2011:233 - SMITHFIELD, Dublin

This monitoring licence was extended into 2011 to cover Phases 2 and 3 of the Smithfield Quarter Enhancement Scheme, which effectively continued the relaying of street setts and the provision of new street lighting at the southern end of Smithfield and along Bow Street and May Lane, as far as Church Street. The historical background and initial monitoring works have been reported in Excavations 2010, no. 295.
Groundworks at the southern end of Smithfield were not sufficiently deep to uncover much of archaeological interest. Fragments of several 18th-century structures, demolished towards the end of the 19th century, were nonetheless recorded and identified on the basis of the OS mapping of the area. Monitoring to the rear of St Michan’s on Bow Street failed to record any deposits relating to the church or graveyard. It was found that much of the street had been dug up in recent years, leaving no areas undisturbed.
On May Lane, the deeper excavation of a foul water drain disturbed what was identified as burial soil relating to the original northern extent of St Michan’s graveyard. May Lane itself seems to have developed from the 1680s, and two burials recovered from the trench alignment obviously pre-date its development. The burials were located adjacent to a large development excavated by Giles Dawkes, where a total of 224 articulated skeletons and disarticulated skulls were recovered, including infant and juvenile burials and numerous wooden coffins (Excavations 2006, no. 606, 139–40, 06E574). Rosanne Meenan may have recorded the northern edge of the church enclosure further to the north some years previously (Excavations 1997, no. 114, 37, 96E384).
The two individuals recovered can be dated to the second half of the 17th century on the basis of pottery and clay pipe fragments recovered from the burial soil. The first had lost its upper body perhaps in the 19th century, leaving the legs and the hands resting below where the pelvis had been. The second body was that of a child, perhaps four or five years of age, who had been carefully covered in a shroud before being placed in the coffin. The timber and shroud material did not survive, but the tiny shroud-pins had transferred their copper patina onto the cranium and the ribs, with another pin located just below the pelvis. The hands had been placed on the pelvis, the thumbs and forefingers poignantly forming a diamond shape where the tips made contact. The gradient of the trench was adjusted to avoid disturbing further burials.
Further monitoring on Haymarket recorded a large brick-vaulted cellar extending from the modern local authority housing on the southern side. This can be associated with a building depicted on Rocque’s map (1756), which had been removed by the time of the initial works undertaken for the Ordnance Survey (c. 1837–8).

Archaeology and Built Heritage, 79 Queen Street, Dublin 7