Life and Death of Wooden Vessels: Investigating Wooden Vessel Manufacturing and Woodcraft Within the Rural Settlements of Early Medieval Ireland AD 400–1100

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This PhD research project investigates rural settlements within early medieval Irish woodcraft (AD 400–1100) to ask the questions: what is craft and what makes a craftsperson during this period? Over the past few decades numerous wooden items have been recovered from this period in Ireland, thus providing an opportunity to gain insight into the crafts represented and evoke the related themes of skill, specialization and status. Interpretations relating to woodcraft are based on a newly formed database of 1765 wooden artifacts collated during this project, sourced from past archaeological investigations of rural-secular settlements from across Ireland. These objects were mostly recovered from wet anaerobic conditions that allowed for the preservation of organic materials. Specific focus has been given to wooden vessels (e.g. bowls, buckets, and tubs) of different manufacturing technologies (i.e., carved, stave-built, and turned) as these highlight differences in material selection and skills—even within the same manufacturing technology. This focus allowed for the question to be asked, what is craft, but also to what extent can the material remains recovered provide a clearer perspective on the relationship between the production of wooden objects, the people who made them and the surrounding society of this period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33260