Archaeologists say the number of Viking warrior burials in Dublin is astounding. A project cataloguing these burials began in 1999. Now nearing its conclusion, the project has resulted in the publication of an 800-page tome titled Viking Graves and Grave Goods in Ireland.
The volume is the first comprehensive catalogue and detailed discussion of over 400 artefacts from more than a hundred furnished Viking graves in Ireland, many published for the first time. The volume includes the first detailed study of the archives of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy and of the Irish Antiquities Division of the National Museum of Ireland, key resources for those interested in the history of museums in Ireland and in 19th and 20th century collectors and collecting. The grave-goods (both Insular and Scandinavian) are the subject of detailed examination, with separate sections devoted to weapons, dress ornaments and jewellery, tools, equestrian equipment and miscellaneous artefacts. The volume also contains a discussion of grave distribution, form, orientation, ritual and contents. While much of the text is given over to the Kilmainham-Islandbridge burial complex – now confirmed as by far the largest cemetery of its type in the Viking west – the monograph also includes details of the Viking graves from elsewhere in Dublin, and from the rest of Ireland.
FEATURED PHOTO:
From the exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland
