It's a journal that has not only a good news sense and a sense of style, but also a sense of humour. It's the quarterly Archaeology Ireland. On the last page of each issue is a feature, Spoil Heap, which includes what it calls "the annual crop of insights produced by students under pressure of examination conditions in a university somewhere on the island of Ireland" i.e., howlers. Such as: "Males are better at maps and direction finding and femanes are bette at calming people." Or this one: "The fact that the arms are staked and that he has a point in his chest indicates that he has had an untimely death." And: "The hearth was a centralised meeting place where sometimes sexual activities were carried out". Further: "Some people experienced violent deaths - megaliths in their ribs."
The same page includes "A Dictionary of Irish Archaeology," under which is the sub-heading Jar Burial: "In the Temple Bar area of Dublin, migrating groups of young people from Salford and Bolton gather to consume large quantities of lager or indulge in the ancient rite of `burying pints' or `Jar Burial', as the more intellectual would have it. Those who don't last the course are cremated and the remains are placed in a small pottery vessel and `inhumed' (qv)".
Next is a paragraph on Java Man: "The minimalist cafes and lunch places of Temple VBar (qv) are the natural habitat of this coffee-drinking descendant of homo erectus but he is not as much fun (qv). Usually an architect or something to do with a gallery, he is characterised by a failure of the sense of humour organs and an ability to find you less interesting than someone who just came in the room."
And under the heading of "Quote ...Unquote" there are a few items from other publications. Thus: "It is environmentally friendsy. Relatives can console themselves that the death of a loved one benefits the whole community." This was a quotation from the chief inspector at the Helsingborg crematorium, Sweden on the policy of using the crematorium to heat 60,000 homes in the region. Quoted from the Guardian Weekend, August 9th, 1997.
Then, Andrew Selkirk, editor of Current Archaeology, celebrating 30 years of publication in July of this year and against all Irish experience in this field, no doubt, writes: "We have found that virtually all articles written by archaeologists need substantial rewriting; university education so subverts writing styles that few emerge able to write a plain straightforward account of an excavation."