This was an exciting year for the Conservation Department, with a very full work load, several staff changes, and the anticipation of moving into new premises. At Christmas we said goodbye to Erica Paterson who had been with us since1990; at the end of the year, we bade farewell to Julie Jones, who had been with YAT since 1978. Both Julie and Erica contributed enormously to the work of YAT over the years and their specialist knowledge and skills will be greatly missed. Margrethe (Mags) Felter, who was on MSc placement with us for the first half of the year, was engaged on contract as assistant conservator to provide extra help from October onwards.

Despite these changes, the department was able to complete a very full programme of both internal and external work, and the income target was again exceeded. External contracts numbered a record 84 separate projects from 46 different clients, several of whom send us almost all their work. As in previous years, we were fortunate to be able to host a number of excellent students and volunteers whose hard work and enthusiasm were often the key to so much being achieved – we offer them our thanks.

Much time was devoted to the routine assessment of the many finds from the sites excavated by YAT during the year. Of particular note was the mammoth task of X-raying and reporting on the many hundreds of metal finds of all periods from the several seasons' work at the St Leonard’s Hospital training dig.

Conservation staff were also involved in various aspects of the new displays in DIG, both specifying the new display cases and selecting and preparing the finds for exhibition. Much work was also put into drafting text and selecting images for the new interpretation consoles in the Jorvik Viking Centre. In both cases, we were able to explain how conservation skills contribute to the archaeological process, and are very pleased with the results. Also on the display front, a selection of Anglo-Scandinavian finds were prepared for exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, Australia – certainly the furthest that any of YAT’s finds have ever travelled.

We were also obliged to move our ten large outdoor storage tanks of untreated waterlogged wood from York sites which, as chance would have it, were exactly where it was planned to put one of the St Mary’s training dig trenches. This uninspiring job was carried out in good spirit, and provided us the opportunity to review what we have in store.

The many external contracts undertaken during the year comprised the usual eclectic mix of routine assessments for our regular clients and the more unusual and challenging types of work that make the job so interesting. The results of metal-detecting in various guises was prominent during the year, and several large groups of ironwork from the supposed site of the Battle of Fulford receiving radiographic screening. Alas, it was difficult to recognize any material that would help to positively identify the site. Staff also completed the second main part of a contract with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, delivering a number of all-day training sessions to detectorists’ groups around the country, from the far south-west to the north-east. Through these contacts we were able to learn more about what metal-detectorists want and need, and how the best interests of both the detectorist and archaeology may be served.

The investigation and recording of the Ripon Charter Horn made an unusual change from the normal diet of archaeological material. The exercise of dismantling, recording and repairing the horn and its appurtenances was a truly collaborative effort between YAT staff and external specialists and conservators.

The impending move of YAT premises will also include the Conservation Department, so ending 25 years at the Galmanhoe Lane site. It was a strange feeling for the Head of Conservation again to be planning a new lab fit-out, for the fourth time since YAT came into existence in 1972.The new laboratory promises to be by far the best yet, and we look forward eagerly to the new opportunities it will afford for archaeological conservation at YAT.

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