2016:652 - Wolfe Tone Park, Jervis Street, Dublin 1, Dublin

The manual excavation of two trenches was monitored to accommodate water and electrical services to a restored Lisbon tram which has been converted into a coffee shop on site. The site had been subject to three previous phases of archaeological investigation prior to the monitoring under discussion.

Engineering test pits monitored by Helen Kehoe in 1998 indicated that there survived in situ human remains at 0.7m below the then ground surface. As it is likely that the pre-development ground level was at least 0.3m higher than the present level, this would indicate the presence of articulated remains at c. 1m, well below the 0.4m maximum penetration of the trenches under discussion.

The writer opened several test trenches in the graveyard prior to the redevelopment of the park by Dublin Corporation in 2000 (Excavations 1999:238). Although ground levels have changed, disarticulated human remains were recorded at between 0.45 — 0.8m below the then ground level, with buried grave slabs present at 0.8m suggesting in situ burials directly underneath. At one location undisturbed subsoil was recorded at 0.92m below the present surface, suggesting that the burials are all cut into the natural.

A second scheme for the park’s redevelopment was undertaken by the writer (Excavations 2001:387) and included the hand excavation of a small area in the south-eastern corner of the park to facilitate the laying of deeper services. Here in situ grave slabs were located at 5.68m OD with articulated human remains located at between 5.16m OD and 5.33m OD.

There is no indication that individual graves were disinterred or indeed disturbed during any of the more recent works, however c. 150 years of burial practice in a busy city parish would possibly indicate that there is a considerable density of inhumation on site. Indeed Whitelaw witnessed as early as 1798 that ‘in order to make room for others, bodies [in St Mary’s graveyard] were taken up in absolute state of putrefaction, to the great and very dangerous annoyance of the vicinity’ (1805, 61).

The development involved the hand-excavation of two trenches with a maximum penetration of 0.4m below the existing ground level. Trench 1 extended from a point at the western end of the tram’s eventual location for 10.8mm in a north-westerly direction. From here it ran west for a distance of 3.5m between two ex situ gravestones, returning north for another 5m just inside the foundation of the boundary wall of the graveyard, which was removed c. 2000. The trench measured 0.3m in width and maintained a depth of 0.4m. The initial 6m north-south section encountered the backfill of a robber trench, presumably excavated to remove the graveyard boundary wall. The foundation course of the wall was occasionally exposed at a depth of 0.3m in the east-facing section, however it was possible to position the mains water ducting without further disturbing the masonry. Where the full width of the wall was not recorded, it was built from calp limestone rubble and was not faced on its eastern side. The backfill material did not constitute redeposited burial soil, which is usually identifiable by its dark colour and the presence of fragmented human bone, but was a mixed material containing modern bottle glass. The trench was brought between two ex situ gravestones, positioned with the inscription facing upwards. Here it cut a deposit of crushed Clause 804 material, presumably inserted to support the gravestones, just clipping the upper surface of a stiff grey/brown clay at 0.38m below the surface. The main section of the trench extended from here back towards the proposed location of the tram, cutting through the modern surface and the modern fill below for the initial 0.3 — 0.35m. At a point 7.5m south-east for 1.7m, a stiff brown clay was truncated by the trench by 0.08m. This cannot be described as burial soil, however it is likely to predate the modern landscaping. A single sherd of factory-banded slipware was recovered which probably dates to the first half of the 19th century.

A second trench was excavated over a similar length to a depth of 0.25m and a width of 0.15m, extending from the eastern end of the proposed tram location and returning back to the south-eastern corner along the diagonal line of paved surface. At the southern end of the park it ran for 4m in front of stacked gravestones. This travelled over Trenches 1 and 3 opened in 2001, where the human remains were left in situ and protected with burial soil, plastic sheeting, plywood and pea gravel. These were located at between 0.52m and 0.55m below the then surface, which does not appear to have changed at this specific location in the intervening period. The trench cut through and did not penetrate the modern surface for most of its extent along the diagonal line of paving. In any event, an existing duct ran along the projected line of the trench and the area had been disturbed as a result. Where it ran along the line of gravestones it cut through the fill of an existing pipe trench, which had been placed within the trench in which the stones were repositioned. Here a fragment of a child’s rib was recovered just under the present surface; this was reburied in the soil below the soffit of the ducting.

The development did not impact on any burials, where the minimum depth possible was achieved across the site. On the basis of the archaeological information available, it is likely that in situ burials occur from a depth of c. 0.8m below the present surface, where it would possibly be unwise in the future to consider truncating deposits below 0.7m.

Reference:

Whitelaw, J. 1805. ‘An essay of the population of Dublin being the result of an actual survey taken in 1798, with great care and precision, and arranged in a manner entirely new’. Dublin.

Archaeology and Built Heritage, St. Paul’s Smithfield, Dublin 7