David Blauvelt—an educator, historian, and archaeologist—delivered a lecture at the Massachusetts Archaeological Society (MAS) meeting on February 18, sharing insights from his excavations of peat beds at Dooagh Beach on Achill Island, Ireland. Hosted by the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, the lecture centered around Blauvelt’s discovery of an animal burial yard after a formal excavation.
Blauvelt began his presentation by sharing his experience excavating animal bones as part of his dissertation. Discussing his undergraduate studies, Blauvelt explained how they offered him a special opportunity to conduct research on animal bones from Achill.
“During my master’s in Edinburgh, I was still in contact with the director of Achill Field School. I asked him, knowing the soils on Achill were pretty acidic, “Hey, on the off chance, are there any bones that I can study for my master’s degree?” Stuart Rathbone, director at the time, got back to me and said [that] the previous year, about seven kilograms worth of animal bones were dug out from the base of a towerhouse, and that I was welcome to come by and sift through those. I got to stay in this nice little bunkhouse and go through those seven kilograms worth of animal bones,” said Blauvelt.
Ryan Wheeler, Director of the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology and attendee of the lecture, noted the thorough clarity and organization of Blauvelt’s presentation. He appreciated how Blauvelt’s research on animal graveyards brought attention to the lack of recent study in this area.
“It was really well organized, the images and slides were pretty clear. David told a compelling story, especially tying in the ethnographic details, interviewing these older people in the community. There are animal burials that show up all over the place. They’re not necessarily well studied, especially in this recent time period. It’s really interesting when archaeology gets applied to these bits of our recent past,” said Wheeler.
Despite being the only student attendee at the presentation, Alberto Agudo Diéguez PG ’25 found Blauvelt’s research meaningful. He noted Blauvelt’s ability to connect his ideas to personal experiences, which made the presentation more accessible and engaging for a general audience.
“[I appreciated] his personality and relatability with the subject. There was a lot of meaning behind his work. I believe he did really excellently at making the meaning behind this project understood. [I also appreciated] when he set up further research questions and the way he connected ideas and made things significant. He told lots of facts, but he also shared a lot of his logic, his understanding, his story. It was clearly a project that was his and something that he had worked on,” said Agudo Diéguez.
Victor Mastone, MAS chair emeritus and organizer of the lecture, noted the importance of public outreach in facilitating MAS chapter meetings. He expressed appreciation for the Peabody’s informal atmosphere, underscoring the value of discourse in these lectures.
“Part of [these meetings] is us getting word out to get more people in here, because there are a couple of people here that will always ask questions, which is great. That’s important because, sure, you listen to the lecture, but it’s the dialogue that happens afterwards [that is] important. This place is really good for that. It’s a nice informal space. I should say it’s more like an intimate space. It’s not this huge 100-person lecture hall with ten people in it. It’s a small lecture hall with maybe 20 people, sometimes more, and you get this interaction with the speaker that you might not always get. That’s the value of the lectures we’ve had here over the years. It’s being able to have an interaction,” said Mastone.
