ISSN 2009-2237
This entry is part 3 of 34 in the Issue 01
Eachtra have pleasure in announcing the publication of Near The Bend In The River by Penny Johnston, Jacinta Kiely and John Tierney, the conclusion of our work on the N25 road realignment in mid-Waterford.
The book will be launched by Waterford County Council in association with the National Roads Authority at 5.00pm Thursday 22nd January at the public library in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford.
The book costs €25 and can be bought at all good bookshops or online at Wordwell.
Outline
The economic growth experienced by Ireland in the past twenty years has seen a related growth in our understanding of the early history and archaeology of many areas, particularly in big towns and along the new roadways which streak across the landscape.
In Waterford the first extensive excavations along one of the county’s roads were carried out between 1998 and 2000, in advance of construction of the realignment of the N25 south of the little town of Kilmacthomas. Previous investigations in this area had been limited and very little was known about the area’s history and archaeology.Near the bend in the river — the archaeology of the N25 Kilmacthomas realignment (National Roads Authority €25) by Penny Johnston, Jacinta Kiely and John Tierney presents the results of the excavations along the 8.5 km route which revealed that people have lived here for at least 6000 years. A number of settlements are dateable to the period 4000-1000 BC, while outdoor cooking and bathing places (fulachta fiadh) were in use c. 2000-1000 BC.
Analysis of the individual sites excavated showed, for example, that c. 2300 BC the farmers at Aghanaglogh choose to grow barley in preference to wheat, while hazelnuts and crab apples were also collected and eaten. They lived in a round house and used the latest style of pots, tall and nicely decorated, known to archaeologists across Europe as Beakers, which were designed to hold special drinks, perhaps made here from the barley.
In the historic period the area seems to have been favoured by travelling smiths for smelting and smithing iron, the ore for which would have been available from bogs in the nearby uplands; some copper was also smelted, presumably from ores collected downriver at Bonmahon on the coast. A corn drying kiln shows that then, as now, cereals needed to be dried out before grinding. Oats would have been introduced as a crop at this time, and a large quantity was found as grain and chaff at one of the metalworking sites - the oats may have been used as a fuel or a tinder, evidence of early use of bio-fuels!
