- It's likely to be some weeks yet before Minister for
the Environment Martin Cullen announces recommendations for dealing with
and possibly preserving what historians are now describing as Ireland's
first town.
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- The discovery of the Viking settlement, at Woodstown,
five miles from the city, which is believed to date back to the mid-9th
century, was made as preparatory work got underway on the city's Euro300m
by-pass.
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- The site, located close to the River Suir, is 1.5 km
long by 0.5 km wide and so far up to 3,000 artifacts have been found over
a distance of 150 yards. From photographs, which have been examined by
the country's leading archaeologists, early indications suggest that the
complete original town of Waterford founded by the Vikings remains virtually
intact with dozens of streets and dwellings just under the soil surface.
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- It is thought that up to 4,000 people may have lived
there. To date, nails, weights, jewellery, silverware, weapons and some
ceramics have been found along with some ship fragments.
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- >From evidence found at the site, a fleet of 120 Viking
ships occupied the Woodstown site about 812. This, in turn, gave them control
of Waterford Harbour and of the three-river system, the Suir, the Barrow
and the Norse, allowing them ready access upriver to the rich lands and
monasteries of these river valleys.
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- The settlement began as a longphort and that is what
archaeologists originally thought the find was until further examination.
This is a Dshaped fortification made by the Vikings to protect themselves
and their ships from attack. It was the typical fortress from which the
Vikings raided the countryside.
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- The Suir Valley Railway runs along the edge of Woodstown
between the site and the Suir. The builders of the railway demolished a
mound in a field called Seandn ëold fortress.' The mound was found
to contain a large number of bones. All indications now suggest that this
may have been a Viking ship burial, the only one found in Ireland.
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- John Maas, an academic PhD researcher, said that it was
sheer luck that the aerial photographs showed from the plant colouring
that a larger site lay beneath the surface.
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- "This is Ireland's equivalent of Pompeii. The find,
if it proves to be what we think it is, is the most significant piece of
Viking history in Europe. This will be worth up to Euro200 million annually
to the local economy if properly dealt with by the authorities," explained
Mr Maas.
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- © Waterford News & Star, 2004. http://www.waterford-news.ie/news/story.asp?j=14729
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