Dublin City Archaeological Archvie/ Davis Place (off Francis Street), Dublin 8 (99E0452)

Context

Creator(s): Margaret Gowen and Company

• Administrative History ↴

  Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd., Rath House, Ferndale Road, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin, is a professional archaeological company founded in the early 1980s. The company has carried out a number of archaeological excavations and development-led investigations arising from the requirements of development control and planning process, in line with legal provisions of the Planning and Development Acts (2000) and the National Monuments Acts (1930-2004) and Amendments Acts. The Davis Place Collection is one of many site archives that have been generated through these development-led excavations. The Davis Place site is located immediately north of the Church of St Nicholas of Myra, Francis Street, and had been previously occupied by a rectangular stone school building, which dated from the mid-19th century. The developers, Poet and Lectern Properties, intended constructing a single block of four apartments on the site. The site is bound to the west by the back of Francis Street, to the north by Davis Place, and to the east by the Christian Brothers School. Davis Place is on, or close to, the site of St Francis’s Abbey, founded by Ralph le Porter c. 1233. In 1994, at numbers 34–36 Francis Street, 84 burials were excavated by Alan Hayden. These were associated with medieval pottery and floor tiles, and the excavator suggested that the cemetery represented that of the Franciscan friary (Excavations 1994, 26, 94E0019). Excavations at the Davis Place site followed earlier testing by Malachy Conway (Excavations 1997, 40, 96E0374) and Helen Kehoe (Excavations 1999, 66, 99E0452) which revealed human remains were present on site. The earliest feature revealed was a layer of crushed mortar and masonry, which may represent the debris from construction or demolition. Finds from this layer included coffin fittings/nails, shroud-pins, sherds of 17th-century pottery, clay pipe fragments and two pieces of glazed floor tile. Three grave orientations were apparent from the small number that were excavated. These include a north–south orientation (two individuals), a south-west/north-east orientation (ten individuals) and an east–west orientation (four individuals). It is suggested that inhumations from Burial Phases I and II, which were mainly coffin burials, are likely to date from the 17th century at the latest. The building of the schoolhouse during the mid-19th century provides a terminus ante quem for the cemetery. The southern wall of this schoolhouse cut several of the burials. Approximately 120 clay pipe fragments were recovered, and a dump of kiln waste material with small amounts of malleable unfired white clay was found. A small assemblage of post-medieval pottery was retrieved. Copper-alloy shroud pins, a possible lace tag and a belt-buckle were found in association with the burials. Analysis of the human remains has found that the burials consist of six juveniles, one adolescent, four young adults (17–25 years) and four middle adults (26–45 years). The adults included five males and two females.

• Archival History ↴

  Transferred by Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd. To Dublin City Archives, 16 October 2009

• Immediate Source Acquisition ↴

  Donation