[Article] Viking artefacts found on Waterford road route

Victor

http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0501/waterford.html

Viking artefacts found on Waterford road route
01 May 2004 09:46

A suspected Viking settlement has been discovered along the planned route of the €300m Waterford City By-Pass.

The National Roads Authority has confirmed to RTÉ News that it is treating the site as one of 'special interest' and it could demand 'a significant amount' of additional expenditure.

The NRA says this site was located at Woodtown last August, and, following preliminary excavations, several artefacts were located which suggest it was a possible Viking settlement.

It is believed the planned road would affect one third of the site.

An NRA spokesman told RTÉ News that the NRA had been adopting a responsible approach by consulting with the Department of the Environment, the National Museum and the Heritage Council.

He added there had been no prior evidence of such a site, despite an in-depth planning process.

He said the NRA believes that the by-pass can and should go ahead because the routing cannot be changed without restarting the planning process from the beginning.

It argues the site should either be excavated and then built on, or 'preserved' - in other words, built over without excavation in order to protect what is underneath.

Victor

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2765-1111646,00.html

Focus: Motorway madness
Who will win the battle between the road builders and archeologists, ask John Burns and Richard Oakley

On a hot day in late April, Pat Quinnell, an archeologist, was doing preparatory work for the Waterford bypass in a field about a mile from the city. When he uncovered an axe in a pit, he immediately realised its importance: where there’s an axe there’s likely to be a burial site.

Quinnell called out to the other archeologists near him. They immediately stopped their work and gathered around. Further excavation uncovered a sword, a spear and then the remains of the Viking warrior to whom they belonged. The speculation now is that this could be Rodulf, a 9th-century Danish chieftain, after whom a fort in Dunrally, Co Laois, is named.

It is now clear that Woodstown is the earliest and possibly the most important Viking site found in Ireland. The base dates from 50 years before the establishment of Waterford, from which the Norsemen launched attacks up-river and where they traded slaves from a holding camp.

The antiquity of the 1,200- year-old river camp has been confirmed by carbon dating tests performed in Miami. It is more than 400 yards long and runs nearly 200 yards inland from the Suir, where the warriors berthed their boats.

Among the hundreds of artefacts recovered so far are rivets from longboats, and shipbuilding tools, indicating that this is where the Viking fleet was built and maintained in preparation for raids. There are also large numbers of weights, used by the Vikings to measure the loot they plundered.

Also recovered was native Irish metalwork, probably raided from monasteries by the Norsemen, including a large amount of silver. Last week excavators found a piece of an ivory bead, indicating that the Vikings were trading with other countries.

“This was a trade and slave emporium, right out of the picture books,” says Mark Clinton, an archeologist.

Experts are tripping over themselves to explain just how important this find is.

Dr Pat Wallace, head of the National Museum and an authority on Vikings, says it is an “outstanding archeological site, of monumental importance internationally”.

It is also a monumental headache for the National Roads Authority (NRA), which is already facing an archeological bill of up to €20m for the M3 through Meath, and is unable to finish the M50 around Dublin because of Carrickmines castle.

At first Martin Cullen, the environment minister, told the NRA it could preserve the Viking site in Woodstown and build over it, at an extra cost of €3m. That would have meant no excavation.

But after the National Museum and Heritage Council heard about the discovery at Easter, and visited the site themselves, Cullen ordered a review. He is now taking submissions from all sides and will make a decision in the next few weeks.

The advice to Cullen spans the spectrum. The NRA is prepared to allow an excavation of the site for a year, at a cost of €13m, so long as it can then build its road. “Why would we bother excavating it if we are not going to be allowed to build through the site afterwards,” asks Michael Egan of the NRA. “We are in the business of building roads.”

The Irish Heritage and Environmental Protection Organisation, however, says this is a “once-in-a-millennium opportunity for the southeast of Ireland to acquire a world-class tourist attraction”. It wants Woodstown to be “completely preserved and restored as a perpetual monument to the Vikings”.

So what should Cullen do: order a limited excavation or reroute the road? And what should the policy be when a motorway runs into a monument? Does the NRA really need to down tools every time it digs up an old coin?

REASON and rationalism are rare visitors to this debate. A group campaigning for a rerouting of the M3, because it is too close to the Hill of Tara, last week accused the NRA of “pillaging graveyards and digging up children”. But the roads authority, while stopping short of such emotional charges, counters that there should be more clarity and consistency from the archeological community.

Egan says: “There is no consensus among archeologists about what should be done. There is no point in pillorying the NRA — we are caught in the middle. The archeologists need to get their act together; there are contrary views coming from them all the time. Let them sort out the archeology, we’ll build the road.”

The two sides fell out over Carrickmines, the castle that has held up the M50 and added at least €6m to its cost. The full motorway will be opened in December, but broken by a 150-yard gap at Carrickmines, it will effectively be two cul-de-sacs that don’t meet in the middle.

The NRA’s critics say this is a deliberate propaganda ploy. The authority could move an interchange out of the way and let the motorway swerve around the castle.

“They are pulling an emotional stunt by bringing the motorway up on both sides,” said Clinton, who was director of excavations at Carrickmines. “The NRA are saying, ‘Look what they have done to us’. It’s brinkmanship and blackmail. Their game is to portray us as the loony squad, as if we are the ones blocking the motorway.”

There is similar unhappiness about the NRA’s handling of the Viking camp near Waterford. The National Museum and the Heritage Council feel they could have been told about the discovery much earlier.

“We found out about it quite late on,” says Michael Starrett, chief executive of the Heritage Council of Ireland. “The NRA was aware that there was some architectural significance there at least a year ago. It would have helped significantly if a wider spectrum of people had been brought in earlier.”

There are also claims that the NRA is spoiling the site, using JCBs, scooping up topsoil, and checking for artefacts with metal detectors. The context of the finds is being lost, argues Clinton.

“Where artefacts come from is very important. If you don’t know, you may as well buy them in Christie’s,” he said. “It’s not archeology; it’s glorified treasure hunting.

“The NRA wants to grade these sites; well, this is grade A. And if this is how they treat grade A, what do they do with grades E and F?” Clinton says that 80% of finds at such sites come from the topsoil, and should be dug out by hand, not bulldozed.

“This site deserves a full excavation. It’s not as if we have another 50 of them. It’s the most important find of the century. Waterford could get a new museum out of this.”

The NRA’s initial plan of preserving the site by building over it shocks the archeological community. Most of the artefacts would have been crushed and compacted, they say. “How can you preserve something under a road that may last 1,000 years,” asks Wallace. “There was no study to show that this would work. It’s gambling, taking a risk.”

They are asking Cullen to allow a full excavation at Woodstown, but with a cap on the cost and the duration. “Excavation should be done in a finite time once a genuine assessment has been done,” said Wallace. “The road could go ahead once that happens. We are not in the business of blocking roads.”

HAPPILY for Cullen, the NRA is agreeable to a one-year excavation, which would cost about €13m: €6m for the excavation and €7m for the delay. Cullen seems certain to give this the go-ahead soon.

But the NRA is adamant the road must then proceed through the site. There is no point in preserving an empty field, Egan argues. “What is the point in having people coming to look at a hole in the ground?” The authority defends its conduct at Woodstown. It did not use diggers to excavate the site — only to fill back in areas after a dig. It told Cullen’s department about the site last year, and there was no reason to tell anyone else.

“We don’t go around trumpeting these sites,” said Egan. “Everyone under the sun would be in there with a metal detector destroying them if we did that. Our job is to inform the department: it sets the rules and calls the shots.”

But the roads authority wants those rules changed, arguing that they are are 75 years old. For instance, there are currently 120,000 sites listed on the Record of Monuments and Places, with no distinction made between them. A mound of stones has to be treated with the same reverence as a castle.

As well as a grading system for monuments, the NRA wants a new group to be sent out looking for sites of archeological significance. It tries to stay out of the way of monuments, but inevitably ends up tripping over them.

Once it does, Egan says, there is no clear line from the archeological community about what should happen next. “Some archeologists argue that if you excavate a site and remove the artefacts, you destroy it.

“We are the ones out there looking for these sites — spending our time and money doing it. We would prefer if a body was set up under the auspices of the department to search proactively for archeological sites. We would then have much better knowledge of what is out there and a better chance of avoiding them.”

In the meantime the NRA’s bill mounts, while protest groups instantly spring up whenever motorways trip over monuments. The authority says it spent €10m protecting ruins on the southeastern section of the M50, and the 32-mile Clonee-Kells stretch of the M3 will cost twice that. Even so John Bruton, the former taoiseach, is among those calling for the M3 to be re-routed.

cont./....

Victor

cont./...

Wallace, meanwhile, “deplores” the NRA proposing changes to the law; having “our national heritage being challenged by people like that. I hope the government won’t let it happen”.

IN THE maelstrom it can be hard to find a reasonable voice. Starrett of the Heritage Council comes closest, agreeing that some on the conservation wing are “a bit hysterical” and allowing that the NRA has made great strides recently and now deals with archeological issues fully.

“It doesn’t need to be an ‘us’ and ‘them’ situation,” Starrett says. “The more you get a polarisation of opinion the worse it gets. It is heritage versus development, and that’s not necessary. There is constant conflict at the moment and hysterical responses on either side don’t help.

“If the minister takes an early decision on Woodstown it will avoid that becoming another Carrickmines. There is a simple solution, we need a quick decision, and I would be optimistic that the result will be an excavation there.”

ToxicPaddy

Its hard to know what side to come from with things like this..

I do believe that the archeological sites should be preserved as they are a gateway
to our past and they do hold invaluable evidence as to what way life was back then
but they cant be responsible for holding up progress and this bypass is badly
needed as anyone coming from the Dumore side of waterford and trying to get to
the Cork Rd side will tell you..

So what to do? :dunno:

Maybe a bit more care can be taken by the NRA when doing initial excavations and
so that if something is found and it proves to be of archeological importance then the
road can be rerouted with out the bother that say the M50 is having with a
motorway already being built on both sides and no where else for it to go..

I know the NRA has been critisised in the past for its handling but as they have said
in this article, they are there to build roads and its their job. So maybe its up to the
government to come up with a grading system for acheological sites and then this
was all one has to do is have a look at the system and if such a site is classed as
say a Grade A site, then the NRA will just have to look at rerouting the road so this
way it would save years of court actions and injuctions and possibly save millions..

But something tells me we could be waiting a long time for something like that to
happen :rolleyes:

The archeologists have also been critised but again they have a job to do and a lot
treat it as more than a just job, its a hobby and passion of theirs and something they
are willing to spend a lot of time, effort and money on preserving..

The fact remains you have 2 sides who are both unwilling to budge on this matter,
the NRA who have a job to do and the archeological socities who want to preserve
the past of the country so as to give those today and look at life in the past...

What to do what to do???? :dunno:

Victor

http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0605/viking.html

Aerial photography reveals size of Viking site

05 June 2004 15:38
Aerial photography of the newly discovered Viking settlement at Woodstown near Waterford City suggests the site may be far bigger and of greater importance than previously thought.

The National Museum has already called Woodstown the find of the century. However, the new pictures indicate a pattern of streets and houses which stretch for more than a kilometre along the River Suir.

The site lies in the path of the proposed Waterford Ring Road.

The Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen, has indicated he will shortly order that the area be excavated.

Victor

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2004/06/05/story150979.html

Waterford Viking settlement may be 'find of the century'
05/06/2004 - 10:51:45

Archaeologists have stated that a newly-discovered Viking settlement near Waterford City may be the historical find of the century.

Experts had believed that the site at Woodstown was a modest settlement, but recent examination has revealed a bustling town of approximately 4,000 people, with access to an impressive fleet of ships.

Ariel photography of the area shows a pattern of streets and houses that stretch for more than a kilometre along the river Suir.

One researcher on the site commented that this may be Ireland's version of Pompeii, and the most significant piece of Viking history ever discovered in Europe.

mike65

Thats it we've f:mad:ucked! The by-pass will never get built on the intended route so back to the drawing board and another 5 years of argy-bargy.

Mike.

Victor

Originally posted by mike65
Thats it we've f:mad:ucked! The by-pass will never get built on the intended route so back to the drawing board and another 5 years of argy-bargy..

Not necessarily - they just need to move one section a few hundred meters.

Archaelogy http://www.nra.ie/Archaeology/N25WaterfordBypass-Woodstown/

Map is figure 1

mike65

It may be only a few hundred metres but I watched the arguments over less than 50 metres, this way or that unfold a few years back so I'm not optimistic.

I just hope the powers that be have the wit to turn the site and its findings into a moneyspinner for the city area.

Mike.

thejollyrodger

why cant they extensively check out the route for any possible artefacts before they start lining out routes in the future, it would save a lot of tough decisions

Capt'n Midnight

Perhaps they could sell the site to some Scandavians - like the way the Dutch own our last raised bog.

Wood Quay all over again methinks. :mad: