The participation of Harvard University in Irish archaeology came about as the result of a five-year research programme inaugurated and directed by Professor E. A. Hooton, Chairman of the Division of Anthropology at Harvard. This project, known as the Harvard Irish Survey, dealt with the physical anthropology, sociology and archaeology of Ireland.

The work in physical anthropology was directed by Professor Hooton and the work in the field was conducted by Dr C.Wesley Dupertuis, now of the Presbyterian Hospital, New York. Some 10,125 adult male individuals were measured, and the results of this study are now being prepared for publication by Professor Hooton. The sociological survey was initiated by Professor W.Lloyd Warner, now of Chicago University, and was carried on by Professor Conrad M.Arensberg, now of Brooklyn College. The work of the sociologists, concentrated in County Clare on the west coast, has been published in two books, The Irish Countryman by Professor Arensberg (Macmillan & Co., New York, 1937) and Family and Community in Ireland by Professor Arens-berg and Dr Solon T.Kimball (Harvard University Press, 1940).

The archaeological field-work was carried out by the Harvard Archaeological Expedition to Ireland from 1932 to 1936. Its work was conducted with the generous financial assistance of the governments of Eire and Northern Ireland, and with grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Philosophical Society, the Milton Fund and the Division of Anthropology at Harvard University, as well as by numerous private subscriptions. Fifteen sites were fully excavated, covering nearly every cultural phase from the beginning of the Irish Stone Age to the eleventh century A.D. The site reports are being published by the Royal Irish Academy and the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, and at the present time all but two have appeared or are in the press. The material excavated in Eire is deposited in the National Museum of Ireland and that from Northern Ireland will be returned when possible to the Belfast Municipal Museum and Art Gallery. These two museums and their staffs generously provided every facility to the Expedition for work and study.

The activities of the Expedition were divided into two parts, one dealing with the Stone Age and the other with the later periods.