Good news for all budding archaeologists or old hands! Dates for a 2002 training excavation have been ear-marked, and so planning can begin to go ahead in earnest. The excavation will run from 12th June 2002 to 1st September 2002, from Wednesday to Sunday each week. 1- and 2- week and 1- and 2- day taster courses are on offer, together with various visits and talks by YAT staff. There will also be a number of children's days and activities. The excavation will be at the same place as this year's, the St Leonard's medieval hospital site, and digging will continue in trenches partly excavated in 2001.

As those who took part in the project will know, any excavation generates a large paper record, and it is this that we will briefly look at this month. Excavations are painstakingly dug, and just as painstaking is the recording that must accompany this in order that archaeologists and students alike can pore over the work long after the site has been backfilled. The St Leonard's excavation produced approximately:

• 600 single-context cards (i.e. cards recording a discrete feature or layer)
• 1,000 single-context plans
• 27 soil sample sheets
• 1,450 small finds records
• 400 photographs
• 150 levels sheets

The records are currently being digitised so that the excavation data can be manipulated by computer (more about this later). The site records will go on to be analysed in order to produce a detailed report on the excavations. The records themselves are stored in acid-free boxes and kept in temporary storage in the Trust's Archive; eventually, when space can be made available, we hope that the records will be stored in a central York depository. All paper records are still microfiched to provide a security copy and a copy for the National Monuments Record. There will be a full entry about the site on YAT's electronic Archive Gazetteer database which is available for public consultation. This gives site details and abstract, periods and features, finds listings and eventual publication references, all linked to a location map of York. On-line public access to all of YAT's site records themselves should eventually be available.

Post-excavation work on other material is proceeding apace. The finds processing work continues, with all the pottery now washed, and all the bulk finds bagged. Small finds from the site cleaned recently include the following interesting items:

	Samian sherd. Part of the maker's mark can be seen stamped inside, with some sort of scratched inscription or graffiti on the base.
	Copper alloy fitting, possibly a chape (tip) for a scabbard to protect it from the tip of the weapon.
	Three pieces of a decorated pipe stem which, on cleaning, were found to fit together. Inscribed 'FABRIQUER IN GOUDA' and decorated with swirls, leaves and grapes.Click here to see the whole pipe stem.