2024:815 - Regles SHD Area A, Dublin

The slot trench cut measured 10.2m in total length from terminal to terminal, it was between 0.3-0.39m in width and it was 0.19m at its maximum depth. The north-eastern terminal of the slot trench was more vertical, and an entrance gap of 1.5m was present between the latter and the south-eastern terminal of the slot trench, which had a gentler slope by comparison. The rear/western third of C.3 was truncated during the archaeological testing of the development site, but enough of the fill (C.4) was present at this location, in an almost imperceptible continuation of C.3, to rule out the presence of second entrance.

The slot trench (C.3) enclosed an internal area 4.1m east-west x 2.6m and no trace of floor surface, hearth or internal features of any kind were present on the interior of the slot trench.

The transitory or temporary nature of the structure at the site was underlined by the lack of internal features such as hearth and the lack of in situ structural evidence, except for the slot trench. So why expend the energy required to construct such a feature and subsequently abandon it? One such possibility could be a rise in the water level, possibly seasonally, at the adjacent paleo-watercourse, which would have prompted the removal of the structure’s walls/roof and the abandonment of the site, something which would also give rise to the fluvially accumulated nature of that feature’s fill. Regarding the lithics, it is of course possible that a prehistoric lithic scatter was already present at this site and that the slot trench feature was cut through the scatter at a later date. Thus, it is suggested that the most likely possible time period which this structure at Regles originated in was the Bronze Age, which would be in keeping with the other sites excavated as part of this development and also the sub-rectangular house which was excavated by Angela Wallace under Licence ref. 03E1113, which returned a date of 2025-1923 BC.