EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Waterford
An excavation at the corner of Little Patrick street and Baronstrand Street outside the city’s
pre Anglo-Norman defences (Wren 1993) uncovered a series of fragmentary clay floors and
post and wattle walls running south-west/north-east. The features were interpreted as the
remains of ancillary buildings located within the backyard of a plot fronting onto Little Patrick
St. Eleven occupation levels dated from the mid-twelfth to early thirteenth century.
Chronology
The Waterford Type 1 buildings have been dated to the mid-eleventh/early-thirteenth century
(Peter Street- Levels 1-11) though had ceased to be the dominant architectural form by the
mid twelfth century. The Type 2 post-and-wattle buildings have a similar date range to the
Type 1 houses. They were generally situated to the rear of the properties in an ancillary
position to the frequently street-fronting Type 1 structures (Scully 1997a, 37; Hurley 2003,
153). Four street-fronting Type 2 houses were, however, excavated at Peter Street (Scully
1997a, 37). Sunken floored stave-built buildings (Type 4) were first built in the late eleventh
century and were in use simultaneously with post-and-wattle structure until just before the
mid-twelfth century when ground level sill-beam structures gradually emerged as the
dominant architectural form. Stone-footed buildings became common in Scandinavian
Waterford in the early thirteenth century with stone houses and undercrofts more common
from after the mid thirteenth century.
CRAFT
The excavations at Waterford city have produced considerable evidence for eleventh-twelfth
century craft-working and industrial activities. A considerable quantity of twelfth- fourteenth
century leather artefacts- shoe, boot fragments and clothing, belts and straps, handles, bag
fragments and binding strips were uncovered in the excavations (O’Rourke 1997, 703-35).
Cowhide was the most popular followed by calfskin, goatskin and sheepskin. The finds were
dominated by footwear, many of which demonstrated evidence of repair and patching. Also,
recovered was a large quantity of tools including awls, punches and files- which indirectly
indicate evidence for leatherworking at Waterford.
Abundant artefactual evidence for cloth making was uncovered in Scandinavian Cork and
included stone, wooden and bone spindle-whorls, metal and wooden needles and
tenterhooks. The earliest stratified spindle-whorl was made of sandstone and dated from the
early to mid twelfth century (McCutcheon 1997c, 405). The majority of the needles dated
from the late eleventh to mid-twelfth century and may have been used for sewing and
embroidery (Scully 1997d, 451). Evidence for weaving is indicated by an iron weaver’s sword,
pin-beaters and a possible weaver’s comb. A flat sword-shaped artefact from the floor of a
sunken building in Olaf Street was tentatively identified as an iron weaver’s sword (Scully
1997d, 470; Hurley & McCutcheon 1997b, 589-98).
The excavated houses, ditches and cess/rubbish pits produced a large collection of textiles,
ropes, string, animal hair and vegetable remains (Wincott Heckett 1997, 743), shedding
valuable light on people’s clothing in the eleventh and twelfth century. Test on a number of
textile samples indicated that a small number of had evidence for dying (Walton Rogers 1997,
760-61). A mid eleventh to early-twelfth-century potash glass linen smoother was uncovered
in a type 1 building in the Insula South (Bourke 1997, 381-389).
Fragments of lathe-turned and stave-built vessels testify to the evidence of wood turning and
coopering in Waterford. The bases of a number of wooden baskets are also identified in the
course of excavations (Hurley & McCutcheon 1997b, 616 & 618-623). Various parts of ships
and boats- stem, mast, bulkhead, knee and floor timbers- were also recovered from the
Scandinavian phases and could suggest boat-building in the city in this period (McGrail 1997,
636). It was suggested that the resident of one house at Peter Street was primarily engaged
in woodworking as a concentration of wood-chips was found in association with the house
(Hurley 1997g, 898).
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