As readers will know, the St Leonard's training dig ended last month (September 2001). Looking at the site now you would never know that an excavation had taken place! The excavation involved many people, and a full list, including YAT staff and trainees, is now online..

This first post-excavation update focuses on the initial finds processing. Keen as ever to involve the public, YAT took part in the Family Learning Weekend at York City Library on 13th October 2001. Material found during the excavation was washed, sorted and examined by would-be archaeologists of all ages - from 20 months to 60 something! All who came rolled up their sleeves, donned their gloves and wielded their toothbrushes to great effect.
	Some found traces of past meals, such as animal bone with cut marks and oyster shells; others found pieces of building material ranging from patterned floor tiles to roof tiles and fragments of carved stone; others found pottery ranging from Roman to modern.
All seemed to enjoy the thrill of taking off the final traces of soil to reveal what had been buried just outside the library windows.

Finds Assistants Ben Reeves and Katherine Bearcock with volunteer Ann Kirk working in YAT's finds laboratory.

The 12-week excavation produced a huge number of archaeological finds, evidence which can tell us a great deal about the past inhabitants of the St Leonard's site. These include some 1,500 objects of metal, glass, leather, bone, stone and jet which have been given their own unique numbers. These we refer to as 'small finds', though some are far from small! All have been carefully divided by material type, correctly packaged and documented by Katherine Bearcock and Jon Kenny, the Finds Assistants on site, before being transferred to the Trust's Conservation Laboratories for assessment and urgent conservation.

Aided by a small band of enthusiastic and skilful volunteers, Finds staff have also processed a vast quantity of pottery, animal bone, brick and tile which has been carefully washed and dried, sorted, bagged, boxed and documented. Details about all the finds have been recorded on YAT's Integrated Archaeological Data Base. This networked computerised database will be constantly updated by field staff, researchers, curators and conservators as investigation reveals more about the finds and post-excavation analysis of the site data takes place.

Some of the objects currently being processed…

A collection of pottery from many periods, and a medieval jug handle. All have been washed in plain water with a toothbrush. Detergent is never used as it can leave a residue. Pottery is stable, and requires no further processing. (Click for larger image)
Inscribed bone fragment with rounded end. Only when the object was very gently cleaned, with plain water, did the inscription appear. Once the inscription was discovered washing immediately ceased. Further processing of such delicate bone objects is left to specialist conservation staff.
Chunk of antler which has been sawn, probably to make an object. This will be wet-packed to prevent it from drying out too quickly and cracking.
Horse tibia, unusual as it is whole (such bones are normally found smashed after butchering). This will be dried slowly to prevent the formation of mould, and kept out of the light in a black box. Bones can only be dated easily by reference to their context.
17th /18th century moulded plaster, including lath marks and traces of paint. It has been suggested that they may have come from the demolition of Sir Arthur Ingram's luxurious mansion which stood near York Minster in Dean's Park.