Sailortown, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Exploring An Urban/maritime Community.

Summary

‘Sailortown’ is the unofficial name given to a tiny enclave of streets, located on Clarendon Docks, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Throughout the 19th century and up to the middle of the 20th century Sailortown was a diverse community with manufacturing and maritime industries. In1969, following the downturn of Belfast’s industrial economy, plans for redevelopment of the Docklands commenced. In 2015 archaeological investigations, first of its kind in this area, focused on investigating household archaeology, and provided new information about the development of this area of Belfast and revealed the living conditions in 19th and 20th century houses in the maritime and industrial landscape area of Belfast.

This paper will report on the archaeological exploration of Sailortown, which is the subject of a three-year British Academy postdoctoral research fellowship, whilst addressing the challenges of conducting archaeologies of the cities especially in relation to the study of urban coastal communities in academia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016   •
• Historical and Contemporary Archaeologies of the City: Opportunities and Challenges

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 412