Week 11, 15 - 21 September

Sieving on the side of the looming spoilheap.

How time has flown this year. It seems like only yesterday that we were exposing the medieval column base in Trench 3, and Trench 5 was but a twinkle in Toby's eye. Since then we have excavated huge amounts of archaeological deposits, and the spoil heaps from these two trenches in particular are truly enormous. Joining the British trainees on the excavation and our second surveying course of the season were people from the USA and France.

Finds Supervisor Annie Jowett teaching finds care to trainees, with the remains of the 13th century hospital in the background

Surveying in the rain, with the aid of a little shelter!

The survey course, led by Toby Kendall, got off to a cracking start this year with trainees undertaking a contour survey of the Victorian landscaping in the Multangular tower, and learning the skills behind archaeological surveying. At Acomb Grange (see Week 2), they learned the technicalities of geo-physical survey with Prof. Mark Noel of GeoQuest Associates, and found evidence that may tell us more about the medieval grange. Further survey work on-site resulted in the tying in of all of the trenches and the existing grid. A set of permanent markers were then installed, so that next year, the laying out of the grid and the trenches should be easier. Finally, they were trained by Jane McComish in the principles of building recording, identifying building styles and dating them and the recording of architectural fragments. After which, on a tour of York, they were tested on their new found skills to date standing buildings within the city.

Mark Noel putting trainees through their geophysics paces

Now on to the trenches…..

Trench 1

The early Roman rampart under excavation in Trench 1, to the rear of the interval tower wall

The final excavation act in this trench was to peel apart the early Roman turf rampart. No evidence for a cut through these deposits for the construction of the later Roman interval tower wall was found, giving the impression that these deposits had been laid up against the wall; but this would put them much later in the sequence. Instead, it is assumed that the concrete and rubble wall completely filled its construction cut and was therefore built up against the early rampart, leaving no sign of a cut. Except for a couple of tiny fragments of animal bone, no finds were recovered from this feature until a superb fragment of twisted glass vessel stem was found in the lowest of these deposits. Could this be a fragment of an elaborate glass vessel or vase, brought here when the IXth Legion came to York? Hopefully its shape and style should mean that we can date it with some accuracy.

Trench 3

Trench 3, looking south-west: excavating probable post-Roman deposits at the base of the Roman rampart (bottom) and the enigmatic L-shaped feature (top)

After removing the 11th century clay feature last week, investigation has concentrated on further dumps of material below this which have been laid down to the north-east of the Roman rampart. Are these deposits of Viking or even Anglian date? The removal of the clay feature has also completely exposed the fill of the L-shaped slot first revealed in Week 9, and the latter is now under excavation. A rare fragment of marbled yellow Samian pottery of probable 1st or 2nd century date was recovered from deposits excavated this week as well as a Roman coin and a stone bead, which was recovered during environmental processing. When viewed from its north-eastern side, the rampart now looks extremely impressive and it is hoped to get some great photographs of this at the end of next week.

Trench 3, looking north-east: a closer view of the L-shaped slot under excavation

Planning the rear of the Roman rampart	Buckets of spoil from Trench 3 awaiting sieving. There's a stone bead in there somewhere....

....and here it is! (diameter 15mm)

Trench 4

The medieval drain, labelled for the benefit of visitors

As our efforts concentrated on the rampart deposits within Trench 1 this week, little has changed within Trench 4. However, the medieval drain has still been attracting the curiosity of many of the visitors to the site as it is one of the most visible and dramatic looking structures within any of the archaeological trenches at the moment. Attention should return to this trench next week.

Trench 5

After the removal of the edging stones last week, an earlier path within the Yorkshire Philosophical Society's Garden of Antiquities has been revealed. This appears to follow the same alignment as the later path, sweeping across the trench from south to north.

Trench 5: the earliest 19th century path (top) and garden soil (bottom)

Excavating the 19th century garden deposits in Trench 5

The earlier path is composed of compacted layers of sand and gravel, with no evidence for a stone edging. Several deposits to the west of the path, associated with the early 19th century landscaping of the site, have also been tackled this week. One dark layer had been tantalisingly visible in the side of the air-raid shelter cut for some time, and is interpreted as a garden soil that was buried by later landscaping. A very shallow linear feature, cut into the garden soil, was difficult to interpret. Could it indicate the position of a garden bed, or further antiquarian investigations into the site? Or, is it simply just where the passage of feet has worn a shallow hollow into the underlying deposit, as visitors to the garden took a short-cut off the gravel path down into the landscaped area within the Multangular tower? Further work at the north-west end of the air-raid shelter demolition cut revealed a fragment of the southern wall of the Multangular Tower where it projects back into the fortress. This is a very encouraging discovery, and it is hoped we will uncover more of this wall next season.

Roman glass vessel stem from the rampart in Trench 1, 42mm long

An unusual fragment of yellow samian from Trench 3, maximum dimension about 40mm

Two bone counters, also from Trench 3, 15 and 18mm in diameter respectively