County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: St Mark’s Church, Pearse Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU018-020347- Licence number: 03E0659
Author: Eoin Halpin, Archaeological Development Services
Site type: Burial
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 716444m, N 734159m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.344829, -6.251216
In May 2003, the excavation of five test-pits was undertaken in the eastern churchyard of St Mark’s Church. The church building is registered as a protected structure by Dublin City Council. Each pit measured 2m by 2m. A toothless grading bucket was used to remove the urban overburden and to excavate each test-pit to the depth at which archaeological deposits were identified. No excavation of human remains took place during the testing operation. For each test-pit, the archaeological level encountered was cleaned back by hand, photographed, recorded and then the pit backfilled with fresh hardcore stone.
St Mark’s Church is on low-lying ground that would have been marshy and subject to sporadic flooding. This land was probably reclaimed some time between the 17th and 18th centuries during the eastwards expansion of Dublin city. Cartographic and historical analysis suggests that, before the establishment of St Mark’s parish in 1708, the site was open ground. Maps show that the boundary of the churchyard has remained constant from the early 18th century to the present.
Deposits containing human remains were encountered in each of the test-pits at depths ranging from 2.053m OD to 1.442m OD.
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