Archaeology Live! 2007 - Site Diary (Weeks 1-6)

[Toby]

WEEK 1

The training dig started this Monday with dark skies overhead, but lots of good archaeology to record and excavate. What was quite surprising is just how much we got done, even though the forecast was not brilliant.

Work began in the three main areas in the section of the trench that we are excavating (east, central and west). Many veterans of previous archaeology Live! projects are going to be surprised just how much space there is on site.

Ian was working in the east section with trainees and they began clearing away the remainder of a thick horticultural layer which has been almost completely been excavated already. Below this a series of medieval pits started to show up in detail. In the central section Elena and placements began dismantling the last of the 18th-19th century walls which had been constructed into the horticultural layer of soil. Ben began work in the west section cleaning over the top of a complicated sequence linked with medieval buildings.

In the area Ian was supervising trainees discovered many interesting finds. These include a 15th century green glaze pot base, a whetstone, roofing tiles and a number of pot handles from throughout the medieval period. We also had a nice piece of antler which had been discarded as waste, an off-cut, similar to what we found during Archaeology Live! at St Saviour's in 2006.


Planning a pit

Over to the west, with Elena, work began dismantling the 18th-19th century walls. The foundations of a section of the wall had been constructed from limestone recycled from a nearby church or similar building. Work also began removing the buttresses which were built up against the walls, reinforcing it as it began to subside. Many fragments of pottery were found and a large amount of animal remains were also discovered, sometimes built into the walls themselves.


Removing walls

At the west end of the trench, in the area supervised by Ben, a couple of trainees and placements removed a thick section of horticultural soil. This deposit contained a large amount of animal bone, some pottery and what may be a small glass bottle stopper. Beneath this layer some pits and occupation deposits were discovered, one of which has begun to be excavated and a large amount of animal bone has already been found.

On Friday we had chance to hold our first BBQ of the Archaeology Live! 2007 season. We all took the chance to site in the sunshine, yes sunshine, and reflect on the week. We have had a good start to the dig and it looks like the following weeks will be even better.



Thank you to Ben and Oli for the Week 1 Diary.

(apologies for the typos and grammar - I am suffering from manfluenza)

[Toby]

WEEK 2


The training dig was running at near capacity this week with 22 trainees at work on the site, the increased number of people working on the site together with a spell of warm sunny weather for most of the week has allowed substantial progress to be made.


Cleaning round a possible kiln

In the Eastern section the trainees working with Ian continued to clean back the area beneath the last of the horticultural soil, exposing further rubbish pits and a possible ditch. At the extreme west of the trench excavation has revealed a modern wall, cutting through the earlier 19th century buildings, and this has been exposed giving a clear section edge to the excavation. A number of features observed last week have been more fully excavated, in particular a possible kiln, and a well in the North East area; the rubbish pit planned last week has now been completely excavated revealing a variety of finds including numerous fragments of medieval green glazed pot, and the remains of a very large dog's skull… so perhaps Hungate is living up to its name!


Working inside the well


Emptying the pit that was planned last week

In Elena's central area they have finished removing the remnants of the buildings, and have been digging a spit of post-Medieval horticultural soil which has presented as two layers with a darker layer overlying a lighter coloured soil. Two or possibly three post holes have been found, and these are awaiting planning next week. The main finds from this area have been a number of pins including a possible Viking dress pin.


Removing the horticultural soils

The work in Ben's Western area has concentrated on removing the last remnants of the horticultural soil, exposing occupation layers and post-Medieval rubbish pits. The main finds from this area have been pottery and animal bone but the week started with great excitement when two almost complete Medieval green glaze jugs, and a possible decorated medieval tile were found.


Cleaning over the pit backfill (note the pots which look medieval)

The weather finally broke on Friday afternoon with some heavy rain, and the week concluded with a mammoth finds washing session. There is already a great team spirit on the site, and we are looking forward to further weeks of great archaeology.



There was an open day on Saturday and nearly 500 people took the opportunity to have a look round the site and see some of the finds from earlier in the excavations.


Thank you to Jen and Keith for the diary this week.

[Toby]

WEEK 3


Despite the changeable weather very good progress has been made on site this week. Taking advantage of the predominantly drier periods trainees have been recording and excavating on site, while finds and sample processing has been carried out on the few occasions when it rained. The site continues to produce a wealth of finds from large number of features being encountered

In Ian’s section, to the east of the trench, work has continued on the well. The exposed bricks and the clay lining were removed providing a window into the archaeology below the current level of excavation and suggesting there is much still to be excavated in this area.


Working inside the well

Trainees have also uncovered deposits that appear to be backfills of cut features, possibly pits. A number of these have been recorded and excavated allowing a clearer picture to be formed of how the features in the area fit together. These deposits have produced many finds including late medieval pottery and CBM (ceramic building materials = brick and tile).


This could be a caption competition, but is actually cleaning inside a pit


In Elena's area the last buttress relating to the 19th Century building was recorded and excavated. This allowed a large amount of horticultural soil to be removed from the eastern side revealing a number of features including a possible post-hole that appears to be underneath the later wall. Two post-holes in the western area were planned this week and may be associated with this and may indicate an earlier building along the same alignment as the later one. A feature has also been exposed with a layer than may be a lower horticultural soil, or deposits different to what we have seen across the rest of the site.

An array of finds have come from this area including Copper alloy pins, coins, lots of pottery from all periods and what may be a copper alloy ring.


Recording a buttress


In the Western area of the trench trainees have excavated a number of possible garden features as well as features that may indicate structures related to the Cordwainers Hall. Work has also concentrated on careful excavation of the two 14th Century pots revealed last week. Once removed their contents were sampled before the pots were diligently cleaned.


Lifting one of the pots... careful now


Lifting the other..... steady away




As you can see the archaeology gets more interesting the more we record and excavated.


Thank you to Ellen for the diary this week (apologies from me for posting it so late)

[Toby]

Week 4

This week the weather finally seemed to match the season - summer! The start of the week was a little wet, but things really changed and we had plenty of sunshine by the end. It actually gave us a chance to catch up with the finds processing as we had a lot of good pottery/bone and other finds to wash

In the area at the East of the trench we carried on looking at how the complex series of intercutting pits had developed. The pits themselves contained lots of good finds, with some very large pottery fragments that fit together once we had cleaned them up. We also got chance to start cleaning up some of the features further west and first impressions suggest that the fantastic archaeology continues in that direction.


Planning the edge and slope of a pit

In the centre of the trench we removed huge amounts of soil, a tremendous effort by all involved. In removing this layer we were finally able to see how the different plots of land had developed through time as we had a different sequence either side of a set of post holes. The archaeology seems to be showing a boundary which has been repeatedly rebuilt, with a sequence of walls and postholes along the same line. The volume of finds matched the amount of soil shifted, and some of the better ones included a bone brush handle, antler off-cut and copper alloy pins.


Cleaning back over a spread where Elena is working

At the West of the site the team working with Ben have been revealing evidence of structures that may have been built against the building that may be the Cordwainers Hall. The teams also continued working on the sequence of pits and deposits that have been shown in previous diary entries. The finds matched the quality of the archaeology, with lots of pottery to help with dating the archaeology and some interesting small finds to be identified by the specialists.


Cleaning an feature that may be the base of a structure


Loads of people working across the site, taking advantage of the dry weather.




Since it is now so dry the little boat has run aground

Thank you to Caroline and Matt for the diary this week.

[Toby]

WEEK 5

After celebrating the sunshine last week, the hot weather has not abated, making much of the site extremely dry and dusty. Nevertheless, this week’s trainees have continued to make excellent progress despite the conditions under their trowels. In addition, the weather helped to attract record crowds of the visiting public on Yorkshire Day, with this window into York’s past being shown and explained to them by DIG tour guides and our own archaeologists.

Under Ian’s supervision in the eastern part of the trench, the recording and excavation of the complex of intercutting pits has once again been the main focus of activity. This area has been most affected by the dry weather, which has made features difficult to see – even the area formerly known as ‘Lake Hungate’ (see photo from Week 4) has now completely dried up. Undeterred, however, hard work combined with extensive use of canopies and watering cans has allowed excavation to continue apace.


Excavating one of the pits.


Reading levels for the western half of the site.

In the central portion of the trench, under Elena’s guidance, there has been quite a contrast to last week’s mammoth effort removing the thick layer of horticultural soil. This week, the emphasis has shifted to the recording and excavation of smaller underlying postholes. Although involving the excavation of a lesser volume of material, these features are still proving interesting and challenging, and work is focusing on determining the relationship between them and the similar postholes previously excavated in this area (see Weeks 3 and 4).


Excavation in the central part of the trench.


Re-exposing a well in the area formerly covered by 'Lake Hungate'.

Further west in Ben’s area of the site, much good progress has also been made, especially with the features around, and possibly related to, the building suspected to be the Cordwainers’ Hall. The square feature cleaned and exposed last week (see photo from Week 4) has proved more substantial than first thought, and speculation has continued as to its purpose, with toilet outhouse or water tank being the most popular options. On the other side of the Hall, excellent work has been done excavating a large pit, the contents of which seem to be leftovers from building work. Finds in this area of the site have included a medieval coin, unearthed in the occupation deposits to the south-west of the trench.


Cleaning around the square structure beside the Cordwainers' Hall.



There seems no end to the numbers of people getting involved with Archaeology Live! so keep up to date with the work as it happens.


Thank you to Rich for the diary this week.

[Toby]

WEEK 6

The hot weather showed no signs of coming to an end this week, and once again trainees have had to contend with baked and dried-out deposits across the site. Their hard work has resulted in another week of excellent progress despite the elements, not only in the trench but also processing the numerous finds and samples taken from the site.

To the east of the site, trainees have started to make sense of the array of pits which have dominated the work of the preceding weeks. The south of this area is filled with what are thought to be large rubbish pits, though there appears to be an observable difference between round and rectangular pits which requires further investigation. Meanwhile, in the northern half, the bottoms of the most recently dug pits have been reached, and can be seen to have been dug through earlier features. While the pits here look similar in appearance and density to the rubbish pits, they appear to have a different, though as yet unclear, purpose.


Careful excavation of a skull, probably a dog, from one of the pits

New member of staff Artemi, beginning on site this week, has been helping Ian work through the features in this part of the site, and will eventually go on to take over supervision of this area later in the season.


Artemi working the team on site


In Elena’s central part of the site, a large rubble-filled deposit and a long linear feature have been exposed. These appear to be related to the property boundaries that became visible in Week 4, with deposits, postholes and walls all respecting a common alignment.


People stood in the postholes showing the line of the old property boundary.

Exactly how these features link with the structures in the western area of the trench remains to be determined. These deposits have yielded a good selection of finds, including a pin made of twisted copper wire.


Planning underway in the central area

In the western part of the excavation, a variety of features have been investigated. Progress exposing the square feature next to the building which may be the Cordwainers’ Hall has shown it to be a brick-built, mortar-lined building which now seems most likely to have been a water tank or cistern. Further information should eventually be gathered from the samples taken from inside this structure, and give a better idea of both date and specific use.


Cleaning around the tank

The good preservation of a substantial portion of this building has led to its being recorded by the Trust photographer as well as by our own trainees, and filmed footage from site should be available soon on the Dig Hungate website. Elsewhere in this area, good progress has been made digging out the backfill of a robbed-out wall and a series of rubbish-filled pits.



It is the end of week 6, so we are half way through the 2007 Archaeology Live! season. It has been great fun so far, with lots of fantastic archaeology to explore, make sure you keep up with what is happening on site.

Thank you to Rich for the diary this week.