Ireland’sViking Age towns mark an important moment in Ireland’s narrative—the first emergence of urban lifestyles.
The preservation of the organic remains and environmental evidence excavated in Dublin, Cork andWaterford is outstanding but,we suggest, underexplored and underutilised.In this paper we review current research on Ireland’sViking
Age towns and consider the place of environmentally
... [Show full abstract] driven investigations therein.Taking a European perspective, we
look at examples of successful projects which incorporated environmental and scientific research questions into the design
of research-led excavations.This leads us to review the complex needs of excavating and research archaeologists in these
urban contexts and to suggest ways to improve the situation.The final section of this paper considers what a revitalised
environmental archaeological research programme on Ireland’s Viking Age towns could look like, including research
questions, methodologies and integration between commercial and academic archaeology.We suggest that this research
programme be built around the question of human–environment interactions,exploring the intertwined relationship of
people and nature in towns.
