International Archaeologists Visit Down County Museum

Participants in the Society for Medieval Archaeology Students’ Colloquium held at Queen’s University Belfast visited Down County Museum on their field trip on Saturday.

The group visited the newly conserved Downpatrick High Cross and the Early Christian, Viking and medieval collections in the museum’s ‘Down Through Time‘ exhibition, before being shown the sites of St Patrick’s Grave and the 1980’s excavations on the Hill of Down by Nick Brannon.

Mike King showed the group the three surviving fragments of the late eighth century St Patrick’s Cross in the entrance of Down Cathedral, having given a keynote lecture to the conference on the High Crosses of Down on Thursday evening.

The participants came from 13 different European countries, including France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Romania, Slovenia and Poland.

[caption id="attachment_53078" align="aligncenter" width="540"]The international group of archaeologists visit St Patrick's Grave. The international group of archaeologists visit St Patrick’s Grave.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_53076" align="aligncenter" width="540"]An international colloqium of archaeology students at Down County Museum at their annual conference. An international colloqium of archaeology students at Down County Museum at their annual conference.[/caption]    ]]>