Ancient weapons have been found in a Co Waterford grave, but the body is missing, writes Claire O'Connell
Broken weapons scattered in a grave that is missing a body - it's an ancient Viking mystery that researchers at University College Dublin (UCD) are helping to solve.
The first clues came to light at Woodstown during archeological excavations commissioned by the National Roads Authority in 2003 along the planned route of the N25 Waterford City bypass. The dig unveiled a substantial Viking settlement dating back to the ninth century AD.
And on the very outskirts of the excavation area, archaeologists uncovered a grave site containing a broken sword, a spear, an axe-head, a knife and part of a shield. What makes this grave so significant is the wide range of weapons in it, says Susannah Kelly, conservator at UCD's school of archaeology.
UCD and the National Museum of Ireland have worked together to preserve the iron artifacts while gleaning clues about how and why the weapons got there. And many of the techniques they use wouldn't look out of place in a hospital or dental surgery.
The museum's conservation team went to the site and wrapped partially exposed grave goods in a protective, bandage-like material, then they "block-lifted" the grave's contents, explains Kelly.
Back in Dublin they X-rayed the blocks to see what they really contained. "You can see what you have and what you are going to go and start cleaning because the cleaning process is very slow and methodical, so you can't waste a lot of time on something that turns out to be nothing," says Kelly.
"The X-rays also tell you how dense the metal is or if there's any decoration or other materials adhering. And it gives you a guide on how far in you are going to clean, and what you are going to remove. They are very important."
Kelly and Viking-sword expert Claudia Koehler at UCD received three of the blocks and set about cleaning the important contents. First they removed outer debris with scalpels, rotary abrasives and dental instruments. Next came the finer work of air abrasion, where compressed air blasts a fine jet of aluminium oxide through a tiny nozzle, allowing the researchers to gently remove corrosion without damaging the underlying metal.
When cleaning the sword, they exposed the metal on one side, while preserving remnants of the leather scabbard on the other. "Because there's so much information in the debris and corrosion products that are left on the object, it's important that not all are removed," says Kelly.
The UCD team finally coated the cleaned goods with layers of an acrylic co-polymer and micro-crystalline wax, both removable, to protect the iron by keeping moisture out.
Throughout the conservation process, they also recorded observations about the finds and took samples for more complex analysis at a later date, explains Kelly. And they picked up clues from the corrosion patterns on the weapons.
"The sword was deliberately broken before it went into the grave," she says. "We were able to tell that because of the corrosion where the breaks were. Swords would have been valuable and that may be one of the reasons why it was broken, to stop it being stolen out of the grave."
But what of the Viking sword's owner? "He probably would have been a fairly substantial warrior," says Kelly, but she notes the evidence suggests he spent little or no time in the grave himself.
"Maybe the body was there for a brief time, maybe relatives took it or maybe the body wasn't recovered from a battle. There are more questions than there are answers."
The Woodstown Viking grave weapons are currently on display at the Waterford Museum of Treasures, The Granary, Merchant's Quay, Waterford. At 1pm on November 21st, Claudia Koehler will give a talk at the museum about the weapons conservation project