Metalworking in Viking Dublin

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Dr Justin Bayley, English Heritage- May 2105 Recent Lecture

Dr Bayley had recently been give a short sabbatical to analyse metal working on 4 sites in Dublin that had been excavated between the 1960s and 1980s. - Fishshambes,Hight St.,Winetavern St., and Christchurch place. She explained that there had been various reasons that there had been long delays in analysing and publishing these sites. Her analysis normally took all 4 sites together, as they were all clearly windows on what had originally been one settlement, and in fact all 4 showed extensive traces of metalworking and there was little evidence of different crafts in different quarters of the town.

In total there were 1,704 artefacts that related to metalworking, and in addition there was half a ton of slag and vitrified hearth linings. All of these seemed to relate to working of metals that had originally been smelted elsewhere – in many cases this had probably occurred on the continent. In fact, 803 of the artefacts were crucibles of one type or another. The evidence for different processes included:-
§ iron blacksmithing and brazing
§ copper alloy casting and smithing
§ melting and refining of precious metals

Most of these techniques were practised in Ireland before the Vikings, but what does seem to have been relatively new was the production of brass by adding zinc to the mixture of copper and tin. Many of the finds were also comparable to other Viking sites in York, Denmark and elsewhere.

Dr Bayley then showed examples of the great range of finds that could indicate metalworking:-
► the huge range of crucibles could be analysed to show that they had been used to melt copper, brass, silver and gold.
► Litharge cakes would have been used for purifying silver
► Heating trays gave evidence of testing of the metal purity
► parting vessels had been used for the separation of silver and gold.
► Hematite ('jewellers rouge') showed that metal surfaces were being polished
► careful analysis of the surface of files could show whether they had been used on iron, copper or silver


► small soapstone moulds would have been used for casting ingots that would then have been hammered or drawn into shapes such as wire. In fact there were also finds of fine wire that would most likely have been used for a musical instrument such as a harp.
► 'packages and wraps' (these were clay lumps shaped a bit like sausages that could have been used to wrap around a form for say casting a bell )
► a number of blanks were found that clearly showed the production of pins and items such as strap ends. In fact in one shop there had been found a hoard of 6 fine pins. Various finds of carved bone presumably related to craftsmen practising motifs that might ultimately be use in such moulds.

Dr Bayley stressed that this was only an interim statement of the results of her research. The next steps will be to try to identify individual workshops and which artefacts came from them, and to set them in a wider context of other metalworking sites in Ireland, the rest of Britain and Europe.

Peter Brown