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.
Author Biography
Stephen H Harrison is a specialist in early Viking Age Ireland and Britain. He has worked on several major research projects, including the Irish Viking Graves Project at the National Museum of Ireland. Having previously taught at University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin, he is now a University Teacher in Archaeology at the University of Glasgow. Raghnall O Floinn is Director of the National Museum of Ireland. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and Vice Chairman of the Society for Medieval Archaeology, London. His research interests lie primarily in the medieval period with a particular focus on reliquaries and the cult of relics; decorated metalwork; the archaeology of the early medieval Irish Church, antiquarians and the history of collections. He is the author of numerous papers and has co-edited a number of books, including Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age (1998) and Treasures of the National Museum of Ireland - Irish Antiquities (2002).
