Ruaidhrí de Valera

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Ruaidhrí de Valera (born 1916 in Dublin ; † October 1978 ) was an Irish archaeologist and professor of Celtic archeology at University College Dublin .

Life

Ruaidhrí de Valera was born in Dublin in 1916 as the fourth son of the politician Éamon de Valera . He studied Celtology at University College Dublin, where he received his Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1939 . De Valera now served in the Irish Army and was lecturer for the Old Irish Language in Maynooth for one year in 1942 . In 1945 he received his Master of Arts (MA). In his master's thesis he had dealt with megalithic tombs in northeast County Clare .

In 1946 he became Placenames Officer in the Ordnance Survey Ireland , the national land surveying agency. In the following year he became an archeology officer and in 1949 initiated the inspection of the Irish megalithic complexes . In the next few years de Valera published several papers on megalithic systems and prepared his doctoral thesis. In 1954 he received his doctorate . As Seán P. Ó Ríordáin died in 1957, de Valera became the new professor at the Department of Celtic archeology at University College Dublin appointed ; an office he held until his death in 1978. In the summer of 1959 he completed the earthworks begun by Ó Ríordáin on the Mound of the Hostages , a hill dating from around 2700 BC. Passage tomb in Tara , dated from BC . In 1960 he introduced the term court tomb to describe facilities with common architectural elements. The 300 specimens calculated for this are found almost exclusively in the north of Ireland or in Northern Ireland.

During his further academic career he wrote various writings and opposed the common doctrine of his time with the thesis that the court tombs in the west of Ireland are the oldest systems of this type on the Irish island.

Furthermore, de Valera was co-author of the first four volumes of Survey of the megalithic tombs of Ireland and wrote a revised edition of Ó Ríordáins Antiquities of the Irish Countryside . As a professor at University College Dublin, he expanded the archaeological department. De Valera died unexpectedly in October 1978 while attending an archaeological event at the Fermanagh County Museum.

Publications (selection)

Fonts

Books

  • Ruaidhrí de Valera, Seán Ó Nualláin: Survey of the megalithic tombs of Ireland (Volume 1 to Volume 4). Ordnance Survey of Ireland, Dublin: Stationery Office, 1961–1982. ISBN 0707600804 .

Revisions

  • Seán P. Ó Ríordáin: Antiquities of the Irish Countryside 1942 (5th edition revised by Ruaidhrí De Valera). London, Methuen 1979. ISBN 0416856306 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John T. Koch: Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia (2006)
personal data
SURNAME Valera, Ruaidhrí de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish prehistorian
DATE OF BIRTH 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin
DATE OF DEATH October 1978
Place of death Ireland