Axes, Warriors and Windmills: Recent Archaeological Discoveries in North Fingal

Amid the hustle and bustle of modern life we rarely stop to think and wonder about the past and the people who have gone before us. Even if we’re interested in our own family history we can only get information for the last few hundred years at best. Yet the Fingal we see every day, the landscape of city, town, village, coast and countryside, is the result of a very long history of settlement. Countless generations have lived their lives before us in Fingal. They have hunted and fished, worked the land, built our towns and villages, brought industry and commerce, lived and died just as we do today. In doing so they have shaped the landscape we see today. People have been living in Fingal since the end of the last ice age, 10,000 years ago. Yet we know very little about the many societies and cultures which have shaped Fingal for most of this 10,000 year period. We only have written records spanning the last 1500 years. Our only way of finding out about this distant past is by examining the landscape, with its many historic sites and features, which we have inherited. This is what archaeology is all about. In recent years, a large number of archaeological investigations have been undertaken in Fingal, as a result of the rapid growth and development of the County. These archaeological surveys and excavations are required by law to ensure that we gather valuable information about past societies and cultures as we go about the important task of providing for the needs of society today. In this way we are building a much more complete picture of life in Fingal in the distant past. This publication aims to bring the results of this work to as wide an audience as possible. The book builds on the successful seminar held in Balbriggan in October 2007, which underlined the high level of public interest in the results of recent archaeological investigations in Fingal. The work presented here highlights a number of exciting investigations which have taken place recently in the north of the county, including work from Lusk, Balbriggan, Lambay Island and Swords. It provides a fascinating insight into our distant past and the lives of the many peoples who have lived in this place before us. Finally it underlines the importance of archaeology and our knowledge of the past for local identity and challenges us to care for our rich archaeological heritage into the future.