The Littoral Archaeological Project (LAP)
The archaeology of the coastal zone has emerged as a recognized area of research for the understanding of our cultural heritage, particularly the focus on maritime culture. Significant progress has been made over the last two decades as researchers have become increasingly aware of the dynamic nature of the littoral landscape. Attention has concentrated on issues relating to the changes in the natural environment. Geological processes relating to isostatic response and geomorphological processes of erosion and deposition are being considered in terms of how they might affect the surviving archaeological record. The subject area is growing alongside global realizations of climate change and rising sea levels. One area that awaits assessment is the impact of development activities on the coastal environment. It is ten years since the State required development projects at and below the waterline to include archaeological assessment and mitigation strategies similar to those that exist on fully terrestrial sites. A body of data now exists from such licensed work around the Irish coast, along its navigable rivers and across its inland waters. The Littoral Archaeology Project (LAP) seeks to assemble the information that is available for the coastal belt.
LAP 2008 was intended as a feasibility study, based primarily on desktop data acquisition and analyses. It considers the east coast, between Carlingford Lough in Co. Louth and Carnsore Point, Co. Wexford. The study focused on a corridor along the coastline extending 1km inland including the navigable portions of major rivers up to the HWM. The project was a collaboration between the Discovery Programme and The Archaeological Diving Company Ltd. Dr. Niall Brady coordinated the project and Dr. Edward Pollard gathered much of the data. A database was devised to register and assemble the primary information.
The project drew on the archival sources of the Register of Monuments and Places, the Historic Shipwreck Inventory, the topographical files in the National Museum of Ireland, and on licensed excavations, detection device and dive surveys conducted up to 2004, the year for which the most recently published volume of Excavations Bulletin exists. The study also examined county and port authority Development Plans and published Environmental Impact Statements relating to coastal development projects, in an attempt to ascertain the nature of existing and proposed responses to natural changes as well as to development activities along the coastline and the navigable portions of rivers that empty into the Irish Sea.
103 licenses were granted for underwater work along the littoral during the period 1996-2004. This represents a small fraction of the 1,242 licensing events that have occurred within the study area between 1994 and 2008. Those archaeological excavations provide a useful insight about the former shorelines that have been reclaimed by the riverward/seaward extension of urban centres since the Middle Ages.
Excavations revealing prehistoric material are well represented along the littoral but generally are at some remove from the actual coastline. It is possible that the proximity of these sites to the sea is related to an eroding shoreline. There is a curious absence of early medieval material from the excavations conducted within the study area, but this imbalance is more than made up for with later medieval and subsequent settlement material which is very well represented particularly in the urban centres.
There is a growing awareness of coastal archaeology within county and local development plans. Two case studies were selected and presented in more detail, drawing on the known archaeological baseline information. The estuary of the River Boyne at Drogheda, Cos Louth and Meath, and the estuary the Avoca river at Arklow, Co. Wicklow.
Niall Brady and Edward Pollard (The Archaeological Diving Company Ltd)
This project was supported by the Heritage Council under the
Irish National Strategic Archaeological Research (INSTAR) Programme 2008.