures of Stone

Cooney, Gabriel
Professor Gabriel Cooney is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Archaeology, University College Dublin. Gabriel's area of specialisation is the Neolithic period and he has a particular interest in the use of stone by Neolithic people, from the artefact to the monumental scale. He is the director of the long running Irish Stone Axe Project which was the context for the discovery of a Neolithic axe quarry on Lambay, an island off the east coast of Ireland. His current focus of quarry studies is the North Roe Felsite Project in Shetland, investigating the character and the wider role of a major quarry complex during the Neolithic period in the Shetland archipelago.

Gilhooly, Bernard
Bernard completed his BA, MA, and PhD in University College Dublin (UCD). His PhD focused on the manufacture and range of uses of Irish Mesolithic and Neolithic shale and porcellanite axes and adzes. This utilised a series of methodologies including quantitative and qualitative analysis, and the manufacture and use of experimental replicas. Bernard is an assistant keeper of antiquities in the National Museum of Ireland.

Kelly, Niamh
Niamh Kelly is a PhD researcher with the School of Archaeology in University College Dublin. Her current research focuses on coarse stone tool technology from Ireland and the Irish Sea region, and the roles they play in defining task, self, culture and ritual. She has worked as a researcher and specialist on numerous projects across Ireland, Britain and wider Europe including the North Roe Felsite Project on the Shetland Islands, the Mesolithic in Mar Lodge in the Scottish uplands and Priniatikos Pyrgos in Crete. Niamh also has over ten years teaching experience at third level and is currently the Coordinator of a pre-university programme in Cultural and Heritage Studies based in the National Print Museum, Dublin.

Mallía-Guest, Sol
Sol Mallía-Guest is a current PhD candidate at UCD School of Archaeology, exploring the role of flint artefacts in the Irish Neolithic from a comprehensive biographical approach, merging technological and use-wear analyses. Her current research builds on her MA work (UCD, 2011) that revealed the intricate life-paths of 'everyday' flint tools from Irish Early Neolithic rectangular timber houses.