known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns: rumsfeldian archaeology on the irish road schemes

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This paper cheerfully accepts the challenge elloquently articulated by the existential poet Donald Rumsfeld. In order to justify the vast public expenditure on development-led archaeology projects, how do we purposely find the unkown unknowns when we don’t even know what they look like? But as well as the things we don’t know we’re looking for, what also of the nature and integrity of the things we do find (our known knowns), and of the things we expect to find (our known unknowns)? Focusing on Newrath, an alluvial and esturine site on the N25 Waterford bypass, this paper explains how a multi-disciplinary team of archaeologists attempt to find what they don’t know they don’t know before it vanishes forever.

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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Photo: James Eogan, NRA

Photo: James Eogan, NRA

Aerial view of Woodstown, Co. Waterford test trenches, facing NE.

Photo courtesy of James Eogan, NRA

Pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs

Plant macrofossils

Wood and charcoal

Diatoms and Foraminifera

Beetles

Diagram by Emma Tetlow

5000 BCMesolithicMesolithic

MesolithicMesolithic

5000 BCMesolithicMesolithic

3500 BCNeolithicNeolithic

Neolithic and Early Bronze AgeNeolithic and Early Bronze Age

NeolithicNeolithic 3500 BC

2500 BCEarly Bronze Early Bronze AgeAge

2500 BCEarly Bronze Early Bronze AgeAge

1500 BCMiddle Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze Age

Middle Bronze Age 1500 BCMiddle Bronze Age 1500 BC

1500 BCMiddle Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze Age

1 BCIron AgeIron Age

Iron Age and Medieval Iron Age and Medieval periodsperiods

1 BCIron AgeIron Age

AD 1500MedievalMedieval

AD 1500MedievalMedieval

Part Two

Knowledge, value and the Celtic tiger.

“ The success of any archaeological project must be judged primarily by the research questions/issues it sets out to answer and the knowledge it produces. With some exceptions, the current preoccupation of the development-led archaeology is largely with data/information collection andmanagement rather than the quest for knowledge. To address this situation, immediate priority must be given to the standardisation of data collection/recording and to its interpretation by directors and other archaeologists involved in excavation projects.”

UCD 2006. Archaeology 2020: Repositioning Irish Archaeology in the knowledge Economy. p35

“The lack of fully published final reports on archaeological excavations has become of increasing concern in recent years. This means that we are not getting the return we should be getting from the massive increase we have seen in development led excavations.”

Department of Environment, Heritage, and Local Government. 2007. Review of Archaeological Policy and Practice in Ireland: Identifying the Issues. 13.

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