County: Down Site name: DUNDONALD: Church Quarter
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DOW005–038 Licence number: AE/07/119
Author: Ruth Logue and Sarah Gormley, Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork
Site type: Graveyard
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 741731m, N 873886m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.593353, -5.806797
An archaeological evaluation was carried out at St Elizabeth’s Church in Church Quarter, Dundonald. The work was undertaken to investigate the archaeological potential of the area, which is being considered for redevelopment. A trench was opened on the interior of the now disused church building measuring 7.2m by 3.5m and aligned east–west. The 19th-century church is reputedly built on the site of a medieval church and graveyard (DOW005–038) and is adjacent to a motte and possible souterrain (DOW005–036).
The upper stratigraphic layers, which for the most part appeared to be levelling deposits, contained large quantities of disarticulated human remains. These remains are likely to have been a combination of earlier burials originally located within the footprint of the church which were disturbed during its construction and also disturbed burials from other parts of the graveyard.
Below the levelling deposits, and cut into subsoil and redeposited subsoil, were 45 sets of articulated remains. The burials were encountered at c. 0.8m depth at the west of the trench and 1.4m at the east of the trench, below the modern ground level. Not all burials were complete and many were cut through by subsequent inhumations. The burials were both male and female and ranged in age from neo-natal to adults of 40 years and older. There does not appear to have been any preference within the burial-ground regarding biological sex. All of the articulated burials were in the supine position facing east, apart from a juvenile burial, which was interred in a flexed/crouched position.
Two juveniles had been buried with coins; in the first case a coin had been placed in the palm of the left hand and with the second burial the coin was discovered after the cranium was exhumed. Stem fragments of clay pipes were discovered among the fill of two graves. A number of shroud-pins and coffin nails were discovered throughout the excavation. In some cases the latter were still in position surrounding skeletons.
The single burial phase uncovered during the excavation at St Elizabeth’s would appear to be post-medieval in date and it is likely that it post-dates the introduction of clay pipes in around 1600 and pre-dates the 1838 rebuild of the present church.
School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University, Belfast
