2003:467 - PELLETSTOWN AND CABRAGH, Castleknock, Dublin

During monitoring of topsoil-stripping (see No. 466, Excavations 2003), three unenclosed human inhumation burials were discovered on the Pelletstown East site. Topsoil removal was halted to allow a geophysical survey, undertaken by Jo Leigh and John Nicholls (03R149), to determine the nature and extent of the human remains. The geophysics results did not indicate that the burials were part of a larger cemetery, and soil stripping recommenced to expose the full extent of the archaeology.

On foot of recommendations for appropriate mitigation, excavation was undertaken, in November–December 2003, of the c. 25m by 35m site. It revealed two additional graves: a juvenile burial at the foot of the main adult grave, and a stone-lined west–east juvenile grave immediately to the north. A topsoil finds collection strategy has allowed a fourth adult individual, who survived only as a few bones from the main 5m grid and the grid immediately east and downhill of the primary adult grave, to be identified during specialist post-excavation work. There was no other archaeology (no enclosure, etc.), apart from post-medieval/modern plough furrows. The site was very heavily truncated for a number of reasons: intensive ploughing by an ‘improvement’-minded landlord at Pelletstown House at some time in the past 250 years; engineering works associated with the construction of the Royal Canal in the last decade of the 18th century and the first quarter of the 19th century; and landscaping that accompanied renovations on the Pelletstown House demesne after c. 1870 (and in the late 19th/early 20th centuries). Excavation associated with the 18th- and 19th-century ironworks nearby at Cardiff’s Bridge (SMR 14:74) also scarped the hillside east and north-east of the site, and exhaustive illegal metal detecting that has apparently been taking place in Pelletstown townland for perhaps the last decade (NMI, pers. comm.) may have further impacted on the excavation site.

The main south–north stone-lined, probably supine, burial survived only from the proximal tibiae down, although a concentration of cervical vertebrae, cranial fragments and teeth recovered from the topsoil directly downslope from the head end of the grave is likely to be from the burial. The trapezoidal grave ‘box’ (1.95m north–south by 0.75m by 0.12m deep), as it survived, was boulder-edged, with overlapping planar stone slabs forming its base. A metalled layer (2.57m north–south by 1.48m) along the east and south ends of the grave box also extended partly beneath it. No candidates for lintel stones were found in the area of excavation. The first juvenile burial survived only barely, in a shallow pit (0.54m across by 0.12m deep) at the north end of the main adult grave, possibly on its left side in a flexed or partially flexed position, head to the south or south-west. Only the dorsal 0.04m of the second juvenile, probably supine, burial survived 1.1m north of the adult grave, with the remains of thin planar slabs lining part of the grave’s south and west edges. Only dorsal cranial fragments and a single tooth survived, and the burial (0.75m west–east by 0.47m) was missing from the midriff down (no innominates).

Together, the different aspects of the main adult burial and the metalled surface around and beneath the grave box indicate the manner in which this grave was constructed. The dimensions of the latter surface would appear to mark the extent of the former grave-cut, whose base was backfilled, levelled and metalled before the edge stones of the grave box were positioned against the west and north sides of the cut. The planar base slabs of the grave box seem to have been laid after the edge stones were already in place, and were positioned from south (head end, demarcated by a possible pillow-stone) to north, overlapping in a manner analogous to the laying of modern roof slates. It is unclear whether either the adult grave or the second juvenile burial had roof lintels, although again no stone that suggested such a purpose was found near either burial.

Specialist analysis of the bones, undertaken by Denise Keating, was unable to sex any burials. Other data relating to age estimates and size must remain tentative, on the basis of the poor preservation/incompleteness of the skeletal remains. The adult is likely to have been at least seventeen/eighteen years old at time of death and perhaps much older (on the basis of the presence of two dental caries near the root). The individual was at least 5’4”/5’5” tall. The skull of this individual exhibited a number of non-metric cranial traits, but no similar traits could be looked for on the other burials, due to their poor preservation/incompleteness. The adult had suffered major trauma to its left knee/shin, with evidence for a severe infection and subsequent healing. The most probable explanation is that the individual suffered a compound fracture of the left lower leg. The bones had knit after the complications of a serious bone infection, and evidence of wear and arthritis may indicate that the person survived for some time after the injury. In this context, it is intriguing to note that the bones (from the putative fourth individual/second adult) found in the topsoil are foot bones. The first juvenile burial yielded an age bracket of between six and twelve years at time of death. The second juvenile was between six and fifteen years of age. ‘Harris lines’ on the tooth from the second juvenile suggest a period of developmental stress sometime between the ages of two and seven.

No finds were recovered from the burials and dating must await radiocarbon analysis, but, on the basis of typological characteristics, a provisional time bracket of the 2nd to 7th centuries AD seems most likely (after O’Brien 1992). It seems probable that the main adult burial pre-dates the others, with the first juvenile burial truncating the foot of the slab-lined grave. The second juvenile may also be later, but is unlikely to be significantly so, due to its spatial proximity and orientation with respect to the adult grave. The implication is that some sort of visible landscape feature demarcated the adult grave, such that the later two burials could be inserted into the ground nearby. At least two of the burials may be pre-Christian or early Christian (O’Brien 1992), with a number of analogies at other isolated grave and cemetery sites in north County Dublin (e.g. Mount Gamble, Swords; see O’Donovan, No. 668, Excavations 2003). The post-excavation addition of a second adult to the minimum number of individuals raises the possibility that the badly truncated burials may represent the remains of a small unenclosed (nuclear?) family cemetery.

Reference
O’Brien, E. 1992 Pagan and Christian burial in Ireland in the first millennium AD: continuity and change. In N. Edwards and A. Lane (eds), The archaeology of the early church in Wales and the West, 130–7. Oxford.

2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin