The year 2002 marks Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee, and celebrations
will inevitably include the production of many keepsakes and souvenirs.
This is a well-established custom, as trainee excavators were reminded
last year while digging on the site of St Leonard's Hospital in York.
The site was an ideal training ground for students, interested adults and families who wanted to experience the thrill of discovery and become real archaeologists.
St Leonard's Hospital was built just inside the Roman fortress walls at the end of the 12th century and there are still substantial ruins to be seen. Since the hospital's closure in the 16th century parts of the infirmary and chapel were occupied as a dwelling. This use of the building continued until the early 19th century when the Yorkshire Philosophical Society acquired the site and it became part of the Museum Gardens.
This Victorian landscaped garden re-used some of the stonework from the medieval hospital to form decorative features and walls. These were uncovered during our excavations, together with finds which had been incorporated into the garden soil.
The medallion gives the dates of Victoria's birth (1819), coronation (1837), marriage (1840) and Golden Jubilee (1887). It also incorporates the rose, thistle and shamrock motifs (with apologies, no doubt, to the Welsh).
Perhaps the garden landscaping was part of these older jubilee celebrations and, who knows, perhaps someone left the medallion tucked behind the wall for us to find — the timing could hardly have been better!
If you would like to dig in York in 2002 or just watch the excavations in progress, then click here for more information. If armchair archaeology is more to your taste then follow the progress of these excavations on our web diary at this address:
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