The Friends of Medieval Dublin is a study group whose aim is to increase knowledge about, and promote public interest in, medieval Dublin. The first of a proposed series of annual public symposia was held in Trinity College, Dublin, in April 1999, with the general object of bringing together experts and enthusiasts, professional and amateur alike, who share an interest in the archaeology of medieval Dublin, the artefacts retrieved as a result of excavation, and the history of the city and its hinterland. The more specific object is to provide a forum for dissemination of the results of recent important excavations in and around the medieval city.The papers published here include a major synthesis of the findings of archaeological investigations in the city over the last four decades (Linzi Simpson). There are reports on individual excavations in the city ditch at Cornmarket and Bridge Street (Alan Hayden), exciting discoveries associated with the Abbey of St Thomas the Martyr (Claire Walsh), Anglo-Norman houses from Back Lane (Tim Coughlan), and riverfront activity in the north-west corner of the medieval town at Usher's Quay (Leo Swan). Artefactual studies include a reclassification of the medieval pottery assemblage (Clare McCutcheon) and a catalogue of medieval brooches and finger-rings from the Dublin excavations (Mary Deevy and Christine Baker), while history and archaeology are interwoven in an examination of Dublin's economic relations with its hinterland in the Viking Age (Mary Valante.
