2003:527 - DUBLIN: 7–8 Eden Quay, Dublin

Testing was undertaken in advance of development in January 2003. The existing 19th-century basements were found to have removed even the late 17th/early 18th-century slobland infill formerly present on the site and cut directly into underlying river gravels. Trenches achieved a depth of 0.15–0.2m OD before they began to flood. No significant archaeology was found.

Excavations by Christine Baker nearby in the centre of O’Connell Street have indicated that the former quay wall associated with the Amory grant of 1675 was located along the alignment of the south edge of what is today The Lotts (No. 561, Excavations 2003). A jetty or pier of a similar late 17th/early 18th-century date extended south from the quay wall some 14.5m. The Eden Quay site lies entirely south of the former line of the quay and even of any jetties that may have existed nearby (if they had, they would now lie north of Harbour Court). The implication of the synthesis of results from these and other archaeological work suggests that (contra some map and document-based studies) the present Bachelors Walk is not in the location of the 17th-century toponym, and that the name migrated south with the later extension of the quay.

In November 2003, a human skull was recovered from the river gravels during bulk excavation, at a depth of approximately 2m OD. A handful of other 13th–18th-century finds were also recovered from the gravels between 2m and 3.5m OD, including a medieval Saintonge potsherd, assorted late 17th/early 18th-century finds (c. 1660–80 clay-pipe bowl, base sherd of a North Devon gravel-tempered footed pipkin, base sherd of a small black-glazed earthenware posset cup) and a few fragments of butchered-animal bone. Denise Keating undertook analysis of the skull, which is from a probable male of 18–25 years. There is evidence of calculus (mineralised plaque) on the teeth, as well as some evidence of developmental stress (‘Harris lines’ caused by poor diet/starvation, illness, etc.) at two unspecified times during childhood, probably before the age of seven. Taphonomically, the skull exhibited characteristics in accordance with its discovery in riverine deposits, and there is a reasonable possibility that it had travelled some distance with currents of tidal flow. There is no evidence to indicate where the skull originated, or its date, although a late 17th/early 18th-century date seems most likely, on the basis of the riverine depositional sequence and the dates of quayside development on and close to the site.

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