St Leonard's Excavation — the second season

Week 7 24-28 July 2002

As seen on TV!

Cameraman shoots Trench 1 trainees

BBC's Look North visited the site on Wednesday and interviewed staff and trainees who featured in the broadcast on Friday. Perhaps inspired by this, a record 400 people visited the site on Saturday! This week our first trainees from Norway were welcomed, joining those from Canada, USA, New Zealand and UK. The only staff change on site was in Trench 1 where Neil Macnab, who excavated at St Leonard's last year, replaced Toby Kendall, now taking a well-deserved break.

Finds course members washing pottery

As well as taster days and 5- and 10- day excavation modules, the first finds module took place this week, run by YAT finds and conservation staff headed by Ailsa Mainman, YAT Assistant Director. The aim was to give trainees a taste of finds work right through from cleaning and conservation of artefacts to research and integration of research findings with excavation work on site and elsewhere. The importance of long-term survival of material and appropriate accessibility was stressed throughout. Trainees were each given finds from a particular part of the site to work with, and were able to follow the process through with material not yet processed - a rare opportunity! There are one or two places still available on a second finds course from 7-11 August, and anyone interested is urged to book immediately! Those with a particular interest in finds may be interested in YAT's publications on pottery and small finds (The Archaeology of York, vol. 16, nos 1-8, and vol.17, nos 1-15).

…with Steve Allen looking at wood conservation.	…and examining material with Jim Spriggs, Head of Conservation.

Trench 1

Section possibly made up of demolished interval tower material

Good progress was made this week. In the covered undercroft area, a section which may be made up of material from the demolished Roman interval tower was identified and will be excavated over the coming weeks.

Mystery hole at top of picture, with beam slot marked

A beam slot - a narrow trench dug to hold a
horizontal foundation timber - was excavated near last week's mystery hole, and also a thick occupation layer with black deposits of charcoal and ash, medieval pottery and lots of fish bones. Under this was a mortar layer and then stake holes. Excavation has now begun on the formation layer of the early building, that is, the dump deposits upon which it was constructed. Medieval and Roman pottery and some medieval glass have been excavated here.

Outside, trainees began cleaning a section through backfilled deposits of the medieval drain's construction cut. A clay floor within the Roman interval tower was excavated, yielding Roman pottery and glass and animal bone, including pig and cattle teeth and jaw bones. A green tinge to this layer is indicative of organic debris - probably manure - perhaps associated with butchery and almost certainly once rather foul-smelling!

Work also continued on peeling back the layers of the Roman turf rampart. Roman dump material and domestic waste was commonly used to build up ramparts such as this one, rebuilt in the late 2nd century. This week more Roman pottery and animal bone were excavated here, and also an intact oyster shell, a rare find.

Excavating a clay floor within the Roman interval tower in foreground, with medieval drain beyond, followed by trainees cleaning a section of backfill of the drain's construction cut, with work on the foundation layer of the early building beyond.

Trench 3

Amy Stanley excavating the red silty layer beneath the hearth

A good week too in Trench 3, with strong evidence now for in situ metal-working. The hearth was removed, and also a red silty layer, burnt as it was beneath the hearth. Some deposits associated with the hearth were magnetic, representing hammer scale (fragments of metal that fly off during hammering), and other layers of charcoal, the result of burning, were also excavated. Slag too has been found, so all in all, metal-working seems quite likely! A large number of animal bones has also been excavated, suggesting that butchery was practised here. Perhaps this part of the hospital was a functional area with food production and metal-working both carried out.

Recent finds

	Medieval jet die with calcium carbonate inlay
	Bone lucet, formed from the naturally notched ends of a bovine nasal bone, possibly used for thread-twisting
	Painted plaster