EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Waterford
It has been suggested that there was a pre-Scandinavian settlement at the site (O’Brien &
Russell 2005, 121) based principally on a number of early finds and early radiocarbon dates
from the ditches. Some typically ecclesiastical finds- copper caskets, stud mounts, possible
book clasp and an ornate circular mount possibly from a house shrine- were recovered and it
was suggested that they could indicate the presence of an ecclesiastical settlement or
subsequent Viking loot.
A more recent reappraisal of the site (Russell et al. 2007, 29-33) has suggested that the site
was primarily occupied between in the ninth and tenth centuries A.D. with no clear evidence
yet for any pre-Scandinavian settlement. The earliest radiocarbon dates were from oak-based
samples from the lower fills of the larger ditch and have been attributed to the old-wood
effect. All but four of the radiocarbon dates (excluding the possible Bronze Age corn-drying
kiln) produced date ranges between A.D. 650-1020 (Russell et al. 2007, 29) and centre
particularly on the ninth and tenth centuries.
A number of the artefacts- the burial, silver ingots, lead weights and the ship rivets- are
diagnostically Scandinavian and also point to a settlement with considerable mercantile and
trading interests, most probably in the ninth and tenth centuries. The site was abandoned
sometime in the eleventh century and might suggest that inhabitants moved upstream to the
developing settlement at Waterford city.
Fig. 295: Aerial photograph of Woodstown, Co. Waterford, showing outline of longphort
(blue) (after Russell 2003, pl. 46).
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