Minister for the Environment and Heritage Dick Roche yesterday launched two volumes of the Discovery Programme publication on the north Munster project in the National Museum of Ireland.
The volumes, entitled The Later Prehistoric Landscape of South-east Clare and The Prehistoric Landscape of North Munster, are the culmination of many years of study by Dr Eoin Grogan and his UCD research team.
The north Munster project was initiated in 1992 under the Discovery Programme established by then taoiseach Charles Haughey. It was envisaged to provide a meaningful context for human activity represented mainly by characteristic gold ornaments discovered in the "North Munster Province" of the late Bronze Age.
The Minister praised the putting into context of finds such as the "Mooghaun Hoard" or "Great Clare Find", discovered during railway construction in 1854. Other work in this project examined the archaeology of the Shannon estuary and the artefactual assemblages from the region.
He said: "This contextualisation has been magnificently achieved in these two volumes which study in detail the archaeology of the region. The combination of intensive fieldwork, archaeological excavation, paleo-environmental analysis and landscape studies has resulted in an unparalleled understanding of late Bronze Age society in this region and throws further light on the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age."
Work undertaken at Mooghaun Hillfort, a national monument, involved the clearance of 2.5 hectares of trees and scrub to survey and excavate the most impressive prehistoric monument in Co Clare.
The Minister praised Dr Grogan and his team. He said: "The Discovery Programme has made a considerable contribution to archaeological research and I look forward to this work continuing and to the publication of the results of other projects.
"This publication underlines the importance of disseminating the results of archaeological work, whether by excavation or survey, and whether carried out as part of a research project or in mitigation of a particular development. My department is well advanced in the preparation of a new website, on which will be placed all the reports on archaeological excavations lodged on foot of licensing conditions."