Archaeological findings will go on website

I wish to reassure Dr Catherine Swift’s (Irish Examiner letters, June 6). She expressed concern that archaeological work carried out on the Woodstown site, and completed late 2004, is not available on the National Roads Authority website (www.nra.ie).

As soon as the post-excavation work is completed and the interim and final reports submitted, they will be placed on the website in due course.

The post-excavation phase of any archaeological site can be long and intricate as the site director and his/her team, with the various specialists, artists, planners, technicians, and so forth, complete their work to bring the site to life.

Archaeologists study past societies through their material remains. These can be the remains of defensive ditches, graves and everyday artefacts. The archaeological material from the Woodstown site, as with any other archaeological site excavated as a result of road building by the NRA, is properly funded and managed so as to produce a factual record of the past.

Perhaps if Dr Swift would like to contact the NRA or Waterford city council directly in the future in relation to the status of the post-excavation phase of the Woodstown project, we can inform as to the progress of the work and save her from “mobilising academics and experts from around the world”.

Dáire O’Rourke

Senior Archaeologist

National Roads Authority

St Martin’s House

Waterloo Road

Dublin 4