1990:048 - DUBLIN: 9-12 High Street, Dublin

This short report outlines the results of excavation which was carried out for, and financed by the owner, Mr Johnathan Moss, in advance of a planning application for an extension to the office accommodation on the site.

Excavation was carried out in a cutting measuring approximately 8m x 5m between 14 April and 8 June 1990. The excavation was undertaken to clear the particular area in question for three basement car parking spaces which will underlie part of a proposed extension to the north of the existing building. Because of the depth of the deposits the excavated area had to be stepped inwards during excavation by approx. 1m all round for safety reasons.

The northern limit of the excavated area had been subject to previous archaeological investigation, under the direction of Declan Murtagh, in 1989 (Excavations 1989, 24) when excavation of a 2m-wide trench for the foundation of a large retaining wall revealed archaeological deposits.

The site is most easily interpreted in five 'levels' of pre-Victorian features which represent a continuous sequence of deposition and activity dating from the late 11th to the early 13th century.

The latest excavated 'level' (Level 5) is represented by the substantial foundations, and a very tiny portion of the cobbled floor, of a masonry structure which both cut into and truncated the deposits beneath it. The walls are 1m wide and the foundations, cut through to boulder clay, survived to a height of over 1.2m. This dates from the 13th century.

Levels 1-4 represent activity at the northern boundary of properties which presumably fronted onto the post-Norman High Street. The actual sequence of east-west property divisions of post and wattle were revealed in Levels 2-A.

The organic build up in the area to the south of the property boundary represents an unbroken sequence of deposition/dumping of organic, manure-like, waste into which numerous cess-pits were dug at different times. The pits were all circular or sub-circular, vertical or steep-sided with flat or gently rounded bases, up to 1.6m-2m in diameter/max. width and 1.8m in depth. None of the pits were lined but there was a suggestion in the upper fill of some examples that they may have been sealed by layers of straw or similar, dry, organic material. Several had light post and wattle walls surrounding them, presumably to prevent animals or infants from falling into them.

A portion of just one possible post and wattle structure, of an unsophisticated nature, was revealed at Level 3 in association with evidence for its roof. The latter was a very characteristic sod deposit which contained broken roofing scallops and fragments of a rough lattice of fine wattles which formed the bedding onto which the sods were pinned.

The deposits to the north of the property boundary consisted of layers of mineral soil, some with a high organic content, but quite unlike those within the properties. Interleaved with these layers were substantial midden deposits of shell. (While shell was found within many of the layers inside the properties the amounts were not very substantial and all were dispersed into the deposits in which they occurred.)

The finds
A range of artefacts dating from the late 11th and early 12th centuries were recovered from the pre-Level 5 organic layers and pits, and a range of locally produced and imported 13th-century pottery together with a plain bronze pin were recovered from the foundation trench for the masonry structure on Level 5.

The early post-Norman dating for the organic deposits has been based on the retrieval of very early medieval pottery (North French, from the Caen area) in Level 4 and from one complete shoe recovered from Level 2 which apparently can be dated to the late 11th/early 12th century.

The other finds from pre-Level 5 deposits include a range of polished bone pins, a bronze kidney-headed pin, three decorated bone comb fragments of Class FII type, a fragment of a circle-and-dot decorated casket mount, an amber ring fragment, a glass ring, several fragments of binding strips from wooden stave-built vessels, one of which is very well preserved. Also found were a few offcuts of leather, fabric fragments including some roughly woven twill, some rough hide fragments, a large quantity of animal bone, some fish and bird bone and an array of well-preserved insect larvae and plant remains. A peculiar find from one pit was a fragment of the frontal orbital portion of a human skull. No other human remains were found.

A small range of post-medieval artefacts were also retrieved from the initial clearance of the site.

5 St. Catherine's Road, Glenageary, Co. Dublin