CRAFTWORKto the twelfth century Irish stone buildings (mainly
churches) display little in the way of complex carving,
but high crosses and decorated grave slabs are evidence
of highly skilled (and presumably professional) crafts-
men. The introduction of Romanesque and Gothic
architectural styles produced a marked increase in the
quality and prominence of carved stone as architectural
detailing. Some of this, particularly in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, is attributed to foreign masons
brought to Ireland for the purpose, as the output of
native masons was generally old-fashioned and often
of limited technical scope, largely because economic
conditions provided little basis for well-established
schools of masonry or sculpture.
Leather-Working
The overwhelming economic importance of animal
husbandry ensured, as a by-product, the ready avail-
ability of many raw materials, particularly leather,
bone, and wool. Leather was used primarily for foot-
wear, but also for many other objects. Lucas’ seminal
study of footwear requires updating, because since its
appearance, vast quantities of footwear have been
recovered from urban contexts that appear to differ
significantly from the rural material, being more sim-
ilar to broader European traditions. At High Street,
Dublin, Ó Ríordáin excavated an enormous deposit of
leather fragments, the waste of generations of cobblers
or shoemakers active on that part of the site in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Leather sheaths and
scabbards, some highly decorated, are also common
finds in urban contexts, but one cannot, as yet, defin-
itively state that they were produced in the towns
where they are found. Much rarer, but even more spec-
tacular, are the decorated satchels produced (almost
certainly in a rural, Gaelic milieu) to contain important
manuscripts, such as the Book of Armagh, and shrines,
such as the Breac Maodhog.
Bone- and Antler-Working
Evidence for bone- and antler-working is widespread,
where conditions favor survival of the material. Bone
would have been especially common, but antler was
preferable for many processes. The craft often involved
considerable skill, but relatively simple technology—
often little more than a sharp knife. Combs were the
most complex product, often involving the careful
assembly of several individual components into a
finely carved and beautifully decorated unit. There is
good evidence from Dublin and Waterford for spe-
cialist comb-makers in the Hiberno-Norse and Anglo-
Norman periods, but a well-known reference to a
comb-maker in the tenth-century ecclesiastical settle-
ment of Kildare reminds us that such craftsmen were
not confined to towns.Pottery
Pottery, although extremely important to the archaeol-
ogist, was neither a prestigious nor a particularly prof-
itable craft. Pottery was not widely produced in early
medieval Ireland; indeed, many areas seem to have
been virtually aceramic, apart from small quantities
imported from France and the Mediterranean. In the
northeast, however, coarse hand-made pottery, evoca-
tively but misleadingly known as “souterrain ware,”
was produced from the seventh to eighth centuries until
the twelfth to thirteenth centuries. The vessels are typ-
ically flat-bottomed, bucket-shaped pots, unglazed and
with little decoration. Many were clearly cooking pots,
while others may have been storage vessels. While it
occurs commonly in east Ulster (especially Cos Down
and Antrim), there is no evidence for large-scale or
commercial production of souterrain ware. Its produc-
tion may, indeed, have been entirely a domestic craft.
Ireland’s first commercial pottery industry was proba-
bly established in Dublin in the wake of the English
conquest. Similarities with Ham Green pottery, from
Bristol, suggest that the Dublin industry was estab-
lished, soon after 1171, by Bristol potters. Produced
in a range of vessels such as glazed jugs, cooking pots,
dripping pans, bowls, skillets, and even money boxes,
Dublin pottery was initially hand-made, but from the
early thirteenth century was wheel-thrown. An
extremely productive industry, it continued to function
to the end of the medieval period and beyond. Local
pottery industries were also established in many other
parts of the country in the wakeof the English conquest.
Most were probably based in towns such as Cork,
Waterford, and Kilkenny, but this cannot be established
with certainty until actual production sites are discov-
ered. To date, only Downpatrick and Carrickfergus (and
possibly Drogheda) have produced actual kilns of this
period. Medieval potters also made floor and roof tiles
for churches and other important buildings.Textile Crafts
Textile production was clearly a widespread craft, and
few excavated medieval sites, whether rural or urban,
have failed to produce some evidence—even if only
in the form of the ubiquitous spindle whorl. Spinning
wool into thread was clearly a widespread domestic
craft. Weaving the thread into cloth was, in theory,
more specialized, but evidence for looms (mainly in
the form of loom weights and accessories such as pin