Book Description

In Dublin, the Wood Quay-Fishamble Street archaeological excavations were a constant media story throughout the 1970s and 1980s, when the threat of official destruction brought thousands of protestors into the streets. Although this highly-publicized protest failed to "Save Wood Quay," it did force the most extensive urban excavations ever undertaken in Europe that yielded more unprecedented data about town layout in Dublin 1,000 years ago than about any other European Viking town of the time. Dozens of often nearly intact building foundations, fences, yards, pathways, and quaysides, as well as thousands of artifacts and environmental samples, were unearthed in the course of the campaign. In this book, Dr. Pat Wallace, the chief archaeologist who directed the Wood Quay and Fishamble Street excavations, provides a detailed examination of the implications of these discoveries for Viking-Age and Anglo-Norman Dublin by placing them in their national and international contexts. Lavishly illustrated with over 500 color images, maps, and drawings, together with detailed descriptions and analyses of the artifacts, this pioneering study gathers all the finds and discusses them in the context of parallel discoveries in Ireland, Britain, Scandinavia, and northern Europe, with the historical, economic, and cultural milieu of Hiberno-Scandinavian Dublin as the background. *** "This marvelous work memorializes a major archaeological discovery unearthed in Dublin between 1974 and 1981. Structural remains from 840 through 1169 CE, the most extensive for any site north of the Alps, were excavated by Patrick Wallace, who now analyzes his finds from Wood Quay, Fishamble Street, and related sites. A lively text and numerous photos enliven the hundreds of buildings unearthed.... Highly recommended." --Choice, Vol. 54, No. 4, December 2016 [Subject: History, Archaeology, Viking Studies, Medieval Studies, Art History, Irish Studies]