St Leonard's Excavation — the second season

Week 12 28 August -1 September 2002

The final week!!

An aerial view of the site taken this week. Trench 3 is in the foreground.

A sad week, this week, as the 2002 season at St Leonard's came to an end. 13,400 people had visited the excavation, over 2,000 more than last year, and many others followed progress via the web diary and press. The last batch of trainees this week brought to some 200 the number of students on taster days and excavation modules, and on the new building recording and finds and environmental courses. Feedback on all the courses has been very positive, variously described as 'brilliant', 'wonderful' and 'fantastic'. One returnee described the experience of a second season on site as 'like going home' and another trainee wrote that 'If I didn't already have a career as an astronomer I'd be enthused to start one as an archaeologist!' One student made special mention of Toby Kendall, writing that his 'commitment to showing us most pubs in York was much appreciated by those with a genuine interest in the architectural features of these fine establishments …'!

Trench 1

The final week saw further excavation of the dump deposits in the covered area of the undercroft. These yielded a good array of finds including Roman coins, a bone button, a bead and another copper alloy brooch. It seems that evidence for the south-east wall of the Roman interval tower, sought during the excavation, has finally been found! Directly aligned with the extant south-east wall outside the trench was found what appears to be a robber trench, i.e. a trench from which the stones have been removed. It was unfortunate that this was discovered during the last few days of digging, and more work is needed to confirm such identification. Clearly excavation here has by no means been exhausted, and considerable work remains for a subsequent season. Evidence for two early phases of hospital building has already been found in this part of Trench 1, and post-excavation work may well uncover more phases. Analysis of environmental samples may also cast light on the function of these buildings.

Outside, a section along the whole length of Trench 1 was cleaned down. This yielded an exciting collection of finds including Victorian window lead, medieval copper alloy objects and Roman pottery- material in fact reminiscent of similar levels excavated in other parts of the site.

Also outside, more finds, including wood and leather, were excavated from the waterlogged deposits at the bottom of the medieval drain cut. The means of construction of the medieval drain proved most interesting this week. It is now clear that a ditch ran alongside the drain while it was being constructed in c.1250. This may have been because other hospital buildings needed waste to be drained away while construction of the main drain took place, or could have been to provide an additional drain or sump during construction itself if the site had been particularly wet.

Cleaning back a section along the length of Trench 1

A further puzzle emerged during work on the Roman interval tower where a strange linear feature appeared below both the interval tower and the rampart, aligned with neither tower nor wall. It may relate to a building or drainage, and may be early Roman or even prehistoric- only further excavation or post-excavation work will provide the answers.

Saxa quadrata stones on the interval tower wall and the dividing wall to the left, with concrete foundations below.

The construction of the interval tower itself was further investigated this week. The Roman concrete raft upon which the concrete slab and then interval tower wall stood was measured at 70cm deep, providing a suitably massive foundation for what would have been a very large building. Further cleaning and analysis of the saxa quadrata stones of the interval tower dividing wall revealed a very interesting crossed mason's mark, a rare find on such stones.

Work on the rampart was completed this week. Underneath its build-up layers was found the typical discolouration of a corduroy layer, i.e. a raft of horizontal timbers which would have given the rampart a base- a satisfactory end after all the weeks of peeling back individual layers!

Trench 3

A further charcoal layer and more stake holes associated with the hearth area were excavated during this last week, and a hearth bottom (waste from the base of the furnace) was found. Work also continued on the foundations of the column base still positioned in the trench, revealing a pit of mortared rubble underneath the column base, topped by limestone blocks around it. The relationship between this column base and the early hospital floor was also investigated.

Trainees excavating a charcoal layer in Trench 3

Considerable progress was made this season in understanding the complex archaeology in this trench, and hospital construction, hearth, levelling, floor and dump levels were painstakingly recorded. The Roman finds that were unearthed each week came from the Roman rampart which had been partly dismantled and spread over the area excavated in order to provide a flat surface upon which to build the hospital. An intervallum road and Roman buildings may lie alongside the Roman rampart, but because of the complexity of the work this year, the excavation did not get past the medieval layers. Thus here again much more excavation work needs to be carried out during a subsequent excavation.

So what happens now?

Backfilling will take place next week, and soon the site will be transformed from bustling public dig to its previous garden tranquillity. Post-excavation work will continue, and those interested will be able to read about this in our monthly web updates. A web discussion group has been set up, and views on any aspect of the excavation are warmly welcomed. We hope to be able to run a similar excavation next year. Details of any such excavation and associated courses will be posted on this web page.

So keep logging on, but, for now, goodbye!!

Some images of 2002 season at St Leonard's

Please click on any of the following images to see a larger version.

	Jane McComish and building recording course students
	Washing material on the finds course
	Finds course students in the take a closer look
	Ben Reeves briefs excavation trainees whilst being filmed by BBC's Look North
	Engrossing work during a children's activity day
	Russell Marwood and visitors on National Archaeology Day
	Comitatus re-enactors in full cry
	Some of the record number of visitors to the site this year.