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AR01055_EMAP_Gazetteer_of_Sites_4-2_10.pdf - The Heritage ...

AR01055_EMAP_Gazetteer_of_Sites_4-2_10.pdf - The Heritage ...

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Waterford<br />

<strong>The</strong>re are a growing number <strong>of</strong> excavated sites in Scandinavian Waterford. Figure 300<br />

illustrates the location <strong>of</strong> the main excavation phase in Waterford city between 1982 and<br />

1993 when a considerable area <strong>of</strong> the historic core was excavated. <strong>The</strong> following is based on<br />

general and thematic papers on Scandinavian Waterford and a range <strong>of</strong> excavation<br />

publications related to the town (e.g. Bradley & Halpin 1992; Hurley, Scully & McCutcheon<br />

1997; Wallace 2001) as well as various recent excavation bulletin reports. It will focus on<br />

various aspects <strong>of</strong> the town’s layout including its location, defences, streets and pathways,<br />

plots and fences, structures and evidence for craft and industry.<br />

Fig. 300: Location <strong>of</strong> excavated sites 1982-92 in Waterford City (after Hurley et al. 1997, 3).<br />

LOCATION<br />

<strong>The</strong> origins <strong>of</strong> the town at Port Lairge or Waterford are still not completely clear though the<br />

historical sources would indicate that some type <strong>of</strong> settlement existed by the early tenth<br />

century. In contrast to Dublin and Cork, there is no evidence for any ecclesiastical settlement<br />

before the arrival <strong>of</strong> the Scandinavians. <strong>The</strong> name Port Lairge was widely used in the early<br />

Irish annals and has been translated as meaning ‘the port <strong>of</strong> the thigh’ (Barry 1997, 13).<br />

<strong>The</strong>re are some early annalistic references (Annals <strong>of</strong> the Four Masters) for the years A.D.<br />

852, 858, 861 and 865 which could be interpreted as possibly reporting the presence <strong>of</strong> a<br />

Viking fleet from Port Láirge. Another annalistic reference A.F.M. 893 mentions an army<br />

which included the ‘foreigners <strong>of</strong> Port Lairge’. By the early tenth century, we can be confident<br />

<strong>of</strong> a Scandinavian settlement at Port Lairge as the Annals <strong>of</strong> the Four Masters and<br />

Fragmentary Annals <strong>of</strong> Ireland report that in the year A.D. 910 the ‘foreigners arrived in<br />

673

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