St Leonard's Excavation — the second season

Week 1 12-16 June 2002

Welcome to the 2002 season at St Leonard's! As the World Cup in Korea/Japan reached the knock-out stage, most people in England were thinking about burying the Danes, whereas we in York were thinking about digging them up! Although this year's excavations should reveal Roman and medieval remains, the one thing about an archaeological excavation is that you can never quite tell what you will find. (In the event, 3-0 to England!)

The excavation is again led by Kurt Hunter-Mann as site director, with field archaeologists Toby Kendall and Ben Reeves on Trenches 1 and 3 respectively, and Katherine Bearcock on finds. Trench 2, fully excavated in 2001, will not be re-opened up this year.

The excavation started in traditional manner with an official opening by the Lord Mayor, Councillor David Horton, accompanied by the Lady Mayoress. No sooner had the Lord Mayor declared the site open than he found himself on his knees, wielding a trowel, alongside the excavation's first batch of trainees. We extend a warm welcome to all our trainees, including Pat Lomax, Brian West and New Zealander Kaye Batchelor who have returned for a second session on site.

Richard Hall, Deputy Director of Y.A.T., invites the Lord Mayor to open the excavation	…and the Lord Mayor with archaeologist Ben Reeves and trainees in Trench 3

Trench 1

Trench 1 was cleaned back to the level reached at the end of last year's excavation, re-exposing the familiar medieval drain and Roman interval tower. It was like welcoming back old friends! In the undercroft area, reserved this season for taster courses, work began on a series of enigmatic holes which may be post-holes for timbers associated with the construction of the undercroft. Excavating in the undercroft area, with possible post-holes clearly exposed

Trench 3

Returning trainees Pat Lomax, left, and Kaye Batchelor clean back Trench 3

Again the trainees cleaned back to where work ended last year, and then began investigating the medieval floor and occupation layers. We hope to unearth the rampart of the early Roman fortress, first seen last season, the intervallum road, which would have run inside the fortress, and perhaps a Roman building - but what happened here between the Roman period and the founding of the medieval hospital? A complete mystery so far. The main tension of the week came on Sunday afternoon, but unfortunately Ireland went out of the World Cup after a penalty shoot-out.

	A rare Roman bone button-and-loop fastener, with an iron rivet attaching top to bottom, found on the site in 2001 and awaiting conservation. It was probably used to hold together pieces of fabric, leather or woven textile. The loop was either sewn into a fabric base or attached to it by a thong.
	Medieval pottery found on site this week.