St Leonard's Excavation — the second season

Week 4 3-7 July 2002

Undeterred by some extremely unseasonable and showery weather, work on site proceeded well this week. Some 1,400 visitors, including school parties, have so far been shown around the site. On Sunday the York Cycle of Mystery Plays, performed on moving pageant wagons, could be heard in the distance. It is interesting to think that when the medieval hospital was at its height, the mystery plays were being staged regularly in York.

The first of the building recording courses, under field archaeologist Jane McComish and site director Kurt Hunter-Mann, continued this week. Students learned not only how to carry out practical recording work on the surviving chapel, undercroft and architectural fragments from last season's excavation, but also how to recognise standing buildings of different periods. They were also taught about AutoCad®, a computerised graphics program. Clearly the excavation of structures below the ground is greatly aided by such recording of similar structures above. There are still some places left on the finds and excavation modules, so if you find them interesting, click here to book! Some very appreciative feedback has been received from trainees on this as on other courses on site.

Carol Grainger from York	Kaye Batchelor from New Zealand	Steve Richards from California
'I've loved it on site. I just don't know what I'll do when it comes to an end!'	'This is my second season on site, and I hope I'll be coming back again and again!'	'It's great! Very different from archaeology back home in the USA.'

Trench 1

Sampling and recording in Trench 1

Students taking levels in Trench 1

Work continued in the covered area of the undercroft, identifying floors and a possible room extension associated with the early phase of the hospital. A probable Bronze Age flint thumb scraper was found in some Victorian backfill- an unusual find in York! Also found were Victorian pick-axe marks, which exactly matched modern pick-axe marks, and presumably belonged to our Victorian archaeological precursors. A rich variety of finds continues to be made in the medieval dump deposits adjacent to the medieval drain, and this week they included fragments of Roman painted glass and some hand-made pottery.

Victorian pick-axe marks in Trench 1

Trench 3

Work here continued on the careful excavation of the floor levels of the later, 16th century, phase of the hospital. As well as mortar, stone and silt, considerable quantities of occupation material, including oyster shells, bone and pottery, have been found. A depression in this area is rather tantalising: it may be associated with a hole that had been dug in order to rob material, or it may be the result of subsistence because of an earlier pit. Time alone will tell!

Excavating the 16th century floor surface in Trench 3