Week 3

The weather held good for most of the week with one or two downpours dampening the soil - but not the spirits of either the excavators or the visitors. The acquisition of a shelter for Trench 5 further bolstered the morale of the trainees and staff! Even on the wettest days visitors donned boots and waterproofs and came to watch progress from under their umbrellas. Despite the rain, the summer season is clearly upon us as we have been welcoming many visitors from the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Japan as well as a steady flow of tourists from all around the UK. The number of visitors to the site topped 3000.

A busy day in Trench 3, under cover from the rain

In Trench 3 we continued to investigate the Roman rampart levels where the build up of layers has become more complicated; even individual bucket-loads of spoil can be identified. In Trench 5 work continued to expose the line of the wall of the Multangular Tower which had been extensively robbed. Much of this work involves re-examining the trench dug in the 1920s. This trench was found to have cut through a slightly curving 19th century trench, further complicating the stratigraphy in Trench 5.

The 20th century trench (with orange sand fill) under excavation in Trench 5

In the latter part of the week the medieval drain, previously unearthed in Trench 2, was exposed in Trench 4. The next task will be to de-turf the area where Time Team had a small excavation in 1999, revealing the steps down to the World War 2 air raid shelter.

One of the regular school parties carrying out archaeological activities, under cover in the medieval undercroft

Once again trainees have come from all over the world to join us this summer. We have students from Australia, Taiwan, the United States and from Germany - so word of the training opportunities in York is clearly spreading.

There were few finds of especial interest this week but a steady flow of the typical pottery, building material and animal bone will all eventually contribute to our understanding of this complex site in the heart of the ancient city.

	Roman Samian pottery with part of the stamp of the maker, Perpetuus of Eastern Gaul. Late 2nd to early 3rd century (maximum dimension 40mm)
Fragment of decorated clay tobacco pipe (30mm long)	Bone Counter (20mm diameter)