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The radiocarbon date gives Simpson pause for thought. The site, just 200m from a warrior she discovered in Ship Street Great in 2001, was on the rim of the black pool, dubh linn, which gave Dublin its name. Strontium isotope analysis, which looks at chemicals laid down in developing teeth, indicated that two came from Scandinavia, while two likely grew up in a colony in Scotland. Radiocarbon dating indicated that three burials dated from about AD 670-AD 882, and the other a little later. Simpson excavated four Viking warriors in South Great George’s Street in 2003. Dublin was enclosed by a palisade running along the ridge from Dublin Castle to Christ Church, joining the two rivers. Their dead seem to have been buried on both sides of the Liffey and along the Poddle. But now there is a swing towards, ‘Jeepers, they were fairly catastrophic’.” We used to think the annals were prone to exaggeration, and maybe the Vikings weren’t so bad. “The annals record these vast numbers of warriors coming to Dublin, and recent work is now matching that with the archaeology. “There is something phenomenal happening in Dublin,” says archaeologist Linzi Simpson. Human remains of a young male were later found analysis indicated a non-local who had spent his early years in the Scandinavian region. Some still turn up in 2004, a Viking sword and spearhead were unearthed in the War Memorial Park. These are aristocratic burials," says Harrison.Īt least 59 graves were found in the Kilmainham-Islandbridge area between the late 18th century and 1934. "Not every Viking was buried with artefacts. Most date from between AD 841, when a longphort was established, and AD 902. The sheer quantity of artefacts buried points to the importance and wealth of Dublin at the time. He also recently co-wrote The Vikings in Britain and Ireland, aimed at the lay reader. "As a result of our new research, Kilmainham-Islandbridge is now demonstrably the largest burial complex of its type in western Europe, Scandinavia excluded," says Stephen Harrison, who co-wrote the catalogue with museum director Raghnall Ó Floinn. Many earlier discoveries were poorly recorded. It will result in the publication of Viking Graves and Grave-Goods in Ireland, an 800-page tome.Ī ninth-century Viking skeleton can be seen with sword and spearhead at the National Museum's Viking exhibition these were found in the War Memorial Park, Islandbridge, in 1934. A project cataloguing these burials, which began in 1999, is nearing conclusion. Many were buried with swords and other Viking paraphernalia. The number of Viking warrior burials in Dublin is extraordinary in the Viking world, say archaeologists.