Discover how new techniques in digital heritage recording are helping us to better understand and catalogue Ireland’s iconic sheela na gig sculptures in Episode 11 of the Amplify Archaeology Podcast.

New techniques in digital heritage recording are helping us to gain new insights into archaeological sites, features and artefacts. Digital Heritage is the process of digitally documenting heritage and culture. It focuses on finding the best best method of digitally recording a heritage site or artefact while presenting it to the public in an accessible way. In this episode of the Amplify Archaeology Podcast, Neil had the opportunity to chat with Orla-Peach Power and Gary Dempsey of Digital Heritage Age who are helping to pioneer these new methods in Ireland. Digital Heritage Age are a network of digital heritage professionals engaged in the promotion of digitising cultural heritage in Ireland. They seek to promote best practice in digital heritage projects and build links between professionals and local heritage groups, communities and societies.

Digital Heritage Age are inspired by the Irish word for a work team, gang, or party, ‘meitheal’, and their work helps to develop a platform for cooperation between groups and individuals sharing a common cause. Digital Heritage Age also strive to nurture a local ‘sense of place’ and ownership in local heritage, by engaging with local sites and artefacts and by helping to empower communities by giving them the skills and confidence to record their local heritage. The flagship project of Digital Heritage Age is the The Digital County Initiative a coming together of communities, to share workloads and skills for digital heritage. This project aims to create a locally curated ‘digital museum’ for every county in Ireland. The project aims to train both professionals and heritage communities with the skills to develop their own digital heritage projects.

In this episode Orla-Peach and Gary discuss the benefits and challenges of Digital Heritage and their work. We also chat about Ireland’s enigmatic Sheela na Gig and try to cast light on what they might mean and how attitudes to them have changed over time. With their values on community engagement and making heritage accessible to all, Gary and Orla-Peach are such an inspiration for us and it was terrific to get the opportunity to chat with them.

 Episode 11 Digital Heritage and the Sheela na Gig 3D Project – Show Notes

• You can find more on Digital Heritage Age on their website.
• You can also discover a number of their models on Sketchfab.
• The full collection of the Sheela na Gig Project models can be explored here.
• Orla-Peach’s favourite recording – the beautiful 3D model of the Clonfert Madonna can be found here.
• Gary’s favourite recording – the tomb of Phelim O’Connor in Roscommon Abbey can be found here.
• You can also find more information and models of the Rathcroghan Project here.
• The Discovery Programme also have a remarkable collection of 3D digital models that you can explore here.
• The fantastic Ogham in 3D project website is here.
• A blog that details the remarkable excavations at Must Farm in the UK have a great blogpost on photogrammetry here.

Amplify Archaeology Podcast

During this podcast series we will meet some of Ireland’s archaeologists to discuss the key periods, places and people that tell the story of Ireland, and we’ll gain new insights into the practice and techniques of modern Irish archaeology.  This is the eleventh instalment of Amplify Archaeology, previous episodes have featured discussions on excavations at Kilkenny Castle and the Rock of Cashel, Living History, the Beaker People, History of Food, Passage Tombs, Castles, Mesolithic Ireland and Glendalough.

I’d love some feedback, so please do leave a comment below – and if you have any questions about Irish archaeology please do let me know, we can try to answer them in forthcoming episodes.  Finally if you enjoyed this podcast I’d be really grateful if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, or please share it and tell your friends.

The podcast is an Abarta Heritage production.  It was recorded in the shadow of a Sheela na Gig in Fethard County Tipperary with Neil Jackman (the interviewer) Orla-Peach Power and Gary Dempsey. We are really grateful to Orla-Peach and Gary for their generosity and insights. The audio was edited with the assistance of Declan Lonergan of Bluebird Studios, County Kildare.