Neil Jackman, archaeologist, on discovery of a Viking settlement similar to Pompeii: “It got left in time”

Most archaeological discoveries reveal fragments of the past. The Viking settlement at Woodstown, just outside Waterford, though, appears to have preserved an entire chapter.

As reported by Libby Marchant for the Irish Times, archaeologists have completed a new excavation at the site, where evidence continues to suggest that this wasn’t simply a Viking raiding camp, but a thriving community that was suddenly abandoned and left almost untouched for more than 1,000 years.

“It got left in time,” archaeologist Neil Jackman, who directed the latest dig, said when describing why the discovery is so extraordinary.

The site first made headlines in 2003 when Ireland took the unusual step of rerouting a €200 million (c.$226 million at the time) bypass project rather than build through what experts believed was one of the country’s most important archaeological finds.

Unlike Viking settlements in cities such as Dublin, where centuries of later construction have altered the original landscape, Woodstown remained buried beneath farmland. Jackman compares it to a place that simply stopped evolving, giving archaeologists a rare chance to study an almost complete Viking settlement.

The latest excavation uncovered the foundations of what could be Ireland’s first confirmed Viking long hall, a building far larger than anything previously found in an Irish Viking context. Carbon dating is still underway, but researchers believe it may point to a permanent settlement rather than a temporary military outpost.

What else was found in Woodstown?

Other discoveries tell equally fascinating stories. A piece of soapstone likely imported from Norway suggests settlers arrived intending to stay. A silver coin traced back to the Umayyad Caliphate in present-day Iraq highlights the Vikings’ vast trading networks, while decorative metalwork believed to have been taken from an Irish monastery offers a glimpse into the era’s raids and cultural exchanges.

Jackman hopes the site will one day become a faithful reconstruction of a Viking village using only period tools and techniques.

“This isn’t a Viking Disneyland,” he said. Instead, the vision is to bring one of Ireland’s most significant yet almost invisible archaeological treasures back to life.

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