Ancient remains of five people uncovered outside Trinity

The ancient remains of at least five people were uncovered during Luas work excavations outside Trinity College last month, according to architects working on the project.

The find suggests that this part of College Green functioned as a cemetery at some point in Dublin's past, according to Rubicon Heritage Services, the company undertaking excavations on behalf of the Railway Procurement Agency.

It has released details of the excavations it undertook after the remains of one person were found 1.5 metres beneath College Green on July 16th. Because this person was situated below the level of post-medieval activity they are likely most likely medieval or earlier in date, it said.

The archaeologists uncovered the remains of at least four more people in the trench after this discovery.

“All bar one of the individuals were positioned in north-south orientated grave cuts, apparently with no grave goods present,” said Rubicon Heritage site director Nikolah Gilligan, who led the excavation. Mr Gilligan said while it was too early to confirm the date of the remains he could not discount that they were Viking due. This is due to Viking activity previously recovered in the area.

At least one of the remains belonged to an adult male and the other belonged to a person under 18 years of age.

The remains will undergo further environmental and osteoarchaeological analysis which will reveal more information about the individuals discovered, their lives, their death and the city at the time they lived in, Rubicon said in a statement,

The remains were uncovered during Luas cross-city works to build tracks linking the existing Red and Green Luas lines through Dublin city centre.