Trench 1
In Trench 1 this week the majority of excavation was concentrated in the deeper slot across the middle of the trench. Within this slot a number of clay layers were removed, below which was found a dark soil with a layer of cobbles underneath; possibly the ‘dark earth’ that appears to indicate the end of the late Roman period in York. The removal of backfill layers of the linear cut feature also continued this week. Work also continued on either side of the slot, cleaning back the existing deposits but not excavating any features. The finds from Trench 1 have continued to be mainly medieval, with some Viking and Roman artefacts also being found.

Trench 3
The removal of the post-medieval dark soil within the interval tower last week uncovered a substantial layer of clay. Work this week therefore concentrated on the removal of this deposit, under which a wall was discovered. The position of this wall, running across the interval tower, shows that the tower was inserted into the wall after its construction, as some of the wall had been removed. This trench is almost finished now, and little more excavation work will be done during the next week.

Trench 4
During the course of week 11 in Trench 4 the final few layers from the medieval tile-on-edge hearth were removed. Their removal uncovered two different deposits, a mortar dump to the south and a black charcoaly layer to the north. Within the mortar deposit a stake hole and a posthole were found, both of which are now almost totally removed. It now appears that there is a levelling deposit lying across much of the trench, which will be the focus of next weeks work.

Trench 5
This week, work in Trench 5 concentrated on emptying out a large pit of unknown use. The pit has been roughly dated to the medieval period by the presence of green glazed pottery in the backfill. Also this week, a small slot was cut to investigate a pebbly layer seen in the cut for the concrete underpinning of the abbey precinct walls. This was done to compare the pebbly deposit in Trench 5 with the similar layers in Trenches 1 and 7. Finds this week, along with the medieval green glazed pottery from the pit backfill, included several pieces of unworked jet.

Trench 7
More cobble layers were found and excavated in Trench 7 this week. These layers differed from previous ones in that they were much more compact, they were less disturbed and fewer late finds were evident in them. This solid mass of cobbles looks very similar to the way a Roman road would be constructed, although as it is flat it is possible that it is a street rather than an actual road. The finds from the trench this week confirm that Roman layers have been reached: all finds being Roman in date. A small copper alloy coin was also found.

Trench 9
A large circular feature was revealed in Trench 9 this week. The backfill of this was then removed. As yet, we do not know what this feature is. The circular feature was found below an unknown layer, which contained numerous small lumps of unworked jet, similar to the pieces found in Trench 5.

Trench 10
Work at the beginning of this week concentrated on the removal of garden soil layers. This revealed two mortar layers, one of which produced large limestone stones. These are possibly part of an original buttress for the precinct wall, lost when the tower was destroyed during the civil war of the post-medieval period. Under the other mortar layer a wall made of reused bricks was discovered. This wall ran parallel to the precinct wall, and then turned to join it. Incorporated into this wall was a large masonry block, very similar to the limestone blocks of the standing wall. Finds this week from Trench 10 included several musket balls, one of which was semi-circular indicating that it had been fired and hit something.

Trench 11
After being opened last week, work in Trench 11 stopped fairly quickly. It was decided that there was too much to do on the rest of the site to properly excavate another trench.