Heritage body backs excavation

The Heritage Council has backed calls for a full excavation of the major Viking settlement discovered during work on the Waterford city bypass.

In a letter to the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, the council said it would be more cost-efficient to fully excavate the site before completing the road rather than pay for preserving the land for future excavation and incur the cost of delays from inevitable legal action.

Heritage Council sources suggested the cost of excavation would be in the region of €2 million, claiming that estimated costs of €13m-€40m for excavation and added building work were "wildly exaggerated".

The council, a statutory body whose role is to give independent advice to the Department on heritage protection, stressed the importance of the discovery, saying there was a "compelling argument" to extract the maximum amount of knowledge from the Woodstown site before proceeding with the bypass.

It said it did not agree with the recommendation that the site, measuring 400 metres by 100 metres, should be preserved in situ, meaning that the soil would be compacted below the bypass for excavation at some future date. The council said compacting in the long term could damage artefacts and destroy archaeological layers.

It said that while it fully appreciated the importance of building the motorway, a wide programme of excavation would be a "win-win situation", allowing the road to go ahead without incurring any major cost.

The council also called for a speedy decision from the Department given the need to protect the site from unnecessary damage. Mr Michael Starrett, the council's chief executive, said a full excavation should begin as quickly as possible.

"My understanding is that the initial excavation was done as much for engineering as for archaeological reasons.

"It is a very significant site, and really exciting for anyone involved in this type of work. We would certainly be recommending a detailed archaeological excavation to provide as much knowledge on the site as possible."

The National Roads Authority, which is responsible for building the €300 million bypass, said it had been working closely with the Department, and had reached a provisional agreement to preserve the site in situ and build the road over it. However, the Minister has since sought a review of this decision.

His officials will meet the National Museum's director, Dr Pat Wallace, the head of the Wood Quay excavations in Dublin, who has described the Waterford site as of "monumental importance internationally".

Up to 350 items have already been recovered, including the remains of a Viking warrior who some historians believe they can identify as the ninth century son of an exiled king of Denmark.