![]() Please note that exact dates are notoriously difficult to pin down during the 'Dark Ages,' so some of the dates here are approximate and based on mainstream scholarly consensus. It is by no means comprehensive but only offers some sense of structure for this dynamic period in human history. INTRODUCTIONThere are several bodies of archaeological evidence that may be used, alongside historical, literary and other sourc-es, to elucidate and interpret the nature of the Scandina-vian and Hiberno-Scandinavian impact and settlement in Ireland during the ninth and tenth centuries.1 These comprise, irst and foremost, the results of the excava-tions of the Hiberno-Scandinavian towns, most notably those at Dublin and Waterford,2 as well as the evidence of associated rural settlements in the hinterlands of these and other towns.3 The large number of silver hoards on record represents the second body of evidence,4 and this is of primary importance in understanding both the nature of Scandinavian activity in Ireland and the economic and social relationships that existed between the Irish and the Scandinavians.This is a chronology of some of the leading people and events of the Viking Age. The information that can be inferred from the grave-inds, on the other hand, though limited due to the fact that most of them were unearthed during the nineteenth century, has been enhanced by current work on the antiquarian sources relevant to them5 as well as by several recent discoveries of burials.6 Much the same limitation applies to the single-inds of weapons and other objects of Scandinavian workmanship.7 The only focus of research to have taken place on a major new aspect of the archaeology of the Scandinavians in Ireland over re-cent years, apart from various artefact and related studies, is that on the longphuirt (sing. The aim of this paper is to summarise and evaluate this work particularly in the context of the relationship between the longphort phenomenon and silver in Viking-age Ireland. LONGPHUIRTThe initial phase of seasonal Scandinavian raiding in Ire-land, commencing according to the annals in 795, gave way to the establishment of the irst winter-camps in Ire. ![]() ![]() Land during the 830s, and of the historically documented longphuirt of the 840s and their successors. ![]() The annalis-tic sources record the establishment of such permanent bases at two locations in 841, at Duiblinn (Dublin) and Linn Dachaill (Louth) the latter location generally be-ing identiied as Annagassen, on the south side of Dun-dalk Bay. Their foundation, and the recording of other bases at Lough Neagh, Lough Ree, Cork, Limerick, and elsewhere, during the 840s, is associated with the second phase of Scandinavian activity in Ireland, as identiied by Byrne and Doherty.8 This phase, dating to between 837 and 876 and recently referred to as The Time of the Long-phort by Mytum,9 was initiated by the arrival of large Viking leets at the mouths of the Liffey and Boyne and was characterised by heavy raiding and over-wintering in the longphuirt. The construction and use of longphuirt should not be conined to this phase, however, as a second series of foundations is recorded in the 920s and 930s.10 Duiblinn and Linn Dachaill became per-manent and enduring bases. The term longphort, according to Doherty, was a new compound based upon two Latin loanwords that were borrowed into Irish at an earlier period, long from L. portus port, land-ing place, shore, and he suggested that the term was originally coined by the annalists to describe a new and speciic phenomenon, that is an earthen bank thrown up on the landward side to protect ships that had been drawn up on a beach or river-bank.11 The word dnad is also used in the annalistic sources to refer to Viking (and Irish) bases of the ninth century and later, though it may well be synonymous with longphort. Doherty has proposed that the two words, longphort and dnad, may distinguish, respectively, between coastal and riverine encampments enclosing ships and encampments made while the armyĪcta Archaeologica vol. Viking conquest danish longphort series#ħ9, 2008, pp 282-295Printed in Denmark All rights reservedīeen perfect as a base,14 and proposed that such was the case at the documented bases at Linn Dachaill, Clain Andobair, Co.
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